The preface further says, after requesting corrections and amendments as regards the typography: "And it is not alone that I am asking you to give this kind friendly correction to the printing, but also to the translation or rendering made of this catechism put forth as far back as 1563 of the age of the Lord and [which] is now more correct and complete, with the principal articles of the Christian faith associated therewith." This has led some to think that there was an earlier edition of the _Alphabet and Catechism_. But it seems plain that O'Kearney refers to the Catechism only, not to the whole book, and equally plain that the 1563 work, whatever it was, was not printed in Irish type, or there would have been no special occasion to glorify the 1571 _Alphabet and Catechism_. Since nothing is known of the _Catechism_ of 1563, it is very possible that it existed only in manuscript and never went to press. I have gone into this matter of the _Irish Alphabet and Catechism_ of 1571 somewhat at length, because I am not aware that it has ever yet received detailed attention. The quotations I have given from the preface are from an anonymous manuscript translation inserted in the British Museum copy. O'Kearney's _Irish Alphabet and Catechism_ is so rare that only three copies are known to exist: one being in the British Museum, one in the Bodleian Library, and one in the library of Lincoln Cathedral. The fount of types from which it was printed was not quite correct; for instance, the small Roman "a" is used, and an "H" is introduced, a letter foreign to the Gaelic alphabet. During the seventeenth century, and even later, most of the Irish books were sent to be printed on the continent or in England. Several books by Irish authors, chiefly catechisms, works on the language, and dictionaries, bear the names of Louvain, Antwerp, Rome or Paris, such as the _Catechism_ of Bonaventure Hussey, printed at Louvain in 1608, and reprinted at Antwerp in 1611 and 1618. CHAPTER XIV BOOK BINDINGS A book as we know it is usually contained in a case or cover intended primarily for its protection. The fastening together of the different sections of the book, and the providing it with a cover, and, incidentally, the decoration of that cover, come under the head of bookbinding, or bibliopegy, as the learned call it. The process of binding consists of two parts: first, the arrangement of the leaves and sections in proper order, their preparation for sewing by beating or pressing, the stitching of them together, and the fastening of them into the cover. This is called "forwarding." The other half of the work is the lettering and decoration of the cover, and is called "finishing." With the decoration of the cover only can we concern ourselves here.