Every field of knowledge eventually produces someone who tries to write all of it down in one place. Paul Brockett’s 1921 federal bibliography lists the writing on aeronautics from 1909 through 1916, the first years of powered flight. Josef Szövérffy classified the texts and studies of Byzantine hymns. A 1931 dictionary gathers short entries on the people, institutions and events of the United States, and E. Cobham Brewer catalogued the characters of romance, fiction and the drama for Victorian readers. In 1963 a San Antonio bibliography gathered annotated references on the baboon, and in 1924 Guido Bustico listed what had been written on Italian musical theatre. And in 1929 a supplement to the Rudolf Mosse code set out short code groups to stand for the phrases of international business, so that a telegram cost less to send.
Each of these is an attempt to hold a whole field in one book. The fields kept growing; the books are what is left of the attempt.
Paul Brockett’s federal bibliography of the writing on aeronautics from 1909 through 1916.
A classified bibliography of the texts and of what has been written about them.
Short entries on the people, institutions and events of the United States, revised in 1931.
E. Cobham Brewer’s Victorian reference, in olive-green gilt cloth.
A 1963 bibliography for researchers in primatology and laboratory animal studies.
Guido Bustico’s 1924 Italian music bibliography.
A 1929 supplement to the Rudolf Mosse commercial telegraph code, in several languages.
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