PROSPECTUS AND SPECIMEN PAGES OF A DICTIONARY OF Books Relating To America, From its Discovery to the Present Time. BY JOSEPH SABIN. Of this work, 100 Copies will be printed for Subscribers, on Large Paper, at $4 per To Non-subscribers, the price will be advanced 25 per cent. For the convenience of gentlemen wishing to insert additional titles, copies will be New-York: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, AT THE BRADSTREET PRESS. 258. i. 117. AFTER nearly four years' labor, in arranging and claffifying the material which had accumulated on my hands in the courfe of fome fifteen years of research, I am at laft able to publish the following specimen of my projected "BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF BOOKS RELATING TO AMERICA." Had the magnitude and extreme difficulty of the undertaking been prefented to my mind in full proportions at the outfet, I should never have attempted it, and indeed, I may remark, that I have more than once almoft determined upon its abandonment, but a deep sense of its importance, however imperfectly executed, and a strong partiality for bibliographical pursuits, have ftimulated me to continue my labor, until the work has attained fuch a degree of completeness as to justify publication, and render its final conclufion a task of comparative ease; and I now present this sheet as a fair specimen of what the work is intended to be, and refpectfully invite a candid examination. The plan I have adopted is briefly this: An alphabetical arrangement under the names of authors, and in the cafe of anonymous writers, under the most obvious subject or title. In the arrangement of the Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Dutch proper names, I have followed the best authorities, but, as they differ, I have made free use of Cross References, and remark, with Plutarch,* "On the subject of names, however, the irregularity of custom, would we infift upon it, might furnish us with discourse enough." Anonymous works are arranged with more difficulty. The fubject most obvious to one mind is obscure to another. Books having reference to a State or City have generally been placed under the name of that State or City. Collections, Proceedings and Transactions of Societies, will be found under the name of the Society; "A Letter to the Earl of Abingdon," will be found under Abingdon, and fo on; as for the rest, they will usually be found under the firft word of the title-page, particles excepted. The laft volume will confift of an Index of Subjects, which will obviate fome of thefe difficulties. Review Notices of the more important books will be referred to, and in the cafe of a rare book, a capital letter preceding the number will indicate fome Public Library in which it may be found. The words "Relating to America" are used with a wide meaning, and it is probable that serious and proper objection may be taken to fome titles of books introduced; as, for example, the vavarious works by the early New England Divines. It must not be forgotten, however, that in many *Article" Caius Marius." |