got out by means of an application of peroxide of hydrogen, commonly called oxygenated water, which, owing to a chemical process hardly necessary to be explained here, is in point of fact a bleacher. Another bleacher is hydrochloric acid, but while it whitens and purifies the paper it rots it to such an extent that sometimes the leaf operated on will snap shortly off like a piece of paper which has been baked in an oven.

The reader may note that sulphuric ether, turpentine, ammonia, benzine, and naphtha will all remove grease stains, and that oxalic acid, citric acid, and tartaric acid in solution will eliminate writing ink without in any way acting on the printer's ink. This latter is a fact specially worth remembering.

Once more let it be said that to satisfactorily clean a printed page requires great patience and a vast amount of experience. The danger lies in the fact that not only will the dirt come out, but the printed matter as well, unless skill be brought to bear in order to prevent such a catastrophe. Worthless books are not worth even cleaning; valuable ones should be placed in the hands of an expert.

The above remarks are applicable more or less to the renovation of prints, and in fact to paper of any kind which contains printed matter. Some papers, however, are more fibrous than others, and this fact furnishes another element which has to be taken into consideration in every attempt to make new books out of old.

In many cases the leather binding of old books will be found to be broken, rubbed, or decayed. When this is the case, plaster the part affected with paste to fill up the holes ; then take the yolk of an egg, beat it up with a fork, and apply it to the leather with a sponge, having first cleansed it with a dry cloth. To produce a polished surface, a hot iron must be passed over the leather. There is also a varnish made in France, called "French

varnish for leather," which costs about 10s. a pound; it may be had at any oil and colourman's. Many other useful recipes will also be found in Bonnardot's "Essai sur l'Art de Restaurer les Estampes et les Livres " (Paris, 1858), a work described as being one of the best on the subject, and full of useful hints.

To describe the well-known materials, such as morocco, russia, calf, and the rest, would be unnecessary, as they are perfectly well known to most people, whether book collectors or not. Their applicability to any par ticular class of work depends, of course, on the question of price, and also, in a great measure, upon taste. Some collectors have as many of their books bound alike as possible, and taste would seem to require that the binding should be “neat, not gaudy"; for nothing looks so much out of place as a row of gilded volumes, and nothing certainly could better describe the habits of their owner. Let books, therefore, be well bound, always remembering that a profusion of gilt is to be deprecated, since it adds greatly to the expense, and does not maintain its brilliancy for any length of time. A half-bound book (a book which has the corners and back only covered with leather, and the sides with paper or cloth), with just sufficient lettering to enable the title to be discovered by inspection, would seem to be the most wearable.

In some instances, of course, to rebind a book is simply to spoil it for many volumes derive their value solely from the curious character of the binding, and this is chiefly observable in specimens of typography issued from the earlier presses. In these instances, the work should be preserved in its original frame as long as it will hold together; and even then it will, in most cases, be more judicious to have the binding repaired than the work rebound.

CHAPTER III.

The Sizes of Books-Latin Names of Towns-The System of Roman Notation.

PAPER used in the manufacture of books is made in large sheets, which are afterwards cut to the required size. Not that each piece of paper printed upon consists of two leaves-like a sheet of writing paper-afterwards stitched together with many others of similar dimensions. This would be too primitive a method, and remind us too forcibly of the proverbial triangle to satisfy the requirements of the present century when books are published in such prodigious numbers. In fact it is not probable that such a system was employed even in the earliest days, for a perfectly obvious course, and one that saves immense trouble, is to print the entire sheet and subsequently to fold it as required.

The method of doing this will be explained by the aid of a simple illustration, but in the meantime the reader must note the dimensions which sheets of paper commonly assume. The old fashioned paper-makers' moulds had fixed measurements, but this is not always the case at the present day, so that considerable variety exists in the sizes of papers, even of those bearing the

same name.

Though confusing in cases where accuracy is rigidly demanded, this disparity is not likely to very greatly

inconvenience the amateur, for the difference of an inch or two in the measurement of a whole sheet becomes less noticeable when the latter is folded into quires. The following measurements in inches will therefore be found sufficiently correct for our purpose. It must be remembered that these dimensions are for the whole sheet as it lies flat on the table and before it is folded:

From the names given to these various papers a system of classification of books has sprung up which, though confusing in the first instance, becomes easy enough to comprehend after a little practice.

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The question is often heard asked: "What size is this book? and the answer Octavo (8vo) is equally familiar. The answer may, however, refer to Quarto (4to) or Folio, or have reference to some of the smallersized volumes, such as Duodecimo (12mo) or Twentyfours (24mo).

So also we may have Foolscap 8vos, Post 8vos, Demy 8vos, Crown 8vos, or Royal 8vos; or, on the other hand, Crown 4tos or Royal 4tos, and Imperial, Elephant, and Atlas folios, respectively. All these books are different in measurement, and are so commonly quoted in catalogues that it is necessary to know something of them. It will be seen that a book, whether 24mo, 12mo, 8vo, 4to, or folio, may be made of paper of any size, and that it is the name of the paper which creates the distinction between one kind of 8vo, &c., and another.

For instance, let the reader take a sheet of brown paper measuring 17in. by 133in. This is about the measurement of a sheet of foolscap, as will be observed from a glance at the foregoing table. Take the sheet of paper, which will be found to be oblong in shape, and place it thus:

Fold it at AA, then at BB, and finally at CC, when the paper will be of the size represented by B D C C ; that is to say, one-eighth of the whole sheet of foolscap. In this way we arrive at the expression "Foolscap 8vo." Similarly, 8vos may be made from Post, Large Post, Demy, Crown, Royal, or Imperial papers, and as the whole sheet becomes larger, so also does the book made from it. A 4to book could be made by folding at AA and then at BB, a folio by folding at AA only.

The sizes Elephant and Atlas are used exclusively for folio books, which are of the shape of 8vo, only very much larger. Quartos, on the other hand, are always square; while 12mos are again of the shape of 8vos, though smaller.

Anyone who is accustomed to handle books can guess at their size with sufficient accuracy to answer every

C