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Notes
Mr. T. H. Bowyer has been most kind in answering questions about his own copies and in re-examining the University College, London, copy. My friend Professor Bruce Harkness unselfishly took on himself the burden of collating my copy of the third edition with the British Museum copies of the second edition (Volume I). Mr. Bowyer writes me that he has recently acquired a copy of the third edition from Sotheby. Volume I appears to be identical with Copy A as described below; Volume II is also identical with Copy A except that (a) the means used to convert 'I' to 'II' on the typographical title-page may be different, and (b) sigs. 2C4 and 2B2 (blank recto and verso) are wanting.
The slight differences between these measurements and those recorded by Bowyer (p. 52) for the second edition may be accounted for by paper shrinkage. The plate seems to be the same in both editions.
All eight typographical errors listed by Bowyer (pp. 54-55) for the second edition have been corrected in the third. The third, of course, adds some of its own; for example; sig. A1a, line 4 'withour' for 'without'; sig. B8b, line 1 'whithout' for 'without' (catchword correct); sig. C3a, the heading 'LETTER III.' omitted; sig. D2b 'brided' for 'bribed'; sig. G5b, 'ETTER XVI.' for 'LETTER XVI.'; sig. Q4b (catchword) 'member,' for 'member.'.
The title-page of Copy D is identical except that the 'II' of 'VOL. II.' has been converted from 'I' by a penstroke instead of being handstamped as in Copy A. Copy B appears to lack the catchword 'LET-' on 2B1b; Mr. Bowyer, however, tells me that the paper is noticeably thin at this point, suggesting that the catchword has been scratched away. Another copy of this typographical title-page appears in a copy of Volume II of the 1775 edition (Bowyer, p. 105) in the British Museum. Mr. Bowyer assures me that it is too browned to determine whether it too is on the same bluish-tinted paper.
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