Heythrop Library

On a first and superficial look it seems like the Heythrop Library uses the Library of Congress Classification (LCC), but this is not true. There are some classmarks which look like LCC, but are in fact an adaptation: the Lynn-Peterson scheme (first edition from 1937! See https://archive.org/details/lynn-alternative-classification-for-catholic-books-1937); the second edition (with supplement) of 1965 is used by us. The Library nowadays makes also one radical change from LCC to some classmarks which are otherwise, LCC.  This is part 3 of 3, to explain our classification a bit better.

In our third and last instalment of this mini series explaining our classification, we will focus on BX and Jesuitica. Whereas BX is just a “more” Catholic approach to Church History than LCC, it also contains the third modifications we make in classmarks: a completely home-made BX scheme for Jesuitica!

In BX (Church History) we use – for the majority of classmarks the Lynn-Peterson classification, plus an in-house Heythrop (College) Library scheme is used for Jesuitica and “Jesuits in Britain”, i.e. BX7457 to BX7500

BX : Church history general and not specifically about Jesuits

The LCC thinks of BX as “Christian denominations” – which might explain that it is not only conceived as a set to describe historical books. It is a very nounanced approach, ranging from classmark BX1 (Periodicals within “Christian Denominations”) to BX9999.V5 (Independent Churches, parishes and societies: Virginia Beach, Va.) ! The rough breakdown is as follows (see also LCC_BR-BX2024OUT.pdf for the full outline):

• BX1 to BX9.5 : Church unity. Ecumenical movement. Interdenominational cooperation
• BX100 to BX189 : Eastern Churches
• BX200 to BX796 : Orthodox Eastern Church
• BX800 to BX4795 : Catholic Church
• BX4800 to BX4951 : Protestantism
• BX5001 to BX5009 : Anglican Communion
• BX5011 to BX5740 : Church of England
• BX5800 to BX5995 : Episcopal Church. Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, including Church of England in Colonial period
• BX5996 to BX6034.52 : Episcopal Church outside the United States
• BX6051 to BX6093 : Reformed Episcopal Church
• BX6101 to BX9999 : Other Protestant denominations

The sub-sections are not-primarily about historiography, so LCC seems much broader. In contrast the Lynn-Petersen is headed “Church History”, and the outline of the classes is as follows:

• BX1 to BX21 : Periodicals, Societies, Festschriften, Directories, yearbooks
• BX24 to BX45 : Collected works
• BX46 to BX51 : Biography (including BX51 “Protestant church historiography”)
• BX55 to BX73 : Christian archaeology. Monumental theology.
• BX75 to BX91 : General works. Universal church history
• BX101 to BX173 : History of the Papacy
• BX175: History of the councils (general); for special councils, see BX321-1131
• BX181 to BX199 : History of the clergy
• BX211 to BX230 : History of religious persecution and martyrdom
• BX232 to BX1199 : History of special periods (with the numbers from BX1131 to BX1140 capturing modern popes after Pius XII)
• BX1495 to BX5155: Local Church History (by country: in the order of Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia, Oceania and Pacific Islands)
• BX5401 to BX6539 : Eastern Christianity
• BX6801 to BX8043 : Monasticism and religious orders
• BX8203 to BX8399 : Biography and portraits

Even looking at this outline suggests that there is a lot of granularity in the Lynn-Petersen’s approach. The breakdown of special periods does not always sync very well with some books covering different ranges of years (often this is due to a modern approach to historiography by subject), or also different countries which does not sit nicely in the “Local Church” history. Most of the time we manage to find an appropriate classmark in a system which just uses a one-element classification (unlike say the Dewey Decimal System, which can be used in a modular, multi-element way, potentially constructing insanely complex classmarks which are hard to scan let by a human eye on the shelf, let alone print as a spine label).

BX Jesuitica – BX7457 to BX7500

This section of BX is an in-house classification, though at the beginning it follows Lynn-Petersen’s approach of starting with bibliography, periodicals & yearbooks, encyclopaedias & dictionaries. Then it becomes clear that someone created this bit of classification who knew the Jesuits, its history and its important texts very well.

(When I was handed over this list of classmarks the ‘in use’ classmarks were set in bold; additions since 2021, in italics): 

BX 

• 7457 Bibliography 
• 7452 Periodicals & yearbooks 
• 7453 Encyclopaedias & dictionaries 
• 7454 Directories of Jesuit members and houses (Catalogues) 
• 7455 Institutum & commentaries 
• 7456 The Rule (Latin edition), by date 
• 7456.1 Translations of the Rule, by date 
• 7457 Commentaries on the Rule, by author 
• 7458 The Constitutions, by date, & commentaries 
• 7458.1 The Epitome & commentaries 
• 7459 Official manuals of prayers and instructions, by date 
• 7460 Other official publications 
• 7460.1 Decrees of General Congregations 
• 7460.11 Commentaries on the General Congregations 
• 7460.12 On Formation
• 7460.2 Collected Decrees of General Congregations (Collectio Decretorum) 
• 7460.3 General Examen (Examen Generale), papal bulls (Bullae), collections of papal bulls and 
• decrees (Bullarium) relating to the Society of Jesus & the Compendium of Privileges of the 
• Society (Compendium Priveligiorum) 
• 7460.4 Formulas for General Congregations (Formula Congregationis) 
• 7460.5 The Formula of the Institute (Formula Instituti) & commentaries 
• 7460.6 Instructions from Superiors General (Ordinationes Generali) 
• 7460.7 Plan of Studies (Ratio Studiorum), studies & teaching 
• LF795 Jesuit schools – history of individual schools, A-Z 
• 7460.7 School counselling 
• 7460.8 Historical sources & documents 
• […] 
• 7465 Foundations & origin, biography of St Ignatius Loyola 
• 7466 Writings of St Ignatius Loyola [at Heythrop Spiritual Exercises are in the BT section, within the books on mysticism and spirituality!]
• […] 

Considering that “BX” is supposed to be for history, a lot of the above classmarks are somewhat more systematic, i.e. a classmark is ahistoric, or can bridge books or ‘events’ across centuries. From BX7469, we are, ‘in theory’, firmly in historical realms again: 

• 7469 History of the Society of Jesus in Europe (general) 
• 7470 France 
• 7471 German Assistancy (excluding Holland) 
• 7471.1 Germany 
• 7471.2 Austria 
• 7471.3 Switzerland 
• 7471.4 Hungary 
• 7471.5 Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania 
• 7472 Spanish Assistancy 
• […] 

However, in practice if a book on Jesuits (or their works), say, in contemporary Hungary were to arrive, we would nowadays add them to 7471.4. On the one hand this seems to be a kind of cop-out, but on the other hand one could just also say that everything of today will become the history of tomorrow.

The 7486-94 classmarks cover the ‘English Province’ only (nowadays ‘Jesuits in Britain’), and these classmarks have been passed on by way of a page written on an old typewriter with the older system of using “BY” plus number to the four digits after BX hand-written to the left: 

There are potentially issues with members of the ‘English province’ having moved to other parts of the world, and how long they and their biographies might be deemed part of the ‘Province’, or a contribution to their new home lands. 

The remaining classmarks after the above classmarks then cover potentially more niche topics: 

• 7495 Anti-Jesuit literature 
• 7496 Replies to anti-Jesuit literature 
• 7497 Special topics not listed above (eg. Jesuit drama) 
• 7498 Selected writers (collected works) 
• 7498.5 Literature by Jesuit authors 

Obviously, there is a potential clash between 7498.5 ‘Literature by Jesuit authors’ and works written by Jesuit authors which might fit by their contents in other sections of the Library.

Finally, biographies on Jesuits are split into (in square brackets classmarks for the previous classification system used):

For members of the British Province:

• 7494 Biography, individual [BY44]
• 7499  Biography collective (iconography) [BY49]

For Jesuits outside the British Province:

• 7500  Biography individual [BY50]. 

I guess that splitting biographies on British Jesuits from those who were members elsewhere might help to browse, but some readers might prefer to browse all biographies in one sequence.

Hopefully, this post and the previous two posts in this series have given a bit of an insight to how classification systems are used at the Heythrop Library, and how they were used during Heythrop College Library days.

CG