Bibliography in Switzerland.

Abstract

I NTEREST in the art of bibliography was aroused in Switzerland as early as the sixteenth century. Zurich's great humanist, Conrad Gesner (I5I665), whose genius investigated all fields of science, tried his hand at bibliography as well. His efforts resulted in the celebrated Bibliotheca universalis, which conferred upon him the title "Father of European Bibliography." The centuries following Gesner's contribution, however, brought such a tremendous increase in book production that further undertakings of the same comprehensive type, including publications of all countries and all languages, were discouraged. With the nineteenth century there came a growing sense of nationalism and a strengthening of frontiers throughout Europe. The resulting increase in political restrictions had the advantage of opening new possibilities for bibliographic projects. The form of the national bibliography, as we know it today, was established during this period. These early compilations contained primarily books published within the boundaries of a single state; additional literature, however, was frequently included. It was only toward the end of the nineteenth century that the national viewpoint was accepted in conservative Switzerland, when the Centralkommission fur schweizerische Landeskunde was established, with the primary objective of setting up a bibliography to include all fields of scientific study so far as they were related to Switzerland. History was excluded, since it had already been dealt with bibliographically. The plans of the Centralkommission bore fruit from I890 to 1945. During this period eighty-nine volumes of the Bibliographie der schweizerischen Landeskunde -Bibliographie nationale suisse,2 giving the titles of books and of periodical articles, were produced, most of them before World War I. They include literature pertaining to diverse fields-fields as widely divorced as heraldry and prison organization. Since the Bibliographie was set up in retrospect, it was not carried out periodically. The first attempt at national bibliography, therefore, exists to a certain point only in incomplete form. The Swiss National Library, which was established as a federal institution in I894, assumed the responsibility for the collection of Helvetica and undertook the task of creating and establishing a continuous national bibliography. Acquisition was handled by purchases, exchanges, and gifts, since any compulsory arrangement is incompatible with the Swiss constitution. The first volume was issued in I9OI, and the series has been issued continuously since that time, since