BIBLIOGRAPHIA ARANEORUM

Abstract

ON an early page of this amazing book, Dr. Bonnet relates how, almost twenty years ago, he was persuaded to take to the study of spiders with the recommendation that the bibliography of the group would be found to be “à peu pràs insignificante”. He tells us, too, how the idea of a complete bibliography grew in his mind, of how he collected the 8,000 and more references which such a work involved, and how finally he undertook to read, analyse and index the contents of nearly all these publications himself. It was a task which few men would have shouldered ; it was indeed so great that it entailed a special mode of life, demanding day after day, and even night after night, an unfaltering attention and a faith in the value of the work which raises enthusiasm to an almost fantastic devotion. Here, a triumph of perseverance, are the first results, justifying the incredible enterprise.

Bibliographia Araneorum

Analyse méthodique de toute la littérature aranéologique jusqu'en 1939. Par Dr. Pierre Bonnet. Tome I. Pp. xviii + 832 + 28 plates. (From the Author: Laboratoire de Zoologie, Université de Toulouse, 1945.) 3,000 francs.