Essai d'une Bibliographic de 12 Langue Basque. Par Julien Vinson.
Additions et corrections, citations et references, journaux et revues. (Maisonneuve, Paris. 25 francs. Ouvrage couronne par l'Institut.)—This volume is a continuation and complement of the Essai published by Professor Vinson in 1891. Such a work can never be complete in the present ; it is sufficient if it be exact in the past. Even while the manuscript is in the printer's hands works are continually pouring from the press. Besides corrections of former articles and additions to them, some ninety Basque books are described which have appeared between 1891 and 1898. A few MSS. are mentioned. Then more than three hundred works containing citations or references to the Basque are catalogued ; and to these follow some sixty-six pages referring to articles on the Basque which have appeared in periodicals and reviews. The work is practically complete, with a com- pleteness which can he attained only in the case of a literature so restricted as the Basque. It would be impossible to do the same thing for the larger literatures of the world, though the repertoires of II. Chevalier and of Potthast show that this is pos- sible for a given period. With this Essai before him none needs now complain of the lack of a guide to the Basque, to what has been written in it and about it. The volume is introduced by a charming preface, • in which we recognise first the genuine modesty of the true man of science, who knows that no work of research can ever be final ; then we are introduced to the delights of book-hunting on the Paris quays, and the pages close with a touching tribute to the erudite and affectionate book-lover who was the first to introduce his son to such pleasures, and to enable him to appreciate them.
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