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(b). Errors: printers' literals, misreading of copy.

Section (a) has been demonstrative, seeking to show how a particular editorial policy was put into effect. The appeal of an editor printing the papers referred to can ultimately be only to CP, though he may record, and discuss possible reasons for, variants in the later texts.

Instances in which the transcribers for press have misunderstood technical terms or foreign words call for some little research in order to amend errors. Sometimes omissions in transcription have to be filled from the manuscripts, as in: '. . . boysterous, called Travant, come suddenly . . .' (HRS, 160; a further corruption in this passage was considered above). Here, however, it is possible to restore this particular corruption before consulting the manuscript, since the paper deals with the East Indies and a knowledge of Dutch simplifies our task: read, with CP and R: '. . . boysterous winds, called Travaat. . .' Again, '. . . A sort of wild Lavender . . . grows there [in Teneriffe] in great

quantities on the Rocks' (HRS, 211), where the HRS text follows R over 'wild': CP has 'white'. Sir Philiberto Vernatti, who answers the East Indies questions, was, in spite of his name, English. He speaks (HRS, 168), with reference to a glutinous substance, that it is of a 'Zeequal viscosity'. This is the Dutch 'zeekwal,' jellyfish. Assuming that the homophonic spelling was not the normal Dutch spelling of the period — I have been unable to document it otherwise — this variant may have occurred at some stage when the text was perhaps communicated orally; the same may, with some confidence, be said of 'sivyboa/ sawoeboom' (163, noted in the facsimile edition) and of 'cherna/ cierna' (Italian) on p.208. Several words in Spanish the compositor, in fact, misread:

The ambiguity of the last sentence cannot escape notice. In CP and R a seeming gloss of Legnan (Spanish, leñan, 'wood') which starts 'vel. . .' is erased, and the latter text omits 'and rank', intelligently substituting a semi-colon for the comma after 'of it'.

Other examples of variants in effective punctuation are few (see also (c) below), but we may note the following: 'This greasie Oyl. . . doth by nature so wonderfully adhere to every part else of the [salt-] Peter (it may be ordained for the nutriment and augmentation of it) that the separation of it is the sole cause of the great charge and labour that is required to the refining of Peter' (HRS, 262), where R, the only extant manuscript, inserts a comma after 'may be'; and 'Maxima, Satellitum in Umbra incidentium, a limbo Disci Jovialis distantia . . . hebdomada contingit' (185-186), where CP and R have no comma after 'incidentium'.

We conclude this section, several of whose items may, in interpretation, overlap with those of the next, with a few miscellaneous variants, such as HRS 'candescentibus' (262) for the true reading 'canescentibus' in a passage of Pliny; 'gravulate' for 'granulate' (272; perhaps a literal); 'The Ascension of the Brimstone' (205), which is contextually possible, as against the more tempting 'Accension' of R; 'It will require your patience to observe a few short remains' (262; R, 'remarks') 'out of the same Pliny,'; 'Each Boat hath a certain quantity of square Stones,

upon which Stones' (169; all MSS, 'stands') 'the Divers goe down'; 'English Woad is counted the strongest, it is commonly tryed by staining of white Paper with it, or a white Limed wall' (300; CP, 'lomed wall'); and, with reference to the paper on the eclipses of the moon mentioned above: 'The Knowledge of the Eclipses Quantity and Duration, the Shadows, Curvity and Inclination, &c. conduce only to the former [purpose, sc. the theory of the moon's motion]', where the true reading would appear to be 'the shadow [']s curvity' of the manuscripts. The remaining Latin variants, though important in their own right, are somewhat esoteric, and are therefore relegated to a footnote for reference.[11]