For many years no example of the original edition of the _Decem
Rationes_ was known to exist: none of our great public libraries
in London or at the Universities possesses a copy. But it was the
singular good fortune of the late Marquess of Bute to pick up two
copies of this extremely rare volume, and he munificently
presented one of them to Stonyhurst College. Canon Gunning of
Winchester is the happy owner of a third copy. By the courtesy of
the Rector of Stonyhurst, I am able to offer a minute description
of the precious little book.

The volume is, considering the printing of that time, distinctly
well got up. There is nothing at first sight to suggest that its
publication had been a matter of so much difficulty and danger;
but when one scrutinizes every page with care, one finds that it
bears about it some traces of the unusual circumstances under
which it was produced.

If we look first 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