1899.] 
Section II.—Bloch Prints. 
91 
the formula is printed in No. VII of the Fourth Set (PI. XII), it would 
seem probable that the top of it is the line which adjoins the formula of 
the Fourth Set; for on this supposition it would lie on the page in the 
same direction as that formula. It would also seem probable that it 
commences on the right-hand side, and must therefore be read from the 
right to the left; for that half of the formula, which appears on the 
page of No. VII of the Fourth Set, is, on the above supposition, its 
right-hand half, and it seems reasonable to assume that, when only 
one-half could be printed, it was the initial half that was printed. More¬ 
over in certain pages of book No. IV (see below the detailed descrip¬ 
tion) it is always what on the above theory is the left-hand side of 
the formula which appears in the middle of the page; and this circum¬ 
stance points to the same conclusion, as it seems also reasonable to 
assume that, as usual, the reader was intended to commence reading 
from the margin of the page. But unfortunately this argument is 
weakened by the fact that in books Nos. I and III, where occasionally 
only a portion of the formula is printed, it is indifferently either one 
or the other of its two outer lines that is omitted. The fact is that the 
force of all such arguments depends on the assumption that these 
block-print books were intended for reading. If they were not meant 
for reading, but intended for the mechanical use of merely turning the 
pages, it was obviously quite immaterial which portion of the formula 
was printed whenever the space did not suffice to print the whole. 
No. I. Book. 
Belongs to M. 3. Purchased from Badruddln. Size, 8J x 5|". 
Number of forms, 37; the first and last forms, however, consist of 
two sheets each, placed within one another, and pasted together 16 to 
form thick covers, as in No. II of the Second Set. Paper, variety III6. 
Fairly clean. Printing, indifferent. Riveted with three copper pegs. 
Contains recension Va, printed six times on each page, in a 
column which runs parallel to the longer side of the book, and stands 
regularly upright and reversed on alternate pages. The latter rule is 
not observed on 10 pages out of a total of 142 pages, and these pages, 
therefore, represent clearly mere accidental lapses of the printer. On 
a few pages, the formula is only found five-times repeated ; but on many 
pages the sixth repetition, standing too close to the top or bottom of the 
page, is incomplete, one of the three lines of the formula being omitted. 
This omitted line is sometimes one, sometimes the other of the two 
outer lines, so that no conclusion can be drawn as to what is the initial 
and what the final line of the formula. 
16 In the initial cover the paste has given way, and the leaves are now separate. 
