A short-title catalogue (or catalog) is a

bibliographical Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

resource that lists printed items in an abbreviated fashion, recording the most important words of their titles. The term is commonly encountered in the context of early modern books, which frequently have lengthy, descriptive titles on their

title page The title page of a book, thesis or other written work is the page at or near the front which displays its title (publishing), title, subtitle, author, publisher, and edition, often artistically decorated. (A half title, by contrast, displays onl ...

s. Many short-title catalogues are

union catalogue A union catalog is a combined library catalog describing the collections of a number of libraries. Union catalogs have been created in a range of media, including book format, microform, cards and more recently, networked electronic databases. Pr ...

s, listing items in the custody of multiple libraries. Online short-title catalogues in fact tend to record complete (and therefore longer) title transcriptions.

Examples

* STC: A. W. Pollard and G. R. Redgrave, editors: ''A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland and Ireland, and of English Books Printed Abroad 1475–1640.'' Second edition, revised and enlarged, begun by W. A. Jackson and F. S. Ferguson, completed by K. F. Pantzer. London: The

Bibliographical Society Founded in 1892, The Bibliographical Society is the senior learned society dealing with the study of the book and its history in the United Kingdom. Largely owing to the efforts of Walter Arthur Copinger, who was supported by Richard Copley ...

. Vol. I (A–H). 1986. Pp. 620. Vol. II (I–Z). 1976. Pp. 504. Vol. III (Indexes, addenda, corrigenda). 1991. Pp. 430. * Wing: ''Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British America, and of English Books Printed in Other Countries, 1641–1700'' by

Donald Goddard Wing Donald Goddard Wing (August 18, 1904 – October 8, 1972) was an Associate Librarian at Yale University from 1939 to 1970, best known for his publication of the bibliographic work ''A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, Ir ...

* ESTC: ''

English Short Title Catalogue The English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) is a union short-title catalogue of works published between 1473 and 1800, in Britain and its former colonies, notably those in North America, and primarily in English, drawing on the collections of the ...

'', online database covering 1473–1800 (and incorporating and updating the STC and Wing) * NSTC

covering English books 1801–1919 * ISTC:

Incunabula Short Title Catalogue The Incunabula Short Title Catalogue (ISTC) is an electronic bibliographic database maintained by the British Library which seeks to catalogue all known incunabula. The database lists books by individual editions, recording standard bibliographic ...

, online database covering

incunabula In the history of printing, an incunable or incunabulum (plural incunables or incunabula, respectively), is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. Incunabula were pro ...

, i.e. books printed up to 1500 * STCN
Short Title Catalogue Netherlands
online database covering the Netherlands, 1540–1800 * STCV
Short Title Catalogus Vlaanderen
(Short Title Catalogue Flanders), online database of books printed in Flanders (including Brussels) prior to 1801 * BM STC: Short-title catalogues of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

(now the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

), covering various countries and centuries * USTC:

Universal Short Title Catalogue The Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC) brings together information on all books published in Europe between the invention of printing and the end of the sixteenth century, creating a powerful resource for the study of the book and print cultur ...

, online database of all books printed in Europe up to 1650 * Bod-inc.: ''

A Catalogue of Books Printed in the Fifteenth Century now in the Bodleian Library ''A Catalogue of Books Printed in the Fifteenth Century now in the Bodleian Library'' (cited as Bod-inc.) is a short-title catalogue of more than 5,600 incunabula held in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. Bod-inc. stands out among ...

Examples

See also