medicine and – embracing all other subjects – philosophy set the catalogue's basic structure. Literature in the modern sense had no category of its own. Willer's project attracted competitors, three of whom gained the power to challenge his project at the turn into the 17th century: An independent Catholic platform appeared first in Mainz and then in Frankfurt. The city of Frankfurt began to promote a "privileged" imperial catalogue trying to use the catalogues as a platform of censorship. 1590 saw, thirdly, the arrival of a new catalogue designed to serve the Frankfurt and Leipzig book fairs, published from 1594 to 1860 in Leipzig. The Leipzig fairs won the competition in the course of the 17th century. The unified catalogue issued in Leipzig became the central platform of information about books published in the course of this competition. English Term Catalogues, 1668 to 1711 Catalogues had their own history on the English market long before the series initiated by John Starkey in 1668. Germany's catalogues had served as a model of a series of continental catalogues published by John Bill between 1617 and 1628. Bill's catalogues appeared twice a year as a digest of the Frankfurt Messkatalog. Between 1622 and 1626 it included supplements designed to add the English production. The project of an independent conclusive English catalogue began, however, only in 1668 with Starkey's catalogues soon co-edited and then taken over by Robert Clavell. Clavell died on 8 August 1711. His death seems to have terminated the series. The publication had already become unstable in 1708 and 1709. A new catalogue appeared in 1711 under Clavell's mentorship after a gap of more than a year but it remained without a successor. The usual rhythm of editions yielded four catalogues per year with issues sold at: Hillary (February) Easter (May) Trinity (June or July) Michaelmas (November or December) The entire collection consists today of 161 catalogues. Some years have not reached the full number of four catalogues. The last catalogues printed in 1708 and 1709 were double editions covering two terms. 1670 saw two rival editions for both Easter and Trinity to mend a perceived deficiency in the official Starkey and Clavell catalogues. London's booksellers complained that their project had focused on publications that sold for more than a shilling, and that it lacked diligence. The complaint reveals that Starkey and Clavell were paid for each title they listed: The