Page:A litil boke the whiche traytied and reherced many gode thinges necessaries for the infirmite a grete sekeness called Pestilence.djvu/24

 Dibdin in the " Bibliotheca Spenceriana " adjudged the work, on account of the resemblance of the type, to be the production of Lettou and Machlinia, or of Lettou alone; but, as the book shows traces of less skilful workmanship than those with which Lettou's name is associated, and has no signatures, which that printer always used, one may assume that he had no hand in printing it. It is produced with more skill and care than Machlinia was wont to exhibit, so one seems unable to entertain the idea of his being the printer, whose identity appears likely to remain a moot point for the present.

The book is dedicated by the translator to Edward IV, whose death took place in April, 1483. As dedications were apt to be copied without alteration in printed books of that period, long after they were originally written, it would be rash to take for granted that this was the date of printing solely for that reason; on the other hand, 1483 does not seem an unlikely date for the issue of the book, as Machlinia had probably just started on his own account with fresh types, and may have parted with the discarded fount to some other printer who employed it for this book.

The absence of definite dates in all of Machlinia's books constitutes a serious difficulty in their arrangement, which no examination of the technique seems able to overcome, for he appears to use quite indiscriminately signatures, headlines, and "directors"—the name given to the small letters printed in the blank