European Tracts

Scope |  Size |  Marking |  Classification |  Subjects

Scope

The European Tracts collection contains pamphlets published on the continent of Europe as well as pamphlets about Europe published elsewhere. Do not class here pamphlets that are purely literary. Tracts are generally works of 100 pages or less, bound or unbound; however, the limitation of 100 pages is not rigid. Pamphlets elsewhere will not be reclassed unless handled for other reasons. The general cataloging policies for monographs are followed.

Size

The size boundaries are:

Octavo:

up to 26 cm. high

up to 21 cm. wide

Quarto:

between 26 and 38 cm. high

between 21 and 25 cm. wide

Larger tracts are classed either in the Year/Number collection or in broadsides.

Marking

The following guidelines are used when marking volumes for European Tracts.

1. Mark on Yale bookplate when there is one, generally in the upper left corner.
2. Mark on front cover, lower left hand corner, if in preservation wrappers.
3. Mark on verso of last page, lower right hand corner, when 1 or 2 don’t apply. The lower left hand corner is the alternate location when the lower right hand corner is unusable.
4. If the last page is unmarkable (e.g. too dark or shiny or filled with text or illustrations), mark the verso of the first usable page from the end.
5. Mark the call number horizontally in the upper right corner of the folder.

NOTE: Do not mark call number on original wrappers.

Classification

• Call numbers consist of “Euro Tracts” at the head followed by a cutter for the country of publication, or the country the tract is about from the Yale table of countries in one alphabet,  the full date of publication, and a cutter for the main entry (derived from C.A. Cutter’s three-figure author table).  Names with umlauts are cuttered with a combination of the vowel and “e”. Expand the number to four or even five digits if necessary to distinguish authors and to place them correctly in alphabetical sequence  (e.g., Euro Tracts G2 1689 P569).
• If the pamphlet is about more than one country class under Europe (A15)
• Class by imprint date irrespective of topic or date of other editions.
• Photocopies of any date class by the date of the original.
• Drop brackets, question marks, and text such as before, after, between, and ca. from the date.
• If the date of the item is either a probable decade or century, class using the date as it appears in the “260   ‡c”. (e.g. ‡c [177-?] as 177-  or 260   ‡c [18–?] as 18–).
• If the estimated date spans a decade use the initial date  (e.g., 260   ‡c [between 1774 and 1788?] class under 1774).
• If the date has been corrected use the corrected date (e.g., for 260   ‡c 1785 [i.e. 1789] class under 1789).
• If imprint is a double year use the second year for the call number (e.g., 260   ‡c 1642/1643 class under 1643).
• If there is a conflict either expand the cutter number, or move up or down one number.
• Although marked as European Tracts, the call number is entered into Orbis as Euro Tracts  (e.g.,    beingen ‡h Euro Tracts G2 1524 ‡i K886 ).  See also call numbers document.

Examples

Pyffer, Franz Xaver. Billichste Fursong fur die Arme, 1731.
 

Fourcroy, Antoine-Francois de, comte. Notice sur la vie et les travaux de Lavoisier … , l’an quatrieme [i.e. 1796]
 

Subjects

• Personal, topical and corporate subjects are always assigned.
• Make appropriate genre headings.
• Make appropriate copy specific notes and local tracings for provenance.
• Make a European chronology local tracing.

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