equivalents. Otherwise the short title follows the spelling and punctuation of the title page of the copy examined (usually a copy in one of the key libraries), with capitalization for only the first word of the title and for proper names.

The line immediately below this paragraph is reserved for the number, if any, in the Short-Title Catalogue (abbreviated “STC” for the period ending 1640 and “Wing” for the later period) and specialized bibliographies; and for a short list of libraries in which a copy of the exact edition may be consulted. Then follows, for some items, a second paragraph of pertinent editorial comment.

All the items in Congreve’s list have been identified, at least tentatively. There is most uncertainty, perhaps, about Numbers 114, 368, 375, and 412. Besides these, twenty others, though well enough known in some edition, have not been found in any library in the identical edition of Congreve’s list: Numbers 9, 30, 113, 129, 130, 197, 210, 217, 240, 271, 277, 296, 323, 345, 366, 376, 435, 569, 578, and 637. Furthermore, Numbers 160, 185, 211, 379, 394, 567, and 647 present difficulties perhaps due to errors on the part of the person making the manuscript entry.

It will be noticed that forty or more of the items have not been found in the format given by the manuscript list. This discrepancy may be explained, at least in part, by the tendency of the makers of the list to judge the format merely by size. For example, a large duodecimo (Number 528) is called an octavo, while many small octavos (Numbers 159, 346, 378, 516, etc.) are called duodecimos. The discrepancies involve chiefly the smaller volumes. Not a single folio volume is involved.

The finding lists of libraries (where copies of the exact editions in Congreve’s list may be consulted) have been arranged geographically, including usually one European library and several American libraries located from New England to the Pacific Coast. The ideal has been to find a copy in each of seven key libraries: the British Museum (Europe), Harvard (New England), The New York Public Library, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the Library of Congress (Middle Atlantic), the Newberry Library (Middle West), and the Huntington Library (West). The editor has checked Congreve’s list with the catalogues of the seven key libraries, except for The New York Public Library and the Newberry Library, where the checking was done by members of the respective library staffs.

Occasionally an ideal distribution in the seven libraries is found, as for Numbers 10, 23, 42, 44, 88, 90, 99, and 100. Whenever an edition is not available in the key library, an effort has been made to find it in another library of the region. For books not at the British Museum, references are made to the Bodleian, the Bibliothèque Nationale, or other European libraries. Books not at Harvard are most frequently found at Yale or the Boston Public Library. Those not at the Huntington Library are frequently at the nearby William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.

Of the American libraries in the finding lists, exclusive of the key libraries, the editor has examined practically all editions cited at the Boston Public Library, the Yale Library, and the Clark Library. Other American libraries are, for the most part, cited on the authority of the Union Catalog of the Library of Congress. Of the European libraries, exclusive of the British Museum, the editor has examined practically all editions cited at libraries in Paris, Brussels, The Hague, Leiden, Amsterdam, Florence, Rome, Oxford, and Cambridge, and at the various legal and medical libraries in London. Other English libraries are cited on the authority of the National Central Library, London.

In Congreve’s list about sixty-two of the 659 entries are cross references or else duplicate entries. On the other hand, some entries account for more than a single