The Catalogue of Books Printed in the XVth Century Now in the British Museum (British Library), generally referred to as BMC, is a monument in the history of the book. BMC followed on from the rearrangement of the Museum's incunabula begun by Robert Proctor on the basis of the comprehensive survey of printing types and presses of the fifteenth century that he had published in 1898 as an 'Index' of the incunabula in the Museum and the Bodleian Library. The Index represented a working-out of the system he had developed for the identification of printers of the incunabula period on the basis of typographical material. The volumes of BMC extend Proctor's principles by providing full descriptions of the incunabula in the collections of the British Museum and making revisions where necessary. The first part appeared in 1908, prepared by A.W. Pollard after Proctor's death in 1903. The most recent part was published in 1985.

THE following Index to Part IV of the 'Catalogue of books printed in the XVth -century now in the British Museum' (London 1916), containing the books printed at Subiaco and in Rome, is the result of the joint initiative of the author and publisher, who have undertaken the work on their own responsibility. Now that, owing to the -outbreak of the war, the work on the catalogue has been temporarily discontinued, they trust that students of incunabula of whatever nationality will feel indebted to them for two reasons: (I) Many of the books described in this Index have appeared without name of printer, which makes it very difficult to find a certain book without an Index. '(2) The editors of the present work have arrived at a great many fresh conc1usions which all students of this branch of 1earning will have to take into account. The order of this Index, as of the Index to Parts 1-IH, is the same as that in Hain's 'Repertorium Bibliographicum', the books not known to Hain being interpolated as nearly as may be on the same system. As this Index, as a matter of course, is only a provisional one, the names of the printers have been indicated with the greatest possible succinctness, the place-name 'Rome' having been omitted throughout. Only the three books printed at Subiaco are accompanied by a reference to their place of origin.