SPURIOUS EDITION OF BAILY'S ANNUITIES.
In the course of last year a curious and impudent bibliographical fraud was perpetrated by some parties unknown. I am not aware that it has been publicly exposed as yet.
The celebrated work on annuities, by the late Francis Baily, was published in 1810 by Richardson, and printed by Richard Taylor. It was at first in one volume: but on the publication of an appendix in 1813, two titles were printed with this last date, and the stock then remaining was sold in two volumes. As the book became scarce, it gradually rose in price, until, when by a rare chance a copy came to the hammer, it seldom fetched less than five guineas. This price was lowered, as well by the general decline in the price of old books, as by the sale of Mr. Baily's own library in 1844, which threw a few copies into the market; but the work was still saleable at more than the original price. In the course of last year, copies, as it was pretended, of the original edition were offered at the assurance offices, and to individuals known to be interested in the subject, at twenty-five shillings. Some were taken in, others saw the trick at once. There has been, in fact, a reprint without any statement of the circumstance, and without a printer's name; but with a strong, and, on the whole, successful attempt at imitation of the peculiar typography of the work. If the execution had been as good as the imitation, the success would have been greater. But this is wretchedly bad, and will amuse those who know how very particular Mr. Baily always was in his superintendence of the press, and how plainly his genuine works bear the marks of it.
The spurious edition may be known at once by the title-page, in which the words "an appendix" are printed in open letter, which is not the case in the original. Also by "Leienitz," instead of "Leibnitz" in page xi. of the preface. Also by the Greek letter
throughout, which is, in the spurious edition, never anything but an inverted δ, which looks as if it were trying to kick backwards.
In all probability, the agents in this shabby trick are beneath reproof; but it is desirable that the reputation of the author whom they have chosen for its object should not suffer from the effects of their misprint. And as the work they have appropriated is only used by a small public, and a reading one, the mode of exposure which I here adopt will probably be sufficient.
The spurious edition is now on the stalls at a few shillings; and, as a curiosity, will be worth its price.
A. DE MORGAN.