Bibliographic Notes on One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature

This is a collection bibliographical notes on old books. In the older books there are many instances of the long 's', printed as ſ, and used mostly in the middle of words.

A final 's' was printed as 's', as it is now. A final double-'s' was usually printed as 'ſs'. An exception is on Page 41: 'Odyſſ'.

"Finis duodecim libri Hom. Odyſſ. Opus nouem dierum,"

Occasionally, 'ſſ' in the middle of a word, was printed as 'ſs'. The letter 'w' was often printed as 'vv', and 'W' as 'VV'. 'J/j' was often printed as 'I/i', and 'I/i' as 'J/j'. Thus 'The Rich Jew of Malta' would be 'The Rich Ievv of Malta'; also: 'Paradiſe loſt' (Paradise lost), 'The Pilgrims Progreſs' (The Pilgrims Progress), 'Odyſses' (Odysses), etc.

'v' was often printed as 'u', and 'u' as 'v' thus, "God ſaue the Queene" for "God save the Queen".

Also: "vntill this preſent tyme" for "until this present time".

In the earlier books, people wrote what they heard. All spelling variants, if they make sense, and are not obvious printing errors, have been retained.

Spelling rules did not exist until the later part of the 19th century. Some words and names (e.g. Church-yard/Churchyard) are hyphenated on some pages, unhyphenated on others. All have been retained.

Punctuation is not necessarily consistent, is not always present, and sometimes occurs where we would not expect it (e.g. 'the price of .ii. Shyllynges the piece'; '.xiii Articles'; 'and before the yere ,M,iiiiC, and .ix', etc.). A colon (:) was sometimes used instead of a full stop. Apostrophes were sometimes conspicuous by their absence (e.g. 'Le Morte Darthur' for 'Le Morte D'Arthur'), and opened brackets were not always closed. There are some instances of quotations enclosed in double quotes nested inside quotations similarly enclosed in double quotes, leading to the occasional paragraph ending in ."" This would appear to have been the printing style of the time, and has been retained.