Material Bibliography

One of only two texts published during his lifetime, the Tectonicon by English mathematician Leonard Digges survives in multiple editions and copies to this day. The book was originally published in 1556 (see title page), but the edition under consideration here was printed in 1599 by Felix Kingston, whose London address is listed on the title page as "Pater noster Rowe, ouer against the signe of the Checker." It is a very slim pamphlet measuring about six inches tall, so slim that one expects it was merely sewn or attached to other work(s) rather than fully bound when first distributed at the turn of the seventeenth century. (It is bound independently now [see below].) The Tectonicon stretches across 52 foliated pages in seven quires with two tables inserted between signatures C and D and between D and E. Letters to the reader are included immediately following the title page (including a section on "The pleasant profit or content of this little Booke, and in what it exceedeth all other published" [sig. A2v]), following the first table, and immediately preceding the section on the "Staffe" in signature G. There is no table of contents or index. Roman type is used for the prefatory material and printed marginalia, and black letter dominates the body text. Clear headings divide each unit of the main text into chapters and sections, and catchwords are included on almost every page except where a diagram blocks the bottom right-hand corner of the page. In addition to geometrical figures and the inserted mathematical tables, illustrated initials and ornamental borders can be found throughout the text, which suggests this book was more expensive upon its publication than its size and length would necessarily imply. The only defect that I have discovered is a misnumbered folio: the marking on sig. B2 should be "4" rather than "2."