Gazetteer is in modern English a geographical or topographical dictionary, or alphabetical arrangement of place-names, with a more or less abundant complement of information, descriptive, statistical, and historical. The word (like the corresponding French gazétier) was familiar in the 18th century in the sense of a writer in the gazettes or newspapers. That industrious compiler, Laurence Echard or Eachard, published in 1703 The Gazet- teer's or Newsman's Interpreter, being a geographical index of all the considerable Cities, Patriarchships . . . Ports, Forts, Castles, &c. in Europe. 'The Title,' he says, 'was given me by a very eminent person whom I forbear to name.' In the preface to the second part (1704), relating to Asia, Africa, and America, he refers to his book briefly as The Gazetteer. Other compilers soon adopted the convenient abbreviation. The word was new, but the thing was of ancient date—e.g. we still have considerable fragments of the 6th-century geographical dictionary of Stephanus Byzantius.
General Gazetteers.—The ideally perfect gazetteer would be one in which every place-name in the world was registered and its history recorded. To any one who knows what this would mean, the most extensive 'Universal' gazetteer must appear amusingly meagre. The following are among the noteworthy works of general scope: Ferrarius, edited by Baudrand (fol. Paris, 1670); Bryce of Exeter, Univ. Geog. Dict. or Grand Gazetteer (2 vols in 1, fol. Lond. 1759: a remarkable bit of work); Brooke (8vo, Lond. 1778; 16th ed. 1815); Walker, edited by Capper (8vo, Lond. 1815); Cruttwell (1798), afterwards incorporated in the Edinburgh Gazetteer (1 vol. 1822; 2d ed. 6 vols. 1829); Landmann (8vo, Lond. 1835); Macculloch (1841–42); Thomson (8vo, Edin. 1842); Fullarton (25,000 names; 7 vols. Edin. 1850); Blackie's Imperial (2 vols. Glasgow, 1850); Johnston (1850; new ed. 1877); Lippincott, Pronouncing Gaz. of the World (Phila. 1865; new ed., with 125,000 places, 1880); Bouillet, Dict. d'Hist. et de Géog. (1857); Knight's Encyclopædia (geog. division); Ritter's Geog.-stat. Lexikon (2 vols. Leip. 1874, edited by Henne am Rhyn; new ed. by Lagai, 1883); Saint-Martin (4to, Paris, 1875 et seq.); Oliver and Boyd (8vo, Edin. 1880); Chambers's Cinese Gazetteer of the World (8vo, 1895); Longmans' Gazetteer of the World, edited by G. T. Chisholm (4to, London, 1895).
Special Gazetteers—
AMERICA (NORTH).—American Gazetteer (3 vols. Lond. 1762); Thomson (4to, Lond. 1812); Davenport (8vo, New York, 1842); Kidder (Burley's, 8vo, Phila. 1876); Colange, U.S. Gazetteer (8vo, Cincinn. 1884).
ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY.—Echard (12mo, Lond. 1715); Macbean (8vo, Lond. 1773); Adam (8vo, Edin. 1795); Smith (2 vols. 8vo, 1852–57).
AUSTRALIA.—Gordon & Gotch's Australian Handbook, incorporating New Zealand, &c.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.—Umlauf, Geog. Namenbuch (1885), and local lexicons issued by Statistical Commission.
BRITISH EMPIRE.—Macculloch (1837); Knight (2 vols. 8vo, Lond. 1853).
COMMERCIAL.—Peuchet (6 vols. 4to, Paris, 1800); Macculloch (8vo, Lond. 1832; new ed. 1882).
EGYPT (ANCIENT).—Brugsch (Leip. 1877–80).
ENGLAND.—William Lambard (born 1536), the writer of the first county history, is also the author of the first gazetteer of England, though the work did not appear in print till 1730. A Book of the Names of all Parishes, &c. (4to, Lond. 1657); John Adams, Index Villarior (fol. Lond. 1680); Whatley, England's Gazetteer (3 vols. 12mo, Lond. 1751); Luckombe (3 vols. 12mo, Lond. 1790); Carlisle (2 vols. 4to, Lond. 1808); Capper (8vo, Lond. 1808); Gorton (3 vols. 8vo, Lond. 1831–33); Ball (8vo, Glasgow, 1832); Cobbett (8vo, Lond. 1832); Parliamentary Gazetteer (4 vols. 4to, Lond. 1842); Lewis (7th ed. 4 vols. 4to, Lond. 1849); Dugdale & Blanchard (8vo, Lond. 1860); Wilson (2 vols. 8vo, Edin. 1866–69).
FRANCE.—Few countries, if any, are more thoroughly gazetteered than France. It is enough to mention Gindre de Naney (1874), Joanne (3d ed. 1886), and the great series of departmental gazetteers brought out by the ministry of Public Instruction (1861, &c.).
GERMANY.—Neumann, Geographisches Lexikon des Deutschen Reiches (Leip. 1883).
GREAT BRITAIN.—Sharp (2 vols. Lond. 1863); Hamilton (3 vols. 4to, Lond. 1868); Beeton (8vo, Lond. 1870); Bartholomew (60,000 names, 8vo, Edin. 1887); Cassell (Lond. 1893 et seq.); Mackenzie (Glasgow, 1893 et seq.).
INDIA.—Hamilton (8vo, Lond. 1815); Thornton, Gaz. of the Countries adjacent to India on the N.W. (2 vols. 1844); Thornton, Gaz. of the Territories under the E. I. Company (4 vols. 1854; 1 vol. 1857, new ed. by Sir Roper Lethbridge and A. N. Wollaston, 8vo. 1886); Hunter, Gaz. of India (20 vols. 8vo, 1875–77; 2d ed. 1885–87).
Numerous gazetteers for the several states have been compiled at the cost of the government; some of them, as that on Afghanistan, are hardly obtainable.
ITALY.—Zuccagni Orlandini, Corografia (15 vols. 1844, &c.); Repetti, Diz. della Toseana (6 vols. Flor. 1833–46); Anati (8 vols. Flor. 1868, &c.); Altavilla (8vo, Turin, 1875).
IRELAND.—Seward (12mo, Dublin, 1789); Carlisle (4to, Lond. 1810); Lewis (4to, Lond. 1837); Lawson (12mo, Edin. 1842); Parliamentary Gazetteer (3 vols. 8vo, Lond. 1844–46); Leggatt (8vo, Lond. 1879).
RUSSIA.—Semenoff, in Russian (1862–86).
SCOTLAND.—Macpherson, Geographical Illustrations of Scottish History, containing the names mentioned in Chronicles, &c. (4to, Lond. 1796); Gazetteer (8vo, Dundee, 1803; 2d ed. Edin. 1806); Carlisle (2 vols. 4to, Lond. 1813); Webster (8vo, Edin. 1817); Chambers (8vo, Edin. 1832); Topographical . . . Gazetteer (2 vols. 4to, Glasgow, 1842); Comprehensive Gazetteer (12mo, Glasgow, 1846); Wilson (2 vols. 8vo, Edin. 1854–57); Ordinance Gaz. (edited by F. H. Groome, 3 vols. 8vo, Edin. 1882–85; new ed. Glasgow, 1893).
SPAIN.—Madoz (1846–50), Mariana y Sanz (1886).
SWEDEN.—Hist.-geog. Lex. (8vo, 7 vols. Stockholm, 1859–66); Rosenberg (1881–83).
SWITZERLAND.—Weber (2d ed. 1886).
Compare articles on the several countries.