The word BIBLIOGRAPHY comes from the Greek bibliographia. meaning book-writing.

The pioneer bibliographer, Johannes Tritheim, a cloistered monk, published his Liber de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis. Basle: Amberbach 1494. 300p. It is the first bio-bibliography (and a select, national bibliography) recording about 7,000 titles by about 1,000 medieval authors; arranged in chronological order, with a short account of each, followed by a list of their writings, and supplemented with an author index (by Christian names). This catalogue of ecclesiastical writers was used by Konrad Gesner in his Bibliotheca universalis, etc. Tiguri [Zürich] Froschauer 1545-55. v.1-3 and Appendix. About 2,600p. This work was the most notable early attempt at an universal bibliography, covering about 15,000 titles in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, by about 3,000 authors. (Note that some 40,000 incunabula have survived). The arrangement is alphabetical, likewise by Christian names, and is provided with author and subject indexes.

1678 Sir James Murray gives four meanings to the word Bibliography: 1. The writing of books. First so used in 1678 by J. Phillips; 2. The systematic description and history of books, their authorship, printing, publication, editions, etc.

1814 1838 1869 First so used in 1814 by T.F. Dibdin; 3. A book containing such details. First so used in 1838 by Henry Hallam; 4. A list of the books of a particular author, printer, or country, or of those dealing with any particular theme; the literature of a subject. First so used in 1869 by W. Rowlands.

Below we have given other definitions in chronological order:

1802 A Bibliographer is one who makes a special study of the knowledge of books, of literary history, and of all that relates to the art of printing.

1814 …Bibliography…denotes the knowledge of books, as it regards, 1, the materials of which they are composed, 2. the subjects discussed… 3. the knowledge of the different editions… and lastly…[their] classification.