TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CATALOGUE

The Catalogue consists of 2150 entries describing the Printed Works (2073 entries) and the Manuscripts (77 entries) of the Italian and Latin section owned by the B.IN.G.
The entries for the Printed Works Dee example) are arranged alphabetically by author when known or otherwise by title. Each of them carries a number of data essential to an internai and external description of the volume in question. In the "internal" description the reader is given: 1) Diplomatic transcription of the frontispiece; 2) Fhoto vi the frontispiece (of a fixed size of 4.5 cm. for all exemplars and of 9 cm. for the rectangular albums of a height in proportion to the real dimensions of the document) for every first or single edition and for every older edition owned by the B.IN.G.; 3) indicativo of the Language of publication of the exemplar; 4) indicativo of the Place and Date of printing; 5) complete information about the Publisher and the Printer, as well as a description of the Printer's Trademark and/or indication of his identity in the specialist sources; 6) indication and Chronological listing of ali Previous Owners of the exemplar, on the basis of manuscript notes, ex libris, superlibros, stamps, etc. appearing in the volume itself.
This "internar description is completed by the Notes in which appears a brief but complete indication of the features of the text or texts included in the exemplar (Dedications, Prefaces, Forezeords, Indices, etc.), given in the precise order in which they appear in the originai. To these are added comments relating to certain aesthetic and typographical particularities of the edition (Rubrics, use of différent Head-pieces, Tail-pieces, etc.). All the information rendered necessary over the years to better define the volume, such as the presence of manuscript annotations, is brought together here. The "external" description of the volume includes: 1) Pagination; 2) Register; 3) Format with the dimensions of the exemplar given in cm.; 4) Definition and Description of the Binding and remarks relevant to it. Another important area for a more complete entry is that dedicated to the Bibliography of the volume, where quotes from said work are given, originally found in the specialist Bibliographies (Drexel, Vicaire, ERP, Bitting, Maggs, Simon Gastronomica, Simon Bacchica, Simon Vinaria, Westbury, Schraemli ZJGL, Schraemli BKG, MPH, SAK, Oberlé, BGW, ATCP, Marciana, IGI, Adams, Zappella) and in the General Catalogues of the great libraries (NUC, National Union Catalog of North American libraries; BL CDROM, the catalogue of the British Library in London; BNP, the catalogue of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris).
There are another three sections to the entry: 1) section relating to Known Copies, in which are given, in chronological order, the various editions both in the originai and in the most important European languages into which the work has been translated. This section has been put together on the basis of information taken from the three General Catalogues and from the specialist Bibliographies cited; 2) the section given over to Categories of classification, worked out by semantic analysis of examined documents. This section, highly important for immediate access to the topics dealt with in the exemplar, is the product and expression of a system of classification broken down into 157 forma] gastronomie Categories. The section is given for every work published in the Catalogue and gives a precise reference to a definite subject Catalogue; 3) section dedicated to indicators of Subject, this, too, conceived to provide further description of the exemplar and linked to the Category of appurtenance. This section furnishes, according to the "gastronomic", historical value, or to the documentary particularity of the work, one or more headings, which may sometimes become so numerous (almost coinciding with the index of arguments in the work) as to provide the Bibliothèque Internationale de Gastronomie with an overall and specific thesaurus of 907 indicators. Said indicators of Subjects, do not refer, as in the Categories, to the work as a whole but to its particular and singular contents. This section is given for each work published in the Catalogue.

The entries describing the Manuscripts, given in chronological order, are even more detailed (see example). The entry consists of an "internai" and "external" description. The former deals with "the texts" contained in the manuscript, the latter deals with external characteristics and the particular features of each manuscript. Elements referring to the "internal" description are given under: 1) Uniform Title field, which provides an abbreviated indication of the title of the text or texts contained in the exemplar; 2) Diplomat ritte field, in which a diplomate transcription of the title is given; 3) Incipit and Explicit field, in which the opening and closing words of the text are given; 4) Language field, where the language in which the text is written is indicated; 5) Folio field in which the extent of the text is given; 6) Notes, Bibliography, Category, Subjects fields, identical in feature to the analogous fields in Printed Works. Elements referring to the "external" description are given under: 1) Composite, Miscellaneous in which indications are given of whether the manuscript is factitious, homogeneous, contains one or more texts; 2) Texts contained field where the texts are listed in the precise order in which they occur in the manuscript; 3) Date field and relative Note; 4) Geographic Origin, with relative Note; 5) Dedicators and Dedicatees, in which the authors of the dedications and their recipients are indicated. These are then followed by various fields that provide further description of the manuscript: Materia! field (paper or vellum); Watermark field (with description of the same and reference to the specialist catalogues); Folio field with Numeratimi (not only are the originai and/or ancient ones indicated but allo the more recent and fragmentary); Width, Height, Materia! Composition fields in which the dimensions and the composition of the gatherings of the manuscript are respectively given; Catchwords, side, Lines, Arrangement, Script, Hands, Scribes fields in which the presence of catchwords, the dimensions of the writing area, the rami-ber of lines, the arrangement of the writing whether in columns or full page, the indication of the kind of script used, the presence of one or more hands, indication of the writer of the manuscript are to be found. The description of the manuscript is further detailed by the fields of Binding, Ex Libris, Decoratimi (description of eventual decorations present in the manuscript), Marginalia(presence of micro-texts, pen tests, etc.), Fragments (brief description of the sante if found in the manuscript), etc.

To complete the description of the bibliographical materia] of the Bibliothèque Internationale de Gastronomie arranged as entries occupying the first two volumes of the Catalogue, there is a third volume entirely devoted to the Indices. This third volume, the necessary complement to a work that, apart from aiming at being a criticai description of a specialized Library, also aims at being a satisfactory bibliography in its field, is divided in its tura iato two sections: the first containing the eleven indices compiled on the basis of data drawn from works belonging to the Fondation, the second a true and proper Appendix, where are to be found two further indices, which examine ali the other title of the "gastronomic" texts not belonging to the B.IN.G., on the basis of indications drawn from the specialized Bibliographies and the General Catalogues.
The third volume therefore contains the indices as follows:
1) of Authors when known or of Titles;
2) Chronological;
3) of Uniform Title;
4) of Dedicatees;
5) of Ex Libris;
6) of Categories (completed with the date of publication of the exemplar to which they refer or, if manuscript, of the period of writing, so as to enable a view of the gastronomic category in a historical and temporal context as well. The Categories have also been numerically ordered so as to create a codification allowing for cross-reference in the other indices);
7) of Subjects (these, too, accompanied by an indication of the year or period of publication or, if manuscript, of writing);
8) of Secondary Authors and Editors;
9) of Places of publication;
10) of Printers, Publishers, Booksellers;
11) of Places of origin (limited to manuscripts). The indices sections, furthermore, completed by the following Graphics:
- no. 1 bar graph showing the chronological distribution of the printed editions held by the B.IN.G.;
- no. 6 graphics showing the location over the centuries of the printed editions held by the B.IN.G.;
- no. I pie diagram showing the formats of the printed editions held by the B.IN.G.
In the Appendix, considered to be of great interest for scholars, there are another two indices:
12) Gcneral Bibliographical Index of Authors whcn known or Titles;
13) General Chronological Bibliographical Intlex.

The indices appertaining to the Appendix section have been processed by integrating the data, provided by the Italian and Latin works present in the B.IN.G. collection, with those provided by a check-list of all the works or printed editions which it lacks, drawn from a survey of the already quoted specialized Bibliographies and General Catalogues, and more precisely from: Drexel, Vica ire, ERP, Bitting, Maggs, Simon Gastronomica, Simon Bacchica, Simon Vinaria, Westbury, Schraemli ZJGL, Schraemli BKG, MPH, SAK, Oberlé, BGW, ATCP, Marciana, IGI, Adams, Zappella and from: NUC, BL CDROM, BNP respectively.

The completion of the data provided in the indices, allows the scholar to find all the "gastronomic" titles, already known or verified in said catalogues (per work or printed edition whether belonging or not to the B.IN.G.).
Moreover, the Appendix section is completed by:
- no. l bar graph showing the chronological distribution of works on gastronomy, whether belonging or not to the B.IN.G.;
- no. 6 graphics showing the location of general production of printed editions on gastronomy, over the centuries, (whether owned or not by the B.IN.G.), defined on the basis of indications provided by the two above mentioned bibliographical indices.
At the end of the cited graphics, there is an ampie Bibliography.

The Catalogue is furnished with an ampie iconographic apparatus (64 colour ptates), illustrating some of the most important and rare exemplar owned by the Fondation Bibliothèque Internationale de Gastronomie.