Paul Kainbacher, Die Erforschung Afrikas. Die Afrika-Literatur über Geographie und Reisen 1486 – 1945

The first edition, printed in 2002, was an immediate success, highly esteemed as the first bibliography on the travel and exploration of Africa. Until 2009 three more editions appeared. The recent 4th edition is widely enlarged and corrected. It contains more than 6500 books and separately printed articles on politics, history, geography, geology, zoology, botany, archaeology, mission work, the colonial empires etc., referring to Africa. Kainbacher's African bibliography is structured alphabetically from A to Z, according to the authors' names.

Every item is described in detail with author, title, publisher, the number of editions, the year(s) of publication, the number of pages, plates and illustrations as well as hints to other bibliographies and encyclopaedias. Kainbacher even mentions the "rarity" of a book (rare, very rare, extremely rare), although he himself admits that the rarity of a work cannot be measured by the number of offers in auctions during the past 50 years or its occurrence in internet databases. Dr. Paul Kainbacher is a member of the Austrian Antiquarian Booksellers' Association (VAO). After several journeys to Africa, many years of research and the publication of numerous articles and books he is a well-known specialists on rare books about the history and the culture of the African continent.
Paul Kainbacher: Die Erforschung Afrikas. Die Afrika-Literatur er Geographie und Reisen 1486 1945. Eine Bibliographie von A Z.

The 4th edition of his Africa Bibliography is available as a printed book and as a pdf file. The online version will be revised, enlarged and corrected every three months. You can browse the chapters A to C on ILAB.org, the whole bibliography can be found on Dr. Paul Kainbacher's website.