Le livre & ses secrets (review)

Jean-François Gilmont's Le Livre & ses secrets is a welcome addition to a genre seldom explored in French-—guides to bibliographic research. A professor, book historian, and bibliographer best known for his bibliographies of Jean Crespin and John Calvin, Gilmont spent more than thirty years at the Université catholique de Louvain. There can be few people better qualified to write a guide to bibliographic research in French than Gilmont. An expert in sixteenth-century texts, he has authored many publications on the history of books and printing, including the award-winning Le livre du manuscrit à l'ère électronique: notes de bibliologie, now in its third edition.

In Le Livre & ses secrets Gilmont has revised and updated his essays and lectures from the past thirty years. The collection emphasizes the two elements Gilmont considers fundamental to good bibliographic research. First, the book is an historical artifact, and the bibliographer must make a careful study of its physical details. Second, the bibliographer must have the technical knowledge to describe each book so precisely that no ambiguity remains as to its identity.

Gilmont introduces himself and his bibliographic method in a preface entitled "Lettre à un bibliographe débutant." Gilmont's enthusiasm for his subject is evident, and it sets the tone for the rest of the volume.

The book is divided into six sections. The first and second sections serve as an introduction to bibliographic research. In the first section, a short introduction to the history of books and printing, Gilmont surveys the history of writing from its origins to the development of the Internet. He highlights two significant periods: the printing revolution of the sixteenth century and the reading revolution of the eighteenth century. The second section addresses the technical aspects of bibliography. Gilmont critiques instructional literature for beginning bibliographers and provides detailed definitions for key terms in bibliographic description.

The remaining four sections focus on the study of the book as an historical artifact. In section 3 Gilmont describes a process he calls "book archaeology," the physical examination of a book. Gilmont shows that an evaluation of a book's physical properties, such as its typography, can uncover historical information often imperceptible through textual analysis. In section 4 Gilmont highlights the importance of inventories and bibliographies. Using examples from the work of Laurent de Normandie, Robert Estienne, and others, he demonstrates that the study of bibliographies can reveal information about a book's initial reception and subsequent influence. The fifth section raises issues of book production, preservation, and survival. Gilmont is careful to point out that surviving editions of particular works are indicative only of the conserving institution or person and should not be used to estimate the taste of particular periods. In the final section Gilmont examines some recent bibliographies and demonstrates the stakes involved by showing that the omission of meticulous physical analysis results in fragmentary and partial conclusions.

Le Livre & ses secrets is relatively highly specialized and geared toward serious students of early modern bibliography. It nevertheless includes the fundamentals one expects in a guide to bibliography: the history and organizations of books, the means to access them, and the principles of describing them once they are found. In addition, Gilmont's stress on the importance of orderly, concise, and consistent presentation of information—a need that will become more apparent as the volume and type of publication grow—is an emphasis all bibliographers, experienced or novice, should note.