Review of Wolfgang Mieder, International Proverb Scholarship: An Annotated Bibliography

Among the folklore genres none has lured bibliographers more than the proverb. Mieder's own bibliography lists thirty previous proverb bibliographies in different European languages, starting with Conrad Christian Nopitsch's work of 1822. As the latest in a long scholarly tradition the present bibliography has become the fundamental research tool in the field of paremiology. It contains 2142 annotated entries, listing articles and books that appeared in English, German, and French, as well as Dutch, Finnish, Italian, Spanish, and Scandinavian languages. Mieder has even attempted to include East-European publications, though their coverage is limited. This linguistic breadth is complemented by historical depth. The bibliography includes entries dated back to the first part of the 19th century, though the emphasis is definitely modern. Proverb scholarship of the last fifty years is dominant in the bibliography.