:: :: University of Virginia Library

BIBLIOGRAPHERS have not hitherto observed that vol. 1 of the first edition in 1743 of John Lockman's Travels of the Jesuits,[1] printed in two octavo volumes for John Noon at London, contains two cancellans leaves found replacing sigs. H1 and 2C5, respectively. In each case the type for the cancellans has been reset, an indication that the discovery of the need for cancellation was not made until a relatively later time when the type for the original forme of each sheet had been distributed.

The first cancel leaf, sig. H1 (pp. 97-98), was printed simply to correct a printer's error in the original. A footnote on sig. G8v (p. 96) was intended to carry over and to conclude on H1r, but this carry-over was inadvertently omitted in the original printing. The cancellans supplies the 4-line remainder of the text of this footnote as follows:

to enquire into the Affair . . . . The Result was, Mendiola prov'd their Guilt, (confessing at the same Time his own) to the utter Confusion of the other Jesuits. He afterwards quitted their Society. La morale practique des Jesuites, Tom. I. p. 257,& seq.

However, this addition had to be made at the expense of other material; and, to fit it in, the cancellans omitted the final four lines of the first footnote to appear on sig. H1, substituting only the notation 'Ibid., pag. 17.' This deleted footnote text is here reprinted from the cancellandum:

They rely so much on this, that they presumed to tell Pope Clement VIII. that if he offered to make a Decree against them, in the Affair de Auxiliis, they would put the whole Church into a Ferment. La morale practique des Jesuites, Vol. I. pag. 17.

In the process of resetting the leaf for the cancellans, no other changes were made on H1r. On H1v a comma was added in line 2 after 'Colours', in line 24 'excessively' was substituted for 'piercing' before 'hot', and in line 29 'the' replaced 'we' before 'Europeans'. The lineation of the cancellans does not always conform to that of the original.

In contrast, the second cancel, that on sig. 2C5 (pp. 393-394), was made to delete certain opprobrious lines on the recto and to substitute a milder version. The second footnote on the cancellandum ended:

206

Had these been Fools, as they are Hypocrites, the two following Lines (of Dennis, I think) might have been justly applied to both. Thus one Fool lolls his Tongue out at another,
And shakes his empty Noddle at his Brother.

In the cancellans, these lines are replaced by:

Such Impositions must naturally raise the Indignation of a thinking, honest Man; and may incline him to entertain a very unfavourable Idea of the Probity of his Fellow-creatures, in general.

No other alterations appear on 2C5r, but on the verso (p. 394) a few minor changes may be recorded. Thus the cancellans removes the original capitalization of 'Native' in line 15, places the period outside instead of inside the quotation marks at the end of the first paragraph, alters 'infinite' to 'infinitely' in line 31, and substitutes 'more' for 'greater' as the first word of line 36.

A binder's error in the copy preserved in the University of Virginia Library reveals the position in which these two cancel leaves were printed and also offers other interesting information about the printing of the two volumes. The collation for vol. 1 is: 8°, i 4 A8 a4 B-G8 H8(±H1) I-2B8 2C8(±2C5) 2D-2H8 2I4; pp. [2] πi-vi, i-xxii xxiii-xxiv, 1-487 488[2]. In the Virginia copy, however, the cancellanda are still in place, and gathering 2I consists of eight leaves. The first and fourth folds, that is the first, fourth, fifth, and eighth leaves, constitute gathering 2I as it was intended to be bound in 4's. The second fold (the second and seventh leaves) is signed 'a' and 'a2' in italic and contains the table of contents for vol. 2 (missing in vol. 2 of the Virginia copy). The third fold consists of the two cancellans leaves, the third leaf signed 'H' and paged 97-98, and the sixth leaf unsigned but paged 393-394.

This method of imposition offers an excellent example of economy in printing. If the sheet were properly cut before folding and binding, one-half would be separated and would contain gathering 2I to be folded in 4's. If the remaining half-sheet were again sected, the two-leaf fold containing the contents of vol. 2 would be separated from the fold containing the cancellans leaves for vol. 1; and once these latter leaves were separated they could be substituted in their proper positions for the cancellanda. The evidence of the imposition is interesting as illustrating that in this book the full sheet 2I was intended to be separated into its parts before folding.

207

The fact that the table of contents for vol. 2, with its pagination references, was printed as an integral part of the final text gathering of vol. 1 indicates most probably not that the type for this gathering was kept standing until vol. 2 had been set and printed but instead that the two volumes were simultaneously printed. A study of the press-numbers, although the details are too complex for presentation here, confirms this conclusion. According to these numbers, three presses were engaged in printing the two volumes. It is significant that no press-numbers appear in the text sheets of vol. 1 until gathering N, indicating that one press (undoubtedly press 2) printed and perfected these sheets. From N to S the press-numbers show that presses 1 and 2 printed or perfected the sheets for each other, although sheets T and U were both printed and perfected by press 1. With gathering X, press 3 enters the printing, and thereafter the three presses irregularly print and perfect, with press 2 somewhat in the minority. Vol. 2 was printed by presses 1 and 3 except that press 2 entered once to print the inner forme of the penultimate sheet 2I. The evidence suggests, therefore, that while press 2 was printing sheets B-M of vol. 1, presses 1 and 3 had substantially printed vol. 2 and thereupon turned to assist press 2 in completing vol. 1. Hence when sheet 2I of vol. 1 (numbered by press 3) was printed, the contents for vol. 2 could be included economically to help fill out a full sheet containing the final vol. 1 gathering in 4's and also two leaves of cancellans.