5. Seventy-five etchings by the American marine painter, Charles H. Woodbury, lent by the artist.

6. Forty reproductions of Whistler's lithographs, plates from Kennedy's "Lithographs by Whistler" [New York, 1914].

7. Eighty-two wood engravings by Timothy Cole, American school, presented by the Century Company (New York) in 1900.

8. Collection of 30 prints and 49 books in commemoration of the Shakespeare tercentenary.

It comprised portraits and statuary of Shakespeare, views of Stratford-on-Avon, early editions of Shakespeare's works, collected works, and specially illustrated editions.

9. Collection of 52 prints, 77 books, and 3 illuminated manuscript Bibles, commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the American Bible Society of New York City.,

10. Collection of 195 engravings of the Italian school, from the T. Harrison Garrett collection, lent to the Library of Congress for exhibition purposes.

The prints date from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries and include impressions from the silver plates made by goldsmiths, called “nielli,” and examples of chiaroscuro, line and stipple engraving, and etching. Work of representative men of their time is shown, many of them having been painters as well as engravers. There are chiaroscuros by Ugo da Carpi (1455?–1523); line engravings by Marcantonio Raimondi (1488?-before 1534) and his two best known pupils, Marco Dente (died 1527) and Agostino de' Musi (1490?-1540?), as well as by the Scultore family (erroneously called Ghisi), Giovanni Battista, the father (15031575), Diana (1535?-after 1587), and Adamo (before 1540after 1584?), probably, respectively, daughter and son. Other representatives of the sixteenth century are: Parmigiano (1503-1540); Giorgio Ghisi (1520–1582); the three

Cantarini (1612-1648), Salvatore Rosa (1615-1735), Luca Giordano (1632-1705), Elisabeta Sirani (1638–1665), and Antonio Canale (1697-1768). The eighteenth century is represented by such well-known engravers of pure line as Giovanni Volpato (1733-1803), Raffaello Morghen (1758– 1833), Giovanni Folo (1764-1836), Faustino Anderloni (1766-1847), Pietro Anderloni (1785-1849), Paolo Toschi (1788-1854), Samuele Jesi (1789-1853), and Antonio Perfetti (1792-1872). Of the early nineteenth century men may be named: Luigi Calamatta (1801-1869), Antonio Dalcò (1802-1888), Vincenzo della Bruna (1804?-1870), and Paolo Mercurj (1804-1884); and of the modern etchers: Eleuterio Pagliano (1826-1902 ?), Mose di Giosuè Bianchi (1845-1904), and Antonio Piccinni.

The Division has lent to 10 governmental departments, societies, and 35 educational institutions 15,524 photographs, etc., of paintings, sculpture, and architecture, and to the American Federation of Arts (Washington, D. C.) three collections of engravings for exhibition purposes.

SEMITIC AND ORIENTAL DIVISION

(From the report of Dr. Schapiro, in special charge of the Semitic)

With the end of the last fiscal year nearly all of the Hebrew material contained in the two Deinard collections had been put in order. More than 16,000 books and pamphlets of ancient and modern Hebrew have been placed on the shelves, arranged according to subject matter, and made ready for use.

The work of the Division during the past year was mainly concentrated upon the preparation of the books of the Hebrew collections for binding and upon their cataloguing

Yiddish litera

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and classification. About 1,300 volumes were sent to the bindery. These included a very small number which required lettering only. More than 700 books of the collections were catalogued and nearly 2,500 classified. Most of these books relate to Mishnah, Talmud, and BellesLettres. Arrangements for printing the cards of the Hebrew books already catalogued are now under consideration. The Division has also been engaged in devising and preparing a new classification scheme for Hebrew and Yiddish books. This new classification scheme is to be for permanent use, replacing the present one, which is merely a rough and temporary division of the books in order to make them accessible to readers generally. The basis of this new scheme has in view, of course, its adaptation to the established system of classification in the Library.

Useful additions to the Hebrew collections, numbering about 500 books relating to various fields of Hebrew literature were made through purchase, gift, and exchange.

Special attention has been given to Yiddish literature. The number of Yiddish books in the Library, acquired mostly through copyright, was greatly augmented by those found in the two Deinard collections. The number of all Yiddish books now in possession of the Library is considerable in proportion to the entire field of Yiddish literature. It should be observed that Yiddish, though the native tongue of millions of Jews through centuries, could hardly have been considered as possessing a literature until the second half of the nineteenth century when Yiddish publications had undergone an enormous expansion. The origin of Yiddish is the German dialect of the Rhineland of the fourteenth century, which was carried into Poland and southeastern Europe by enforced migration of the Jews. Thence it has been carried, in turn, by Jewish wanderings to every corner of the earth. As it stands to-day its basis is largely an old German dialect, written in Hebrew characters, containing in its vocabulary,

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besides Hebrew, numerous words and terms of every language from every land where Jews have since lived. The Yiddish of one country may thus be somewhat distinguished from that of another, owing to the historical fact that it incorporates numbers of household words of the newly adopted land, thus creating a sort of Yiddish vernacular in every country. The Yiddish literature in the United States assumes a respectable place as compared to other literatures; and even if the predictions of some come true that the Yiddish tongue will be dead before long, the Yiddish literature will still offer a wide and interesting field for historians, philologists, and students of comparative literatures.

ture

In connection with the Yiddish tongue may be mentioned Ladino another Jewish dialect, the so-called Ladino, which is the vernacular of the Mediterranean or Sephardic Jews. Just as Yiddish had its origin in the spoken language of southwestern Germany in the fourteenth century, so the Ladino is based upon the Spanish of the fifteenth century, which was carried all over the Mediterranean region through the stress of Spanish persecution. Among the recent immigrants to this country were many Ladino-speaking Jews, who have now developed a Ladino literature and press in the United States. The Library possesses a considerable number of books written in Ladino, which will be taken care of by this Division.

The demand for Arabic, Hebrew, and Yiddish books has increased during the last year. Various learned institutions throughout the country availed themselves of the material under our system of interlibrary loans, while a number of students called for books for special studies in the Reading Room. Several scholars carried on research work in the Division and were provided with the necessary scientific apparatus. Inquiries and requests for references and information on various literary, archæological, and historicopolitical matters in connection with Semitica and Orientalia

litera

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appointed for this task.

The Chinese books purchased by Dr. H. K. Fung, consisting of 445 works in 17,208 volumes, and also those bought by Dr. W. T. Swingle, consisting of 271 works, in 4,945 volumes, are now available for use.

All the books comprising the old collection have been moved from their old location and merged with the Fung and Swingle purchases, the whole being now shelved on deck 28, southeast stack, occupying 11 bays (1-19). Suitable labels have been placed at the ends of these bays showing the location of the various classes of works.

A large number of works purchased by Dr. Fung came unbound and also a few of those bought by Dr. Swingle. Work has been started in the bindery, and to date they have returned 100 cases of the Fung and 49 of the Swingle purchase. An estimate has been made of the materials needed for binding all unbound items and these have been ordered by the Government Printing Office. About 600 cases are yet to be made.

Upon the advice of Mr. Martel, Chief of the Catalogue Divioguing sion, some changes have been made in the system of classi

fying the various parts of the Chinese collection.

In the old collection the Manchu and Korean works were classified and shelved with the Chinese books of the same class, many of these works being bilingual in nature. These have all been extracted from the Chinese section and made to form a new one at the end of the Chinese books proper. In order to avoid confusion, the cards are all stamped with the name of the language in which the work is classified.