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A. S. G. Edwards, The Private Case: A Supplement. Notes towards a Bibliography of the Books that used to be in the Private Case of the British (Museum) Library. Comp. by Patrick J. Kearney and Neil J. Crawford., The Library, Volume 18, Issue 3, September 2017, Pages 352–353, https://doi.org/10.1093/library/18.3.352
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The present volume must be seen in relation to Kearney's earlier work, The Private Case: An Annotated Bibliography of the Private Case Erotica Collection in the British (Museum) Library (1981), which described 1916 books therein (not all of them erotica). The present volume is subtitled ‘Notes Towards a Bibliography of the Books that used to be in the Private Case of the British (Museum) Library’. It is, then, a record largely of what was no longer present in the Private Case (PC) when Kearney published his earlier work, here amounting to 956 entries. (There are occasional exceptions: no. 342, La Puttana Errante, for example, was reassigned after Kearney's book appeared.) In addition, Kearney provides a supplementary list of works in the PC (‘Addendum’) not included in his earlier book, some 53 items.
Kearney offers no information about the methodology used in creating entries. This makes it difficult to understand some aspects of the procedures he employs. Entries follow the general form of author (surname first), or title (where no author can be established), in small caps, imprint, format, pagination, and the former and current shelfmarks, thus:
Christian names are placed within round brackets, and separated from titles by both a period and a dash (why?); titles are never italicized, but imprints are.95. berty, (alfonso). – Sodomo. Milano: Francesco Falconi, 1889. 8vo. pp.123. [P.C. 29.b.25] Cup. 500.h.30.
