Bibliographies, Mennonite

Being primarily tools for research, bibliographies are prepared and published only when and where research scholarship is active, or when book collections and libraries have been established. In the Mennonite world scholarship developed first in Holland, and the first bibliographies by Mennonites on Mennonite history and theology developed there, followed by north and west Germany, finally by the United States. Bibliographies on Anabaptist-Mennonite history by non-Mennonites have appeared only when non-Mennonite scholarship became interested in a thorough study of this field, which is only in the 20th century. This article will report the significant published bibliographies and library catalogs and literary research reports in chronological order through 1950.

Bibliographies before 1900

The first and only separately published bibliography in the earlier period by Mennonite or non-Mennonite was (the Mennonite scholar) Marten Schagen's 1745 list (Naamlijst) of Dutch Mennonite writers and their writings, 1539-1745. A. van der Linde published a bibliography of David Joris in 1867, C. Sepp one of Bernhard Rothmann in 1870, and P. Bahlmann published one on the Münsterites in 1894. John Horsch published an extensive bibliography of Anabaptist and Mennonite history in his 1890 booklet, Kurzgefasste Geschichte der Mennoniten-Gemeinden listing over 600 published titles and over 100 early manuscripts. A. H. Newman's History of Anti-Pedobaptism, prepared in 1896, but not published until 1902 (Philadelphia), also contained a very valuable and extensive bibliography of 16th-century Anabaptism, containing over 400 titles. C. Sepp's Bibliotheek van Nederlandsche Kerkgeschiedschrijvers (Leiden, 1886) contained a small section on "De Doopsgezinden," pp. 386-412.

Several auction-sale catalogs of libraries of Dutch Mennonite scholars approached the character of bibliographies. The important ones were those of G. Maatschoen (Amsterdam, 1752), J. D. Hesselink (Groningen, 1878), and S. Blaupot ten Cate (Groningen, 1885). Occasionally antiquarian booksellers issued special catalogs of Reformation literature containing extensive Anabaptist sections which had considerable bibliographical value. One of the best of these was an 1869 catalog of the Berlin dealer S. Calvary and Co. (Verzeichniss seltener u. werthvoller Werke: Zur Gesch.- u. Literatur der Wiedertäufer u. der verwandten Secten). Occasional catalogs of J. Rosenthal (Munich), M. Breslauer (Berlin), and L. Brecher (Brno) were also valuable.

As libraries in Mennonite congregations increased in size and value, occasionally catalogs were published. Such were those of Enschede (Holland) in 1836; Amsterdam in 1854, 1888, and 1919; Danzig in 1869; Hamburg-Altona in 1890. The published (1883) catalog of the archives of the Amsterdam Mennonite Church is also worthy of note. The 1919 Amsterdam catalog with its 357 pages and almost 4,000 titles is in effect a bibliography, and as such is particularly extensive in the field of Dutch Mennonite history and writings by Dutch Mennonites. The handicap of the lack of an index to the Amsterdam catalog was made good by the publication of a mimeographed short title index in 1950 by the Mennonite Historical Society (Goshen, Indiana).

Bibliographies 1900-1950.

Bibliographies in Book Form.

Several independent bibliographies were published 1900-1950. H. S. Bender's Two Centuries of American Mennonite Literature, A Bibliography of Mennonitica Americana 1727-1928 (Goshen, The Mennonite Historical Society, 1929) attempted to list every publication in North America by a Mennonite author, with complete biblographical data and some annotation, including location of rare items in libraries. K. Kauenhowen's Das Schrifttum zur Sippenkunde und Geschichte der taufgesinnten Niederländischen Einwanderer (Mennoniten) in Alt-Preussen und ihrer Abzweigungen (Hamburg, 1939) was the first and only bibliography on the Mennonites of the Danzig area. John A. Hostetler's Annotated Bibliography on the Amish (Scottdale, 1951) attempted to list everything written by or about the Old Order Amish, in book, pamphlet, or periodical form, also unpublished theses, dissertations, and papers. Though not printed separately, M. C. Lehman's extensive annotated bibliography on the history of Mennonite relief work in his History and Principles of Mennonite Relief Work, Students' Edition with Syllabus and Annotated Bibliography (Akron, Pa., Mennonite Central Committee, 1945), pp. 52-67 (prepared largely by John Bender and Justus Holsinger), was in effect an exhaustive bibliography in pamphlet form.

Bibliographies in Periodical Articles and Monographs

Apart from the bibliographies which appeared in the second quarter of the 20th century in monographs in the field of Anabaptist and early Mennonite history in such works as those by Correll, Horsch, Krahn, Smithson, Friedmann, and Bender, in the general works by Smith and Horsch, and the articles in the Mennonitisches Lexikon, a number of valuable special bibliographies were published. These fell into two types, those which merely listed titles, with or without brief annotations, and those which gave an extended discussion of the major works in essay form, with a running critique and evaluation of the published products of original research or interpretation, indicating the progress achieved by the total forward movement of scholarship.

In the first category the outstanding contributions were those by Robert Friedmann, Karl Schottenloher, and A. J. F. Zieglschmid. Friedmann gave an exhaustive bibliography on the Austrian Anabaptists, with a section on the Swiss Brethren as connected with the Austrians, in his outstanding bibliographical article, "Die Briefe der Oesterreichischen Täufer IV: Bibliographie," in Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 26 (1929): 170-187. A. J. F. Zieglschmid attempted the same thing in his two editions of the Hutterite chronicles: Die älteste Chronik der Hutterischen Brüder (Philadelphia, 1943) 901-917, and Das Klein-Geschichtbuch der Hutterischen Brüder (Philadelphia, 1947) 687-706. The second bibliography included and enlarged on the first, offering about 400 titles, almost identical in size with Friedmann's list. In fact, it was the Friedmann list supplemented by more recent titles. Schottenloher's monumental Bibliographie zur deutschen Geschichte im Zeitalter der Glaubensspaltung 1517-1585; I, Personen A-L 1933); II, Personen M-Z, Orte und Landschaften (1935); III, Reich und Kaiser, Territorien und Landesherren (1936); IV, Gesamtdarstellungen, Stoffe (1938); V, Nachträge und Ergänzungen (1939); and VI, Verfasser und Titelverzeichnisse (1940), covering everything to the end of 1937 (the seventh volume Das Schrifttum von 1938 bis 1960, did not appear until 1966), gave full recognition to the Anabaptists under Personen as well as in Vol. IV, where the heading Wiedertäufer, pp. 734-752, contained about 370 titles, with 12 additional titles in Nachträge (Vol. V) under the same heading. Schottenloher also attempted to be exhaustive, and his set is a most valuable work, though not fully exhaustive for Anabaptists. Roland Bainton's section on "Anabaptism and the Spiritual Reformers" in his Bibliography of the Continental Reformation in English (New York, 1935) 31-36, gave only English titles. Cornelius Krahn's "Historiography of the Mennonites in the Netherlands" in Mennonite Quarterly Review 18 (1944) 195-224, was selective and went far beyond the 16th century, while Wilhelm Pauck's "Historiography of the German Reformation During the Past Twenty Years" in Church History 9 (1940) 305-340, with its section on "Research in the History of the Anabaptists," 335-340, was also selective, but included all languages. Both Krahn and Pauck were systematic but only slightly annotated. Christian Hege in Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter, Vols. II-V (1937-40), attempted an exhaustive coverage of current periodical literature on Anabaptist-Mennonite history (including also in later volumes "kleinere selbständige Veröffentlichungen") arranged by years, beginning with 1936 and continuing to August 1940, without annotations. See the numbers of the Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter for December 1937 (pp. 77-78), December 1938 (pp. 97-99), August 1939 (pp. 59-62), and August 1940 (pp. 60-62). E. Teufel, "Neue Geschichtsliteratur," Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter May 1951, pp. 58-70, covered 1940-49 by years, giving first periodicals, then books, with annotations. The latest (1953) article was that by C. Krahn, "The Anabaptists in Periodical Literature, 1940-50," in Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte (1952).

The second type of bibliography, the review-discussion type (Literaturbericht, Sammelbericht), was represented by two outstanding extensive contributions by Walter Köhler ("Das Täufertum in der neueren kirchenhistorischen Forschung," in Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 1940-1948) and Eberhard Teufel of Stuttgart-Fellbach ("Täufertum und Quäkertum im Lichte der neueren Forschung") in Theologische Rundschau, 1941-1952, as well as four earlier discussions: Heinrich Bornkamm, Mystik, Spiritualismus, und die Anfänge des Pietismus im Luthertum (Giessen, 1926) 20-22; Chr. Hege, article Geschichtschreibung in Mennonitisches Lexikon II (written in 1926); H. S. Bender, "Recent Progress in Research in Anabaptist History," in Mennonite Quarterly Review 8I (1934) pp. 3-17; and Paul Dedic in Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 35 (1938), "Forschungen zur Geschichte des Oesterreichischen Protestantismus. Sammelbericht über die Epoche 1918-38. Täufertum," pp. 277-281, covering publications on Austrian Anabaptism 1918-1938. The discussions by Köhler and Teufel, both masters in the field, deserve a fuller report, both because of their truly extraordinary extent (ca. 35,000 words and 65,000 words, respectively) and their exceptionally thorough and critical scholarly character.

It may seem strange that two such similar reports on the same general field would appear virtually parallel in German scholarly literature. However, the organization and approach of the two were somewhat different, and both were essential to the fullest information on current research and publication in the field of Anabaptist history, particularly after World War I. Köhler's report appeared in four installments organized geographically except for the last section, "Die Spiritualisten," 41 (1948), pp. 165-186, which was organized by persons: Sebastian Franck, Dirck Coornhert, Sébastian Castellion, Jacob Acontius, and the Quakers. The three sections on Anabaptism were: "I. Allgemeines, Schweizerische Täufer," 37 (1940) 93-107; "II. Das Täufertum in den Niederlanden, England, Frankreich, Elsass, Thüringen," 38 (1941) 349-64; "III. Württemberg, Bayern, Mähren, Oesterreich, Nord- und Ostseeraum, Russland, Theologie der Täufer," 40 (1943) 246-270. Teufel's report appeared in seven installments (the eighth and last covering recent American publications was soon to appear); 13 (1941) 24-57, 103-127, 183-97; 14 (1942) 27-52, 124-154; 15 (1943) 56-80, and 17 (1948) 161-181, organized as follows—I. "Die Entwicklung der Forschung seit G. Arnold" (5 pp.);II. "Zur Biographie einzelner Täuferführer" (67 pp.), including David Joris (12), Menno Simons (7), Conrad Grebel (9), Pilgram Marpeck (10), Balthasar Hubmaier (14), and Hans Denck (14); III. "Zur Täufergeschichte einzelner Länder" (80 pp.), including "Schweiz" (16), "Herzogtum Württemberg" (11), "Markgraftum Brandenburg-Anspach-Bayreuth" (19), "Bistümer Eichstätt, Bamberg, Würzburg" (4), "Einzelne heute bayrische Reichsstädte, Augsburg, Regensburg, Rothenburg o.T." (7), "Baden-Kurpfalz" (12), "Rheinland" (7), "Nord- und Ostseeraum" (4). Teufel gave an extensive bibliography at the outset, and at various places throughout added further briefer topical bibliographical lists, in addition to titles in the text and occasionally in footnotes. Köhler gave no lists, and included considerably fewer titles, both in the text and in the footnotes, but with most of his titles in the footnotes. Teufel included several times as many titles as Köhler, but omited the "Spiritualists." (He had earlier reported exhaustively on Sebastian Franck in Theologische Rundschau, 1939 and 1940.) Both Köhler and Teufel reported at length on certain key books and articles, using these works as the basis for a discussion of basic questions in the historical analysis and interpretation of Anabaptism. Both were fully aware of the American contribution to this field and included English titles as well as Dutch and Swiss in their discussions. Both men were also most sympathetic to the Anabaptist position. Teufel's own 177-page Literaturbericht was a remarkably rich, informative, and well-balanced contribution to the field of Anabaptist historiography, probably the most useful written to date.

The Mennonitisches Lexicon, in addition to the bibliographies commonly appended to substantial articles, contains a number of extensive bibliographical articles, the chief of which are the following: Neff, "Bekenntnisse des Glaubens" (I, 157-61); Neff, "Gesangbücher" (II, 86-91); Loserth, "Geschichtsbücher der mährischen Täufer" (II, 91-96); Hege, "Geschichtschreibung" (II, 96-101); Neff, "Katechismen" (II, 469-71); "Literatur," treated in subtopics under German, Dutch, French, and American literature (II, 662-74) by O. Schowalter, H. Jeltes, P. Sommer, and C. H. Smith respectively.

The second part of Robert Friedmann's Mennonite Piety Through the Centuries (Goshen, 1949) contained a great amount of bibliographical material, particularly the following chapters, which had also been published in almost identical form in the Mennonite Quarterly Review (MQR) as indicated: II. "Dutch Mennonite Devotional Literature," 105-126 (MQR, July 1941); III. "The Devotional Literature of the Mennonites of Danzig and East Prussia to 1800," 127-140 (MQR, July 1944); V. "The Devotional Literature of the Swiss Brethren, 1600-1800," 154-175 (MQR, October 1942); and VI. "Mennonite Prayerbooks," 176-202 (MQR, October 1943).

The Mennonite Quarterly Review (1929- ) has published a number of bibliographical articles: H. Jeltes, "Mennonites in Dutch Literature" (11, April 1937) 142-155; Edward Yoder, "Bibliography of the Writings of John Horsch" (21, July 1947) 205-228; H. S. Bender, "Anabaptist Manuscripts in the Archives at Brno, Czechoslovakia" (23, April 1949) 105-107; Nelson Springer, "A Bibliography of the Writings of C. Henry Smith" (23, January 1949) 16-21; Nelson Springer, "The Holdings of the (Goshen) Mennonite Historical Library: Holdings in the Collection Published in the 16th Century" (25, October 1951) 313-319, reprinted in enlarged and revised form in 1952. Beginning with its January 1950 number the MQR established a regular department of "Bibliographical and Research Notes" designed primarily to give annotated bibliographies and reports on current research in Anabaptist-Mennonite history by countries and subjects. The following have already appeared: H. S. Bender, "Recent Anabaptist Bibliographies" (24, January 1950) 88-93; H. S. Bender, "Publications of the Mennonitischer Geschichtsverein 1936-1950" (24, April 1950) 170-73; H. S. Bender, "Mennonite Yearbooks and Almanacs 1940-1950" (24, July 1950) 281-87; Robert Friedmann, "A Comprehensive Review of Research on the Hutterites 1880-1950" (24, October 1950) 353-63; John Umble, "Research on the Amish and Source Materials for the Study of the Amish" (25, April 1951) 128-32; Willard H. Smith, "Mennonites in Latin America: An Annotated Bibliography" (26, October 1952) 298-318; H. S. Bender and N. P. Springer, "An Annotated Bibliography of Published Mennonite Sermons" (27, April 1953) 143-157; E. K. Francis, "A Bibliography on the Mennonites of Manitoba" (27, July 1953).

Beginning with 1947 the quarterly Mennonite Life (North Newton, Kansas) annually published in its April number a "Mennonite Bibliography" compiled by M. Gingerich and C. Krahn, which included books, pamphlets, and articles (only of non-Mennonite periodicals) of the preceding year dealing with the Anabaptists, Mennonites, and related groups. This journal also annually published a report on "Mennonite Research in Progress." The April 1952 issue contained: "Of Hutterite Books" by R. Friedmann; "Pennsylvania Mennonites in Print, 1940-1950" by J. Clemens; "Mennonites in German Literature, 1940-1950" by H. Quiring and C. Krahn; and "Mennonites in Reference Books, 1940-1950" by C. Krahn.

The Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter (VI, 1949) published a bibliography of the writings of Christian Neff (pp. 11 ff.) and of Christian Hege (pp. 23 ff.). The Historische Zeitschrift in recent years regularly reported Anabaptist-Mennonite publications in its Literarbericht section under "Reformation und Gegenreformation," by the late Walter Köhler and in 1950by H. Bornkamm.

G. J. Honig's Catalogus der Verzameling "Jacob Honig Jsz. Jr." in the Zaanlandsche Oudheidkamer contained valuable bibliographical information. W. H. Hohmann's Outlines in Hymnology with Emphasis on Mennonite Hymnology (North Newton, 1941) contained a chronological check list of Mennonite hymnbooks from the beginning in all languages and countries.

A chronological bibliography of writings by and about Anabaptists and Mennonites from the beginning to 1940 was prepared by the late Christian Hege before his death in 1942 in manuscript form but never published. A chronological list of all publications by Mennonites in Europe in all languages (German chiefly, a few in French) except Dutch has been prepared by Adolf Schnebele and was to be published by the Mennonite Historical Society, Goshen.

Bibliographies from 1950-1962

The most complete chronological bibliography of Anabaptist publications was Hans J. Hillerbrand, A Bibliography of Anabaptism 1520-1630 (Institute of Mennonite Studies, Elkhart, Indiana, 1961, revised edition Center for Reformation Research, St. Louis, 1991). A. Goertz published "Bibliographie zur Geschichte der Mennoniten Altpreussens" in Kirche im Osten, 6, 174-190 (Göttingen, 1963). Cornelius Krahn published "Menno Simons Research (1910-1960)" in No Other Foundation (North Newton, Kansas, 1962).

Irvin Horst prepared A Bibliography of Menno Simons ca. 1496-1561 (B. de Graaf, Nieuwkoop, 1962) with a census of known copies of Menno's work.

A comprehensive Mennonite Bibliography 1631-1961 by Nelson Springer and A. J. Klassen (Herald Press, Scottdale, PA, 1977) provided an unannotated international, multi-language bibliography in two volumes.

Author(s)	Harold S Bender
Date Published	1954

Cite This Article

MLA style

Bender, Harold S. "Bibliographies, Mennonite." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1954. Web. 24 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bibliographies,_Mennonite&oldid=146377.

APA style

Bender, Harold S. (1954). Bibliographies, Mennonite. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 24 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bibliographies,_Mennonite&oldid=146377.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, pp. 334-337. All rights reserved.

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