Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society

the proper rule of inclusion would be difficult to frame and more difficult to apply. The definition of a broadside is not fixed, though Mr. Evans in the introduction to his fifth volume1 has undertaken to discriminate. In the present instance the word has been broadly used, intended to apply to almost any issue of the press which has not a proper title page, whether printed on a single leaf or on a number of leaves, whether carrying page numbers and signature-marks or without such usual indications of a pamphlet or volume. It is more serviceable to note this stray and fleeting product of the press, often unrecorded elsewhere, in too great fulness, for in that way the labors of other bibliographers are supplemented. Further, the list. in its original intention and final performance is tinged with personal motives, serving as an aid in special undertakings now in process of completion. If too much has been included much has undoubtedly been omitted, and one of the leading objects of the publication is to call out from their hiding places the unknown or at least the undiscovered issues of a like character.

The frontispiece to this volume is made up of two fragments. of a papal indulgence printed at Madrid, February 2, 1738, and bearing the (printed) signature of Cardinal Gaspar de Molina y Oviedo. These fragments had been used as covers to two manuscript sermons by a New England clergyman. The history of this indulgence is told under No. 875 on page 121 of this volume. The ballad there mentioned is printed on the lower half of the indulgence and the text for that portion is complete. I have not located a complete text of the upper half and the reproduction is made in the hope that at some time a full example of this document, spoils of war, may be found.

I acknowledge my indebtedness to the late Nathaniel Paine, of Worcester, and to Charles Evans, compiler of the American Bibliography.2 Pioneers in this field, they did not go far in covering it. Intensive cultivation was needed to obtain the best results. I have received many favors from libraries, the custodians of which have thrown open their stores freely and with every privilege and courtesy. The list is practically that of the libraries named in the "Key" on page 2, and my sense of obligation is as great to the small as to the large libraries.

1 American Bibliography, v. xiv.

2 See also the list of "Early American Poetry to 1820" in the New York Public Library, made by Mr. John C. Frank and printed in the Bulletin of that Library, xxi. 517.

An essential factor has been the photostat, which has enabled a closer examination of widely separated items to be made, developing hitherto undiscovered differences and adding materially to the number of issues known. Instances of this multiplication may be seen in the issues of Father Abdy's Will (1730), broadsides issued on the death of George Whitefield (1770) and those on Levi Ames (1773). This comparison has also permitted printers to be identified, and under a more extended application, will throw some light upon the history of printing in Massachusetts.

Mr. F. W. Coar, of New York, has courteously permitted me to use blocks of some broadsides which have passed through his hands the inserts in this volume. The illustrations in the text are copied from the originals and tend to prove the slow advance in wood engraving in the century covered by the list.

Boston, June, 1922.

WORTHINGTON CHAUNCEY FORD.