PSEUDONYM (Gr. >l ev&,vuos, having a false name, Evirls, false and ovoa, name)

This article appears in Volume V22, Page 542 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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PSEUDONYM (Gr. >l ev&,vuos, having a false name, Evirls, false and ovoa, name) , a false or invented name, particularly the fictitious name under which an author produces his

work

WORK

in order to conceal his identity. The same end is gained by publication without any name, i.e. anonymously (Gr. avwvuos, without a name). The

body

BODY

of works thus produced either without the author's name or under a fictitious name is known as anonymous and pseudonymous literature, and many books have been published affording a key to the identity of the various writers, forming an important section of bibliography. Though Fredericus Geisler published a short treatise on the subject entitled Larva detracla, &c., in 1669, the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

early

work

WORK

was that of Vincent Placcius (1642-1699) whose Theatrum anonymouum et pseudonymorum was published in 1708, edited by L. F. Vischer with a preface and life by J. A. Fabricius; supplements were published in 1711 and in 1740. The next important work, only a fragment of the purposed

scheme

SCHEME (Lat. schema, Gr. oxfjya, figure, form, from the root axe, seen in exeiv, to have, hold, to be of such shape, form, &c.)

, was that of Adrien Baillet (q.v.), under the title of Auteurs deguises sous les noms strangers, &c. (169o). Antoine Alexandre Barbier (q.v.) published his standard work Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes in 1806-1809 (2nd ed., 1822-1827). This was followed by the Supercheries litteraires devoilees of J. M. Querard (q.v.). The third edition of Barbier's work, embodying Querard and much new matter, was published in 1872-1879. This was edited by P. Gustave Brunet, who published a supplement in 1889. Other works in French are those of C. Jolliet, Les Pseudonymes du jour (1867 and 1884), and F. Drujon, Livres a clef (1888). Of German works in this sphere of bibliography the Index pseudonymorum, Worlerbuch der Pseudonymen of Emil Weller appeared in 1856, of which several supplements were published later. The most monumental of all works are the Deutsches Anonymen-Lexikon, 1501-1850, by M. Holzmann and H. Bohatta (1902-1907), supplement, 1851-1908 (1909), and the Deutsches Pseudonymen-Lexikon, by the same authors (1906). See also F. Sintenis, Die Pseudonyme der neueren deutschen Litteratur (1899), and the supplementary volume (1909), to Meyers's Konversations-Lexikon (6th ed.). The

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

Italian work is the Dizionario di opere anonime e pseudonime di scrittori italiani, by G. Melzi (1848-1859), with supplement by G. Passano (1887). The Dutch Vermomde en naamlooze schrijvers . . . der Nederl. en Vlaamschen letteren, by J. I. van Doorninck (1883-1885), was a second edition of an earlier work. The Academy of Upsala is publishing, under the editorship of L. Bygden, a Swedish dictionary Svenskt anonym och pseudonym lexikon (1898), &c. England was

late

LATE

in entering the field. The first work actually published was the Handbook of Fictitious Names, by R. Thomas (Olphar Hamst) (1868). Samuel Halkett, and the successor to his compilations, John Laing, both died before their work was published; edited and revised by Miss C. Laing it appeared in 1882-1888 in 4 vols. as the Dictionary of the Anonymous and Pseudonymous Literature of

Great

GREAT

Britain, by S. Halkett and J. Laing. This remains the standard work on the subject in English. Other works are W.

Cushing

, Initials and Pseudonyms (American and English from the beginning of the 18th century); 2nd

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

(1886, 1888), and Anonyms (189o) ; F. Marchmont, A Concise Handbook of Literature issued under Pseudonyms or Initials (1896); see also especially W. P.

Courtney

COURTNEY, LEONARD
HENRY
COURTNEY, BARON

, The Secrets of our National Literature (1908), the first chapter of which contains a sketch of the history of the subject, to which the above account is mainly due. The anonymous and pseudonymous Latin literature of the middle ages has been treated in modern times by A. Franklin, Dictionnaire des noms, latins 11007530 (1875), and A. G. Little, Initia operum latinorum saec. 13-15 (1904).
PSEUDO-PERIPTERAL (Gr. llieuii7s, false, vrepi, round, irrepbv, a wing), a term in architecture given to a temple in which the columns surrounding the naos have had walls built
between them, so that they become engaged columns, as in the

great

GREAT

temple at Agrigentum. In Roman temples, in order to increase the size of the cella, the columns on either side and at the rear became engaged columns, the portico only having isolated columns. (See TEMPLE.)

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