University of Virginia Library

A Note on Printers' Measures
by
W. Craig Ferguson

R.B. McKerrow stated that many composing sticks of different fixed lengths were used in early printing shops.[1] Referring to Blades' study of Caxton, he pointed out that there were at least fourteen different lengths of measure used in Caxton's shop.

In the printing shop of Valentine Simmes, a later Elizabethan stationer, there was a much greater variation in line-lengths, and, if McKerrow was correct, Simmes used no fewer than 42 composing sticks. It would seem much more likely that Simmes's compositors used composing sticks which could be varied in length as required.

An examination of Simmes's books shows that his octavos varied in line-length from 51 mm. to 76 mm., his quartos from 77 mm. to 107 mm., his four folios used lengths of 98, 101, 114, and 130 mm., and his 32mos employed lengths of 22 mm. and 38 mm. There was no favoured length of line in octavos, although six were set at 64 mm.; a length of from 85 to 90 mm. was preferred in quartos. The following table shows the number of books set at the various line-lengths. The first figure is the number of books printed with a particular line-length, and the second figure is the length of the line in millimeters. For example, the first numbers, 1/51, indicate that one book was composed with a line-length of 51 mm.

                       

Octavo format:	1/51	1/59	1/65
	1/52	3/60	2/69
	3/54	1/61	1/70
	1/57	1/63	1/75
	1/58	6/64	1/76
quarto format:	1/77	6/85	4/92
	1/79	2/86	2/93
	3/80	8/87	2/94
	7/81	10/88	2/95
	4/82	18/89	1/98
	5/83	4/90	1/105
	7/84	1/91	1/107

McKerrow noted that certain of Caxton's line-lengths appeared in several books printed in a relatively short space of time, thus suggesting that composing sticks of a fixed length were used until discarded. By contrast, Simmes's most common line-lengths appeared throughout his printing

career (1594-1607), as the following tabulation of the seven most common line-lengths shows. This distribution further suggests that a stick of variable length was used, and that Simmes selected particular lengths whenever they were called for by the job at hand. The first figure in the tabulation is the number of books printed with a particular line-length, and the second figure is the year in which these books appeared.

• 64 mm.: 1/1595, 1/1600, 2/1602, 3/1603
• 81 mm.: 1/1601, 1/1604, 1/1605, 3/1607
• 84 mm.: 2/1596, 1/1599, 1/1602, 2/1604
• 85 mm.: 1/1595, 1/1597, 1/1599, 1/1603, 1/1604, 1/1605
• 87 mm.: 4/1596, 2/1597, 1/1598, 1/1599
• 88 mm.: 1/1595, 1/1598, 2/1600, 2/1601, 2/1602, 1/1603, 1/1607
• 89 mm.: 1/1597, 1/1599, 6/1600, 1/1603, 3/1604, 1/1605, 3/1606, 2/1607

Notes