Jacques-Charles Brunet (1780–1867), the son of a Parisian bookseller, published in 1810 a Manuel du libraire et de l'amateur de livres in three volumes, which he recast with each edition up to the fifth — "entirely recast and enlarged by a third" — issued by Firmin Didot from 1860 to 1865 in six volumes: five of alphabetical dictionary and one of methodical table, reclassifying books by discipline according to the system used by the Paris booksellers. A two-volume supplement, by Pierre Deschamps and Gustave Brunet, followed in 1878–1880. For a century, the Brunet was the universal bibliography of the rare book, and it remains the starting point for any antiquarian book.
Brunet is cited by the volume and column of the 5th edition: "Brunet, III, 1061." The entry identifies the edition, often gives a summary collation, and notes sought-after editions, counterfeits, and celebrated copies together with the prices reached at nineteenth-century sales. A reference to Brunet guarantees the identification of the text and the edition's place within the bibliophile tradition; it does not describe the individual copy, and its collation, where given, is too summary to verify the completeness of an antiquarian book, which must be established from the signatures.
Its limitations are those of a nineteenth-century work: attributions and datings since corrected by incunabula registers, by national library catalogues, and by specialist bibliographies; prices with no current value; and uneven coverage outside France and Italy. Brunet is read alongside Graesse for Europe, alongside Tchemerzine for French first editions, alongside Cohen for eighteenth-century illustrated books, and alongside the online databases (ISTC, USTC) for the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
