A short-title catalogue (or catalog) is a bibliographical 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 The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...

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. Pri ...

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 Frederic Sutherland Ferguson (26 December 1878 in Stoke Newington, London – 4 May 1967 in Isle of Wight) was an English bibliographer. He was educated at the Grocers' Company's School, Hackney Downs, and at King's College London, but did not ta ...

, completed by K. F. Pantzer. London: The

Bibliographical Society Founded in 1892, The Bibliographical Society is the senior learned society in the UK dealing with the study of the book and its history. The Society promotes and encourages study and research in historical, analytical, descriptive and textual ...

. 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 ...

'', 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 bibliograp ...

, online database covering

incunabula An incunable or incunabulum (: incunables or incunabula, respectively) is a book, pamphlet, or broadside (printing), broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. The specific date is essentiall ...

, 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 Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

(now the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

), 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 cultu ...

, 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 Incunable, incunabula held in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. Bod-inc. stand ...

Examples

See also