The Identity of Compositors
The identity of compositors can be proved on the basis of their
habitual and occasional preferences or lack of preferences in spelling,
typography, punctuation, abbreviation, and so on, although the detection
of these preferences can be complicated by several factors, among them
the alteration of spelling to "justify" a full line of type, the
adoption of non-preferential spellings for visual rhyme, and, most
enigmatic of all, the influence of copy spellings on the compositor's
normal habits. A high degree of consistency in spelling evidence seems,
unfortunately, to be rare, and it is conceivable that two compositors in
the same shop could have preferences so nearly alike that their work is
for practical purposes indistinguishable. Yet very considerable aid and
comfort in the solution of problems of identity is available from
evidence of case and order, applied on the reasonable assumption that
two compositors could not set simultanously from the same case. If one
finds, for example, that Quire X was set from one case, it follows that
it was set by one compositor, unless it can be shown by variation in
spelling that he was relieved at the same case by another workman during
the course of composition. If one finds that Quire X was machined in the
order 2v:3-2:3v-1v:4-1:4v
and that X1-2v were set from one case and X3-4v
from another, it usually follows that two compositors were setting
simultaneously, barring once again the chance that either man was
relieved at his case. Even with the help thus provided, conflicts in
spelling evidence occasionally create uncertainties; but by and large
one finds that evidence of case and order accords with spelling evidence
in such
a way that the identity of the compositor is reasonably clear.[16]
