Bruce, I think the book series Conrad referred to was called "Optical Engineering", and something like the first five or six volumes (around 1965 to 1970?) were edited by Kingslake. My fuzzy recollection is that one of them had a section on camera lens types actually written by Kingslake. Libraries are probably your only chance of finding these today!(posted 8730 days ago)Kingslake also wrote a book, "The History of the Photographic Lens" which is available from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0124086403/qid=973212113/sr=1-1 /002-7973314-7878404
I paged through a copy about 10 years ago; my memory is really fuzzy on this, but I think it might have been like an extended version of the Optical Engineering section. It might be just what you're looking for. Can anyone else comment on this book?
PS, FWIW I believe the Zeiss Planar was designed in the late 1890s by Rudolph; my understanding is that it was not feasible until years later when anti-reflection coatings came into use.