Italian Studies: Reference works

Bibliographies can be

• single- or multi-volume works published in a single year
• completed multi-volume works published over a series of years
• multi-volume works published over a series of years whose publication is ongoing.

Some examples of this last type are annual publications. Bibliographies comprise lists of references to books or periodical articles on particular subjects or particular authors. Some bibliographies which are available in the Library and which cover the whole, or a significant subdivision, of Italian literature are listed below.

Bibliografia generale della lingua e della letteratura italiana ( Per.Humanities Orange3 BIBLIOGRAFIA Vol. 1-18, 1991- 2008). An annual bibliography which lists books and articles in the field of Italian language and literature. Coverage aims to be exhaustive for earlier periods but only selective for contemporary literature. Publication of the annual volumes occurs some time after that of the items listed. Thus the volume for 1995 was published only in 1998.

Other bibliographies, which focus on specific aspects of Italian literature, can also be found in the Library. In the shelfmark for this type of work, the letter 'B' prefaces the relevant classification number; for example, B851 is used for bibliographies of Italian poetry, B852 for bibliographies of Italian fiction and B853 for bibliographies of Italian drama. Works of this type can be found on the shelves immediately before books on the subject itself.

International Index to Periodicals. In print (Abstracts and Indexes, 1907-65). This was the predecessor of what are now two separate indexes, namely Humanities Index (see above) and Social Sciences Index. International Index to Periodicals was 'an author and subject index to periodicals in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, area studies, classical studies, economics, geography, history, language and literature, philosophy, political science, religion, sociology, and related subjects.'

The British Humanities Index is a printed index to British journals in the area of the humanities. It covers the period 1962-2004 and is shelved in the Abstracts section on Green 2 / BRITISH Room 2.

National bibliographies (i.e. lists of books published in a particular country) and library catalogues can also be a useful source of bibliographical information for the student of modern languages.

Catalogo dei Libri in Commercio is the printed Italian Books in Print. It is kept in the Store (current year only).

Year's Work in Modern Language Studies. 1931-. (Abstracts Green 2 YEARS / Room 7 Vol-, 1995- and Per.Humanities Orange1 YEARS Vol. 57-, 1995-).

Each annual volume of this valuable publication surveys work published in the fields of Romance, Celtic, Germanic and Slavonic languages and literatures.

Each contributor, a specialist in the field, surveys work published on particular subjects or particular authors, giving not only bibliographical references but also a short description summarizing the content of each work surveyed.

The Special Collections (old and rare books, manuscripts and archives) of the Library are  housed at John Rylands Research Institute and Library. Special Collections contains much material relevant to Italian, in both printed and manuscript forms. Printed books are now shown on the Library Catalogue (the location will be given as 'Deansgate').