PREFACE.

Decorative drop cap 'E' with floral and scrollwork patterns.Ever since the marvelous art of printing ars typographica: the craft of printing with movable type was first devised among us in the middle of the 15th century, it has caused the world of books to grow immensely. With both good and bad writings spread everywhere, scholars—that insatiable race of men—could not easily obtain everything being published in various places. Therefore, it was decided by wise counsel that library catalogs should at least satisfy their desires to some extent. We know that within the memory of our forefathers, Conrad Gesner 1516–1565, a Swiss physician and naturalist often called the father of modern bibliography was the first of all to attempt this; however, he provided nothing more than what a simple catalog required, since he reviewed a general collection according to his own whim, rather than any specific or singular treasury of books. From then on, in the last century, quite a few catalogs of specific libraries appeared among the French, English, Germans, and Italians, which there is no time to list individually. Through these, the knowledge of books has wonderfully increased, and the wishes of students have been excellently served.

Following these examples, Giuseppe Renato Imperiali 1651–1737, a powerful Italian Cardinal and renowned book collector, a most distinguished Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, gathered a great and exquisite abundance of books—not so much for his own convenience as for the benefit of others. Such is the generosity of this Most Eminent Prince and his love for letters and the learned. Thinking that some help would be brought to those scholars if one or two catalogs of this library—namely, one by authors and another by sciences original: scientiarum; in this context, it refers to subject-based classification or fields of study—were accurately described, he ordered both to be prepared and completed. These now finally come to light, arranged after more than nine years of most thankless and troublesome study. This effort is perhaps understood by no one except those who have at some time "turned this millstone" original: hanc molam aliquando versarunt; a Latin idiom for performing exhausting, repetitive labor. Indeed, it is incredible to say how many labors were endured in correctly and properly transcribing the titles of books, and in noting old and new editions—sometimes found at the front, sometimes after the beginning, sometimes