College and Research Libraries Review Articles Copyright The Law of Literary Property. By Philip Wittenberg. Cleveland: World Publishing Co. 248p. $5 . Philip \Vittenberg, who is a lecturer in law at Columbia University, attempts here to provide a book on literary property "writ- ten for the layman in law who is -professional in the field of writing, and for those who publish and distribute in the various media of communication ... " The first chapter deals with the develop- ment of the concept of literary property. This is followed by discussions of common- law literary property, statutory copyright, international . copyright, plagiarism, piracy, and infringement, as well as of fair use , quo- tation , burlesque, and permissions. The parts of the book which do not deal with literary property, in the sense of common law or statutory copyright, cover the protection of names and titles, protection of ideas, the problems of libel , the right of privacy, and the general problem of censorship. Th e Law of Lit erary Prop er ty is less heavy going than most such books because of its careful selection of cases to illustrate prin- ciples rather than to provide full documen- tation. However, under the present copy- right laws it is not surprising that Mr. Wit- tenberg has to give examples of exceptions for many of the principles he states. Some of the book's definitions are con- fusing . For example, in attempting to dif- ferentiate among plagiarism, piracy, and in- fringement Mr. Wit.tenberg says, "Piracy is just plain theft. Sometimes it is legally cul- pable as infringement, sometimes not." Then he gives examples, as if they consituted piracy, of the compilation into an anthology of works on which the copyright had ex- pired or never existed. Elsewhere in the book he points out that many types of things are in the public domain. It is a little dif- ficult to see why he should castigate as piracy the use of materials that belong to the pub- lic. As he says, "the authors had no re- course," but there appears to be no reason for believing that the law intended for them to have any recourse once their copyright had expired or if they had published with- out copyright. Such minor errors as this are all too easy to find in any book in this very complicated field, and obviously Mr. Wittenberg does not intend this book to make each reader his own copyright attorney. He does make real contributions in his semi-p opular presenta- tion of the subject and in recognition of the recent trend towards the use of other means, such as the law of unfair competition, to protect such things as titles, which are spe- cifically not included in the copyright. It is doubtful tha t the slight treatments of the law of libel or of the issues of censor- ship add much to the book. Furthermore, the right of users to make private use of copyright materials, whether in the original or photocopy, is barely touched upon. Nev- ertheless, the book as a whole can be com- mended as an attempt to provide a readable discussion of this confused field.-Ralph R. Shaw} Rutgers Universi ty. Recent Foreign Books on The Graphic Arts, Bibliography, and Library Science Heinrich Roloff's B eitriige zur Geschichte der Universitiitsbibliothek Rostock im 19. ]ahrhundert (Leipzig, Otto Harrassowitz, 1955; Z entra lblatt filr Biblioth ekswesen 1 "Bei- heft," 79) is a significant contribution to the history of a major German university library. It is not a comprehensive history, for it deals with two major aspects of Rostock's develop- ment in the last century. The first part de- scribes Friedrich Wilhelm Ronnberg's plan for the reorganization of the library in 1830, and the second is concerned with the library of Ferdinand Kammerer ( 17 84-1841) and its incorporation into the University of Rostock Library. 238 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES I I , 1 As early as 1817 Immanuel Gottlieb Huschke had made proposals for reorganiza- tion of the library, and Ronnberg's plan tied into Huschke's. The significant progress in the University of Gottingen Library in the eighteenth century under Georg Matthiae and, above all, C. G. Heyne, was the model for Rostock and other German university libraries as well. Roloff traces Ronnberg's life and his work to modernize the Rostock collections, particularly in respect to cata- loging. A decade later the Kammerer Library of 12,000 volumes, distinguished for legal material and Mecklenburgica, was acquired. Roloff outlines Kammerer's life as a scholar and collector and analyzes the significance of his library. Both parts of Roloff's study are based on careful and discriminating study of manuscripts in Rostock as well as printed material, much of which is in local Mecklen- burg publications. A promising new series is Reihe B of "Bibliothekswissenschaftlicher Arbeiten aus der Sowjetunion und den Landern der Volks- demokratie in deutscher Dbersetzung," since it will bring some important studies of Rus- sian and other Soviet libraries into the read- ing scope of Western European and Amer- ican scholars. Whatever else . may be said about East Germany and other people's de- mocracies, they have served as a useful chan- nel for transmitting Soviet scholarship to the West. The first number in this series is the first volume of M. M. Klevenskii's history of the Lenin State Library, Geschichte der Bib- liothek d es Moskauer Offentlichen und Rum- jancev-MuseU!fLS (Leipzig, Otto Harrassowitz, 1955). Lenin wrote as late as 1913 that "In every national culture there are elements of a dem- ocratic and socialistic culture, even though undeveloped, for in every nation there is an industrious and exploited group whose con- ditions of life undeniably create a demo- cratic and socialistic culture." Whether or not the sponsors and the staff of the old Mos- cow Public Library were incipient socialists is not as important as the larger fact that they created the kernel of what was to be the Lenin State Library after the October Revolution. In the half century between the founding of the library and Lenin's state- ment, the collections grew almost ten-fold, thanks to the incorporation of several signifi- MAY, 1957 cant private collections (described in detail by Klevenskii) and to depository privileges; but no credit should be given the Czarist treasury, for regular book funds were non- existent, space in the building was exhausted, and funds for personal services were mini- mal. Klevenskir not only analyzes the factual history of the distinguished predecessor of the Lenin Library, but he also shows its basic importance for the cultural life of the pre- Soviet state. At times one must read between the lines, a skill that is essential in handling the products of historical scholarship in the people's democracies, but this fact in no way diminishes the credit due to Klevenskii for writing a masterful account of a great nine- teenth century library. GoTHIC BINDINGS In 1951 Ernst Kyriss, the noted student of Gothic binding, brought out his Verzierte gotische Einbiinde im alten deutschen Sprach- gebiet (Stuttgart, Max Hettler, 1951). This great work was based on a quarter of a cen- tury of research in the major south German libraries (except the Munich Staatsbiblio- thek) and in the libraries of Praha and Olo- mouc. The very considerable expense in- volved in the publication of a work with relatively limited appeal compelled the pub- lisher to space the volumes of plates over a period of years. Thus it was not until 1953 that Mr. Hettler was able to publish the 1. rafelband J containing illustrative material for the first three sections of the text volume (bindings identified as coming from known monasteries, bindings of which the binders are known by name, and bindings identified by initials or the arms of Augsburg and Praha). Three years later, in 1956, we have the 2. TafelbandJ covering binderies which may be located in a specific community. A third and final volume of plates, to cover bindings which cannot be assigned to a spe- cific locality r is scheduled for publication in 1958. In many respects the second volume of plates is the most important one, for it is a highly significant chapter in the history of art in the cities concerned (Augsburg, Er- furt, Esslingen, Cologne, Leipzig, Memmin- gen , Nuremburg, Ti.ibingen, and Ulm). There are 52 binders in this section, and 239 their activity extends from about 1470 to 1540. In one instance, that of the Augsburg binder identified by the roll showing a hunt- ing scene, Kyriss .found no less than 309 bindings. In the case of the Ulm binder identified by the dragon roll, we have a bind- er whose extraordinarily rich stock of orna- ments included 144 different stamps and eight different rolls. Certain cities were iden- tified by characteristic dies, and the material selected from Kyriss' enormous archive of rubbings for reproduction in this volume of plates is the most typical. It was patently im- possible to reproduce all the different dies, but those which are included are sufficient to help the librarian , collector, or dealer in identifying most of the Gothic bindings which are likely to pass through his hands. On the left-hand page for each group of bindings there are photographs of rubbings, in the original size, of the most frequently used and most characteristic dies; and on the right-hand page there is a photograph of a full binding belonging to this group, with dimensions, location , and call number. It is a sad commentary o n barriers to scholarly communication in our da y that two Leipzig groups could not be represented by photo- graphs of full bindings, since all but one of the 87 volumes in these two groups are in Praha and Olomouc. All reproductions are executed with meticulous care and are re- markably clear. The prices of DM 70. for the second vol- ume of plates, of DM 90. for the first vol- ume of plates, and of DM 25. for the tex t volume, are hardly to be considered exorbi- tant in view of the great expense of publish- ing such works. The courage and faith of the publisher in making the investment to produce this monumental work can only be matched by the diligent scholarship of the author. To Ernst Kyriss, the world's greatest authority on Gothic bindings, we owe an immeasurable debt for compiling a defini- tive work on one of the most important of all periods in the history of binding. VIENNESE ARTS Between 1897 and 1918 the Verein fiir Geschichte der Stadt Wien published a mon- umental Geschichte der Stadt Wien covering the period from the beginnings to 1740. A new series, which will contain some ten vo1- umes, will carry the development of the city from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present day. It will cover all aspects of the city's history and as such it will be a rna jor reference work; for the history of Vienna is virtually the history of the whole Danube basin. The first volume of the new series, Ges- chichte der bildenden Kunst in Wien (Vi- enna, Hermann Bohlaus Nachf., 1955) is ac- tually part 2 of volume ·vn (continuing the volume numbering of the old series), since part I, on architecture and the plastic arts, is still in preparation but will appear soon. The present volume consists of two parts, Walther Buchowiecki's "Geschichte der Mal- erei in Wien" and Margarethe Poch-Kalous' "Das Wiener Kunsthandwerk seit der Ren- aissance." Neither essay observes the termi- nus ante quem of 1740; for, while there are excellent treatments of Viennese medieval architecture by K. Lind and A. W. Neumann in the old series, there is nothing about painting and the minor arts and crafts in the first six volumes. Buchowiecki's study is comprehensive, ex- tending from the Middle Ages through 1918. It covers all aspects of painting, but it is particularly interesting to the student of the history of the book for the discussion of il- lumination in medieval Austria. Among the nearly 100 plates at the end of the volume, there are reproductions of pages from J o- hannes von Troppau's Gospels, the Ratio- nale Duranti, the Bellum Troianum (Mar- tinus Opifex) , all in the Austrian National Library, and also a picture of Daniel Gran's famous fresco on the cupola of the library. Poch-Kalous' essay covers arts based on met- al, wood, and porcelain, mainly from 1520 to 1918. Unfortunately for the student of book history, there is nothing about the im- portant Viennese hand binding tradition. PALEOGRAPHY One of the most useful companions to American studies published. in recent times is Agustin Millares' A /bum de paleografid hispanoamericana de los siglos XVI y XVII (Mexico, Instituto Panamericano de Geo- grafia e Historia, 1955), 3 vols. The first vol- ume consists of the text and four basic ta- bles, viz., individual letters, ligatures, special symbols for syllables, and abbreviations. The 240 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES l :second volume contains excellent reproduc- tions of Hispanic manuscripts from 1176 to 1643, and the third volume contains tran- scriptions with commentaries and indications .of published editions when such exist. Since Hispanic-American p a I eo graph y bears essentially the same characteristics as the continental Spanish, a substantial pro- portion of this work is devoted to Spanish manuscripts. Millares' · extensive studies in this field have equipped him with facility and authority, and the work is as useful to medievalists as it is to students of early Amer- ican history. The introductory volume even contains notes on pre-Carolingian hands in Spain, arid subsequently it traces .the rise of the Spanish national hands. There are chap- ters on writing materials in medieval Spain and on the development of abbreviations, suspensions, and contractions. The chapter on the use of Roman and Arabic numerals is particularly enlightening. In dealing with the development of Span- ish hands in the New World, the authors are meticulous in providing adequate back- ground in terms of Incan , Mayan, and Aztec cultures. Nevertheless, the development of Spanish hands in the New World was essen- tially similar to what had happened in the old Metropolis, and little additional knowl· edge other than an understanding of local conditions is necessary to read Hispanic- American texts . . The first volume is copiously annotated with bibliographical references, and there are numerous facsimile illustrations other than the four basic tables. The first volume has a bibliographical index and a general index of subjects. The facsimiles in the sec- ond volume have been chosen with greatest care to bring together a representative group of texts from all pertinent periods and localities and to provide illustrations of all the complex forms current in Spanish and Hispanic-American hands. The Album is an essential reference tool for all students of early Hispanic-American history, and as a paleographical treatise it ranks with the mod- ern classics in this field. EDITIONES PRINCIPES The ninth volume in the handy little Grafiska Institutets Skriftserie is Bror Ols- son's Editiones principes av klassiska forfat- MAY) 1957 tare (Stockholm, Gebers, 1954). Although typographical historians long have been con- cerned with the first appearance of classical texts in print, this is the first monographic survey of the subject. Dibdin 's An Introduc- tion to Rare and Valuable Editions of the Greek and Latin Class'ics (4th ed., 1827) and his catalog of Earl Spencer's incunabula are among the first modern bibliographical works to deal with editiones principes. The "Mos- tra di 'edizioni principi' " in the sixth vol- ume of the Atti (Rome, 1933) of the first World Congress of Libraries and Bibliog- raphy deals with editiones principes printed in Italy. The first volume of Schottenloher's Biicher bewegten die JtVelt .(Stuttgart, 1951 ), his essay on "Handschriftenforschung und Buchdruck im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert" in the Gutenberg-]ahrbuch for 1931, the second volume of J. E. Sandys' A History of Classi- cal Scholarship (Cambridge, 1908) are also worth-while modern works on this subject. Olsson's tnain concern is, quite naturally. with Italy, where most of the first printed editions of classical authors appeared. He gives special attention to typographical de- sign, and his treatment of Greek typographv and of Aldus Manutius' introduction of ital- ics and small formats is particularly useful. \Vhile relatively few editiones principes ap- peared outside Italy, Olsson does give appro- priate attention to northern European print- ers such as Frobenius, the Etiennes, and Plan- tin, whose presses issued the first printed edi- tions of a number of classical works. Finally, there is a short chapter on collections and collectors of editiones principes and a chron- ological table of the first appearance of clas- sical authors in print. Olsson tells his story in a highly readable style, and his text re- veals a broad knowledge of classical scholar- ship and typographical history. The tenth volume in the Grafiska Institu- tets Skriftserie is a translation of Josiah Henry Benton's john Baskerville) Type- Founder and Printer) 1706-1775) and the eleventh volume is a sort of sequel to Ben- ton's study. It is Robert Diehl's lively story of Beaumarchais als Nachfolger Baskerville's; Entstehungsgeschiclzte der Kehler Voltaire- Ausgabe in Baskerville Typen J originally published in 1925 and translated for the Grafiska Institutet by Kurt Blomquist two decades later. The twelfth volume is still an- 241 other translation from English, Bernard Lewis' Behind the Type: The Life Story of Frederic W. Goudy, translated by Agne L. Andersson. MARITIME HISTORY A salty bibliography by a distinguished li- brary administrator is Svensk sjohistorisk lit- teratur 1800-194 3 (Stockholm, Sjohistoriska Samfundet, 1956) by Uno Willers, head li- brarian of the Royal Library in Stockholm. There are 1,476 titles of books and articles in 26 classifications covering all aspects of Sweden's civil and naval maritime history from )500 to 1943. There is an author index. Nothing published before 1800 was included, and the terminal date was chosen due to the publication of an annual bibliography of maritime history in the Sjohistorisk arsbok beginning in 1944. Willers omits reviews and, for the most part, articles appearing in the daily press. He does record hundreds of ar- ticles in obscure periodicals and books of local interest, and it is most likely that many of his entries are not available at all in this country. For the lover of the sea and its lore, sev- eral of the classifications offer much attrac- tive material. The 20 ·titles on piracy include stirring tales of Baltic freebooters. The 32 titles of collected biography contain some important material on obscure personalities in Swedish history. The seven titles on win- ter navigation have some significant contri- . butions on problems of shipping in northern waters. Willers and the Sjohistoriska Sam- fundet have given us a valuable bibliography on one of the key aspects of Swedish history. UNION LIST A significant recent union list is the Cat- alogo delle pubblicazioni periodiche esis- tenti in varie biblioteche di Roma e Firenze- (Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Copia Vaticana dell'Indice di Arte Cristiana, 1955). It includes 8,771 titles of serials in 24 libraries in 'Rome and two in Florence, ac- cording to the records of their holdings through 1953. The fields included cover those which appear in the Princeton Art Index (of which a copy was presented to the Vatican in 1952 by Cardinal Spellman), viz., history, philology, art, and moral disciplines. Each entry contains title, place, date , and volumes held by each library (indicated by symbol). Entry is under title, although there is a geographical guide to publications ar- ranged by country and by place. There is some inconsistency in the latter table, since most countries are subdivided by cities, whereas the USSR is divided by occupied countries (Esthonia, not Dorpat; Latvia, not Riga, etc.). On the whole the informa- tion is accurate, with occasional minor slips such as the location of the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan rather than Rio Piedras. The key to the symbols includes hours, address, telephone number, and an- nual vacation dates of each library. The lib.raries of Rome are surprisingly rich in obscure serials, especially Slavic and Eastern European titles. There is a repre- sentative collection of titles from both Amer- icas, although no more than might be ex- pected in one of our stronger Latin Amer- ican collections. Publications of some of the eastern Christian groups, often difficult to get, are frequent. The one difficulty in using this union list is the lack of corporate entry. Even the geo- graphical index is inadequate, since the loca- tion of the publications of the Linguistic Society of America or of the American Philo- logical Association in Baltimore (because of the imprint) is of little help. In the proposed new edition an index of official names of societies and corporate bodies would be use- ful. A NEW EDITION The first edition of the late Karl Loffler's Einfuhrung in die Katalogkunde appeared shortly before his death in 1935, and for a number of years it was standard equipment for German librarians. This new edition, published by Hiersemann in 1956, was edited b y Nor bert Fischer, librarian of the German Patent Office in Munich. The formal or- ganization of material as conceived by Lof- fler has been retained, and Fischer has sim- ply brought the text up to d a te by dele- tions and additions. There are four main sections: historical , the author catalog, the classed catalog, and the subject catalog; and there is a short chapter on printed catalogs and on catalog- ing a small private collection. The great value of this work for librarians outside the 242 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES ~I I ... l Germanies is the historical and comparative approach. Not only in the historical section but also throughout the work there is infor- mation on the complicated, often even pic- turesque development of different aspects of cataloging in German libraries. · LeHRer's well-developed sense of humor and whimsy appears throughout his book, although always with appropriate restraint. In many cases it serves him effectively in illustrating difficult points such as corporate authorships or the relationships of the classed <:atalog to arrangement of books on the shelves. Bibliographical references are very few, and there is no summary bibliography. Loffter's skill in synthesis and in selecting the key points for emphasis obviates the need of an extensive bibliographical appa- ratus. The new edition of Loffier's Einfilhrung deserves to be widely read on this side of the Atlantic as a useful exposition of typical Continental practices. It makes considerably better reading than the none-too-exciting Preuss£sche Instruktion ) and it is just as enlightening. CATALOGING CODE The third edition of Katalogiseringsregler for norske Bibliot eker (Oslo, 1955; "Norsk Bibliotekforenings Smaskrifter," 6) is the first revision of the Norwegian cataloging code in seventeen years. The history of this code goes back to 1918, when the Norwegian Library Association appointed a committee to draw up a code. After a great deal of preliminary work, the first edition came out in 1925. The second edition of 1938 made no basic changes except in form. Even in the first edition the variant practices of the Univer- sity of Oslo Library (also the Norwegian national library) were noted, inasmuch as the University Library represented an older tradition, and in the second edition a double column was introduced to set varying rules of the Norwegian Library Association and the University Library side by side. The third edition again shows no important changes. One of the most striking aspects of Nor- wegian cataloging practice is the similarity to the American tradition, probably due to MAY) 1957 the influence of the late J. C. M. Hanson and of Norwegians who studied in American library schools. It is rather interesting to note the contrast in double columns in the chapters dealing with corporate entry, for the University Library follows the Conti- nental tradition of entry under title , where- as the code follows Anglo-American prac- tice. In other minor points the contrast is also enlightening. The Norwegian code is one of the most useful for students of com- parative cataloging practices. PHYSICIANS The important role of physicians in li- brary development in Germany since the mid-eighteenth century is the subject of Gun- ter Mann's Die m edizinischen Lesegesell- schaften in Deutschland (Cologne, Greven Verlag, 1956; "Arbeiten aus dem Bibliothe- kar-Lehrinstitut des Landes Nordrhein-West- falen," 11). As early as 1764 there was a reading circle of Berlin physicians, and in 1773 the physicians and pharmacists of Stral- sund formed a reading circle. As the volume of medical publications grew in geometrical progression in the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, the medical reading circles and, subsequently, medical society li- braries spread all over the Germanies. Med- ical society libraries in such metropolitan cen- ters as Hamburg, Munich, and Vienna at- tained the status of rna jor research collec- tions. Mann has examined in detail numerous out-of-the-way sources for German medical history to bring his facts together. His con- clusions indicate clearly that the medical profession had a major part in the rise of the scholarly collections which were a mainstay of German science in the nine- teenth and twentieth centuries. There is an exhaustive bibliography and an appendix with 21 plates, containing portraits of lead- ers in the medical reading circles, facsimiles of their records, schedules and maps of the reading circles, lists of journals, and tables showing the number of medical journals in Germany from 1760 to the end of the nine- teenth century.-Lawrence S. Thompson ) University of Kentucky Lib raries . 243