The making of a catalogue in ancient libraries: the librarian’s testimonies

Catalogues in libraries have been an indispensable tool for centuries. Before the invention of the “card catalogue, they consisted mostly in large in-folio manuscript books presenting bibliographic records in alphabetical order. The making of a catalogue in 18th and early 19th century presented a huge task, with many hours of drafting until arriving to a clean copy. As a result of my research on the organization of ancient Portuguese religious libraries, I studied some of the still existing catalogues. It was a unique occasion to unveil cataloguing standards and rule interpretations usually explained by the librarians in a written caveat. By bringing to public knowledge their quest for achieving the perfect catalogue I honour Mirna Willer’s longtime efforts in the development of universal bibliographic standards.