Ten Reasons Proposed to His Adversaries for Disputation in the Name | Page 7

for the water-mark in the paper we shall find that it is

the pot--the ordinary English sign; a proof, if one were needed, that the
book was really printed in this country. The sheets run from A to K
(with prefixed [double-dagger]), in fours, 16mo; the folios are 44, of
which 39 are numbered (but by accident the pagination is omitted from
1 to 4 and 40 is blank as well as the fly-leaves).
Let us think of what this means. Eleven signatures for 44 folios, 16mo,
means that only eight pages 16mo went into each printing frame, or, in
other words, that the frame was so small that it would have been
covered by half a folio sheet, 9 by 13 inches. They probably printed off
each little sheet by itself, for if they had had a larger frame so as to
print an entire folio sheet--then we should have found in the finished
book that the water-mark would recur once in each sixteen pages. In
point of fact, however, it only recurs irregularly in the first, fifth, and
tenth gathering. This could not have occurred unless the sheets used
were of half folio size.
A Greek fount was evidently wanting. Campion was fond, after the
fashion of scholars of that day, of throwing into his Latin letters a word
or two of Greek, which in his autograph are written, as Mr. Simpson
has remarked, with the facility of one familiar with the language. Here
on fol. 24 a we find adynata, where [Greek: adunata] would have been
in Campion's epistolary manner. Again, on fol. 4 b he quotes, "Hic
calix novum testamentum in sanguine meo, qui (calix) pro vobis
fundetur," and in the margin Poterion Ekchynomenon, in Italics, where
Greek script, if obtainable, would obviously have been preferred. A
further indication of the difficulties under which type had been
procured is seen in the use of a query sign of a black-letter fount (_i.e.
[different question mark]_) instead of the Roman fount (_i.e.,?_). This
will be the more readily comprehended when we remember that Father
Persons' books, which Brinkley had printed before, were in English,
and that English prose was then still generally printed in Gothic
character[9].
So Persons also made use of it in order that there might be nothing in
his books to strike the eye as unusual in books of that class. Campion's
volume on the other hand being in Latin, it was necessary to procure a
new set of "Roman" type. The use of the black-letter query-signs would
not at once attract attention, so they were kept, though all else was
changed.

A further trace of the difficulty in finding type is found in the signs for
a, e, diphthong. This combination recurred very frequently in Latin, and
the printers had very few of them. Very soon after starting we find
them substituting for Roman an Italic diphthong, [ae ligature] also o, e
([oe ligature]), and even e, an ordinary mediaeval form of the sign. It
will be noticed that these substitutions become increasingly frequent, as
we approach fol. 12 (end of signature C), fol. 32 (end of signature H),
and 36 (end of signature I), whereas as soon as the next signature
begins the fount of [ae ligature] is ready to hand again. The conclusion
to be deduced is that leaves C, H, and I were each printed off, and the
type distributed, before the setting up of D, I, and K could be proceeded
with. This illustrates what has been said before of the very small stock
of type in the printing establishment.
Another slight peculiarity ought perhaps to be noticed: it is the
accentuation of the Latin. Adverbs, for instance, are generally accented
on the last syllable, e.g., doctiu's, facile', qua'm, eo', quo': the rule,
however, is by no means regularly kept. But this has evidently nothing
to do with the peculiar conditions under which Campion's book was
produced, and is to be accounted for by the use of accents in other
publications of the same class. Nothing was then definitely settled
about the accentuation of either French, Italian, or Latin, and
Campion's volume does but reproduce the uncertainty on the matter
which was everywhere prevalent.
Whilst the printers were contending with the difficulties arising from
the smallness of their stock of type, difficulties which no doubt caused
vexatious and dangerous delays, Campion and Persons resumed their
missionary labours with vigour. In his Memoirs Persons writes:
* * * * *
Whilst the preparations were being made Campion preached
unweariedly, sometimes in London, sometimes making excursions.
There was one place [that of the Bellamy's] whither we often went,
about five miles from London, called Harohill. In going thither we had
to pass through Tyburn. But Campion would always pass bareheaded,
and making a