Germany

The very strong tradition of incunable studies that has always flourished in Germany has created a fertile soil into which techniques of analytical bibliography are easily transplanted. Though both traditions concentrate on the making of  the book as a physical object, they differ in emphasis since, where the Anglo-American tradition places textual matters at the forefront, German scholarship has focused on the elements that allow the identification of printers and the dating of unsigned imprints. An important role in bringing the two traditions together has been played by Bernhard Fabian, professor of English at the University of Münster, who has drawn the attention of German textual and bibliographical scholars to the practices of the English and American world.

-Martin Boghardt, Analytische Druckforschung: ein methodischer Beitrag zu Buchkunde und Textkritik (Hamburg, Hauswedell, 1977). See also the review by John Flood in The Library, s. 5, vol. 33, 1978, pp. 246-248. Provides a detailed account of the processes of book-making and the textual consequences, with numerous references to the canonical writings of the Anglo-American model. By the same author, see also ‘Der Buchdruck als Überlieferungsträger’ in Trasmissione dei testi a stampa nel periodo moderno: I seminario internazionale, Roma, 23-26 marzo 1983, a cura di Giovanni Crapulli (Roma, Edizioni dell’ateneo, 1985), pp. 1-16, and ‘Änderungen in Wort und Bild’, La Bibliofilìa, vol. 100 (1998), pp. 513-581 (centennial number of the journal also issued as Anatomie bibliologiche: saggi di storia del libro per il centenario de “La Bibliofilìa”, a cura di Luigi Balsamo e Pierangelo Bellettini, Firenze, Olschki, 1999).

- Herbert Kraft, Editionsphilologie (Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1990). Provides a useful survey of current editing practice, including the information that can be provided by bibliographical analysis.

Considerable information about German bibliographical activity over the years has been provided by John Flood in the rubric ‘Recent Books’ in The Library, as well as in reviews in other journals, including the TLS. Important likewise has been the contribution of David Paisey, employed at the British Library up to his retirement in 1995, a list of whose publications can be read in The German Book 1450-1750. Studies presented to David L. Paisey in his retirement, edited by John L. Flood and William A. Kelly (London, The British Library, 1995).