Certain genera of animals, once flourishing, but now extinct and known only by their fossilized remains, are described by paleontologists. Literary historians recognize also certain genera of literature, once flourishing, but now extinct and known only to a few specialists who care to delve into books which, gathering dust on library shelves, are all but forgotten and virtually fossilized.
Johannes A. Gaertner, ‘Latin Verse Translations of the Psalms: 1500-1620’,
The Harvard Theological Review, 49.4 (1956), 271-305 (p. 271).