The Isle Of Pines (1668): and An Essay in Bibliography by Worthington Chauncey FordNeville, Henry
General
The Isle Of Pines (1668): and An Essay in Bibliography by Worthington Chauncey Ford
Neville, Henry
Voyages, Imaginary -- Early works to 1800
2 To attempt to reason from types or rule of thumb
measurements, however suggestive, leads to indefinite
conclusions. For example, the width of the type page of the
S. G. issue of the first part is exactly that of the English
issue of the second part, but the former has 33 tines to the
page and the latter a a. The width of the page in the
variant S. G. issue is narrower and there are 38 and 39
lines to the page. But in the London second part the width
of page varies by a quarter of an inch. We have Marmaduke
Johnson's issue of Paine's Daily Meditations y issued in
1670 in connection with S. G. The ornamental border of
fleur-de-lys is entirely different from those in the S. G.
Isle of Pines. A copy of Johnson's issue of Scottow's
translation of Bretz on the Anabaptists, printed in 1668,
the very year of the Isle of Pines, shows a different foot
of italics from that used in the Isle of Pines variant,
yet the roman characters in the two pieces seem identical,
and the width of page is exactly the same.
So I bid farewell to my theory, [23]and can only congratulate myself on
having cleared one point--the London issue--and on having introduced
a new confusion by the discovery of a second London issue with an
identical title-page, a problem for the future to solve. I much doubt if
a true Johnson issue will ever be found, for I believe the action of the
authorities prevented its birth.
In the library of Mr. Henry E. Huntington is a London issue of which
I do not find another example. It contains sixteen pages, and the
title-page gives neither printer's name nor place of publication. It may
be the first issue, or it may be a later re-issue of the tract, for the
type, especially the italic, is better than that in the S. G. issue.
The punctuation also is more carefully looked after, and the whole
appearance suggests an eighteenth century print. As the original was
duly licensed, there was no reason to suppress the names of printer or
booksellers. Nor could the contents of the piece call out controversy
or hostility from any political faction or religious following. It
was proper for the author to omit his name from the publication, if he
desired to remain unknown; but the publisher, having the support of the
licenser, had every reason to advertise his connexion with the tract,
although he could not have anticipated so ready an acceptance by the
public. While I place the Huntington pamphlet first in the bibliography,
I am more inclined to regard it as a publication made at a later time.
[24]
THE COMBINED PARTS
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