The Perfect Book?
Are you a bibliophile in search of the perfect book? Are you a perfectionist like I am? Then read on.
The following excerpt is taken from a fantasic book for readers called A Passion for Books: A Book Lover’s Treasury, edited by Harold Rabinowitz and Rob Kaplan (Times Books, 1999).
William Keddie
The Foulis’s edition of classical works were much praised by scholars and collectors in the nineteenth century. The celebrated Glasgow publishers once attempted to issue a book which should be perfect specimen of typographical accuracy. Every precaution was taken to secure the desired result. Six experienced proof-readers were employed, who devoted hours to the reading of each page; and after it was thought to be perfect, it was posted up in the hall of the university, with a notification that a reward of fifty pounds would be paid to any person who could discover an error. Each page was suffered to remain two weeks in the place where it had been posted, before the work was printed, and the printers thought they had attained the object for which they had been striving. When the work was issued, it was discovered that several errors had been committed, one of which was in the first line of the first page.
