a branch of archæographia, employed in the judging and perusing of ancient manuscripts, whether written in books, paper, or parchment.

The sense of it is now extended; and it signifies a work intended to give information concerning the first or best editions of books, and the ways of selecting and distinguishing them properly. In short, it is used for a notitia or description of printed books, either in the order of the alphabet, of the times when printed, or of the subject matters. In which sense, bibliography amounts to much the same with what is otherwise called bibliotheca.

Literary journals afford also a kind of bibliography.