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ABOUT the middle of the last century, a bibliophilic "find" was made in Holland in the course of liquidating the stock of a bookseller's warehouse;[1] here were discovered a considerable number of copies, still in the original sheets as issued from the press, of a Valerius Maximus "Amstelodami, Typis Danielis Elzevirii, Sumptibus Societatis" with the date 1671. Two editions with this same information and date are known which agree with each other page-for-page and mostly line-for-line; it is certain, however, that the edition with signature *2 recto printed in roman type and lacking a headpiece[2] on that page was not printed by the Elzevir press. As Gustaf Berghman has shown,[3] this edition--to which
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The Pierpont Morgan Library (no. 21246) possesses one of the numerous extant copies of this Valerius Maximus in its original state, the sheets still uncut but sewn together. The very unusual and awkward appearance of the book is due to the fact that three sorts of gatherings with varying measurements are bound together. The collation,[7] as conceived by the printer, may well have been: *4 A-V8 X4, though quire * was not necessarily always bound first.[8] The types of gatherings are these:
![Click to Enlarge Page 179](https://iiif.lib.virginia.edu/iiif/uva-lib:997401/full/!200,200/0/default.jpg)
Group 1--quires: A C F I M P S
Measurements:[9] folio 1 measures 3 3/8 X 5 inches
" 4 " 3 3/8 X 4 3/4 inches
folios 2, 7, and 8 measure 2 1/2 x 5 inches
" 3, 5, " 6 " 2 1/2 X 4 3/4 inches
Group 2-quires: B D G K N Q T
Measurements: folio 2 measures 3 3/8 X 5 inches
" 3 " 3 3/8 X 4 3/4 inches
folios 1, 7, and 8 measure 2 1/2 x 5 inches
" 4, 5, " 6 " 2 1/2 X 4 3/4 inches
Group 3-quires: [*/X][10] E H L O R V
Measurements: folios 1 and 2 measure 3 3/8 X 5 inches
" 3 " 4 " 3 3/8 X 4 3/4 inches
" 5 " 6 " 2 1/2 X 4 3/4 inches
" 7 " 8 " 2 1/2 X 5 inches
The watermarks occur either in the upper margins (groups 1 and 2) or in the outer ones (group 3); the chain-lines are horizontal. The only possible way that these sheets could have been printed is set forth in the accompanying figure.[11] The sheet would have to be cut-and indeed was cut-along the dotted lines. The small circles marked on the dotted line of the central fold indicate the pinholes. As usual these occur at different distances from the edges of the paper so as to insure perfect register when the sheets were perfected;[12] the holes are found approximately 1 1/4 inches from one edge of the paper and 2 1/4 from the other. The broken lines in the form of a rectangle and of a diamond indicate the approximate alternative positions of the watermark. The signature marks set down are those of the printed pages, not of the formes as they were imposed; those in square brackets indicate the pages on the verso as printed and turned face up.
After the sheet had been perfected and cut as indicated, two of the resulting four parts could be folded as ordinary octavos, though with the chain-lines running
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![illustration](http://static.lib.virginia.edu/legacy/S/sb071801.jpg)
The original sheet of paper must have measured approximately 16 3/4 X 19 1/2
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The uncut sheets of this Valerius Maximus have thus given us some insight into the workings of a late seventeenth-century press. When we are enabled to deduce the method of imposition and printing, that of the cutting and the folding of the paper, the exact location of the pinholes relative to the edges, the size of the original sheet and the amount of trimming it was expected to suffer- and possibly other details which may have escaped my notice-then one can hardly refer to these sheets as being wholly without value.
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