Correction Of The Press, the indication of errors and defects in a printed sheet, with a view to their removal by the compositor. The first impression taken from the types is termed a proof, and is corrected first by the printer's reader, who points out the faults in the compositor's workmanship, and afterward by the author or editor, who indicates final alterations in language, orthography, and punctuation. The changes to be made are indicated by marks on the proof, known as printers' signs, which with very slight variations are universally recognized in printing houses. The most important of these are the following: Three parallel lines under a word show that it is to be printed in large capitals; two parallel lines, that it is to be in small capitals; and a single line, that it is to be in Italics. As the compositor's attention must be directed to any change in the text by some sign upon the margin, the words caps, sm. caps or s. c, and Ital. are written on the margin opposite to the lines which correspond to them. If a word printed in Italics is to be changed to Roman letters, a line is drawn under it, and the abbreviation Rom. written in the margin.

When a corrector, after having changed or struck out a word, decides to let it remain as it was, he makes dots under it, and writes stet (Lat., let it stand) in the margin. An omitted word or letter is marked for insertion by being written in the margin opposite to a caret ( in the text at the place where the omission occurs. An omission too long for the side margin may be written at the top or bottom of the page, or on a sheet of paper attached to the proof, and connected with the caret by a line. An omitted hyphen or dash is marked for insertion by being enclosed between two parallel lines in the margin. When a word or letter is designed to be struck out from the text, a line is drawn through it and the character (for the Lat. dele, take out) is made in the margin. To change one word for another, draw a line through the printed word and write the intended word opposite in the margin. When two words are printed too closely together, a caret is made beneath the place where they should be separated, and the sign written in the margin. Syllables improperly separated are joined by a horizontal parenthesis, as er ror, which is also to be made in the margin. An inverted letter is shown by a stroke under it, and by the sign in the margin. Omitted quotation marks are indicated by carets in the text, and by the characters and , in the margin. "When the punctuation requires to be altered, a caret is made in the text, and the desired point inserted in the margin; the period is enclosed in a circle, and the other points have a perpendicular stroke after them. When two letters or words are transposed, a curved line is drawn, running above the first and beneath the second, and the letters tr. are written in the margin. The sign in the margin, with a caret in the text, shows the place where a new paragraph is to be begun. If an erroneous break into paragraphs has been made, let a line curve from the end of one paragraph to the beginning of the next, and No be written in the margin. Attention is called to a defective letter by a stroke under it and a cross (x) opposite; and to crooked words or lines by strokes above and below them, and corresponding parallel strokes in the margin. Letters too large or too small are underscored and indicated by the letters w.f. (wrong font) in the margin. The attention of the author or editor is called to obscurities of language, words illegible in the " copy " (manuscript), doubtful statements, etc, by underscoring them and writing qu? or qy? or (?) in the margin. - Very rare qualifications are requisite to be an excellent corrector of the press, or proof-reader. Besides a familiar knowledge of the language in which the work is written, and of the technicalities of the typographical art, which is essential, and extensive and accurate information on general subjects, which is constantly useful, there is especially demanded an extreme precision in the habits of the eye. Hence the terra "typographical eye," which implies the power of at once perceiving all the letters of which each word is composed, grasping the sense of each sentence, and following the succession of ideas through a paragraph or a chapter.

In the period immediately following the discovery of printing, publishers were generally eminent scholars, and either corrected the proofs themselves or were assisted in the task by the most learned men of the time; and several of the early editions of the Scriptures and classics are celebrated for their freedom from typographical errors. Giovanni Andrea, bishop of Aleria, and secretary of the Vatican library, was corrector of the press for Sweyn-heim and Pannartz, the first printers at Rome, about 1468-74, and exerted his influence in their behalf with Pope Sixtus IV. The learned Hellenist Oamotius corrected the Aldine edition of Aristotle, in 5 vols., Venice, 1495-'8. Musu-rus assisted the eldest Aldus in correcting his edition of Plato (1513), and in the preface Aldus offered a gold coin for every mistake that should be discovered (mutare singula errata nummo aureo). The proof-readers of Plantin, who published his first work at Antwerp in 1555, and whose editions were famous for their beauty and correctness, were the distinguished scholars Gheesdal, Pulman, Giselin, Kilian, and Ra-phelingus. The last declined the professorship of Greek at Cambridge, preferring to correct texts of the oriental languages, but afterward became at the same time head of a printing establishment at Leyden and professor of Hebrew in that city.

Kilian, who corrected proofs for 50 years, wrote a pleasant poetical apology for the corrector typographicus, in which he reproached authors for the carelessness and deformity of their manuscripts. The Stephenses at Paris often corrected their own publications, but were assisted also by numerous erudite proof-readers. A poet of the time describes the interior of that learned establishment, in which the correctors and even the children and servants spoke in Latin. Robert Stephens and Plantin both often exposed publicly the sheets of a work, offering a reward to whosoever would show a fault. Erasmus corrected many proofs for his publisher, Froben of Basel; and yet such unlucky mistakes stole into some of his own works, that he once declared that either the devil presided over typography, or there was diabolic malice on the part of compositors. In a paraphrase of Matt. xvi. (1524), he spoke of Christ as singulari more filium Dei. But instead of more there appeared in the text amore, and the faculty of theology at Paris immediately declared the proposition a Nestorian heresy. Erasmus, however, was able to prove his orthodoxy by producing a copy of a previous edition, in which the passage was correctly printed.

Other early and learned correctors of the press were Campanus, ex-bishop of Teramo, who served Ulrich Gallus at Rome; Chalcondyles, the exiled Greek, who corrected the first edition of Homer, and the first large work in Greek, Florence, 1488; Egnatius, professor of belles-lettres at Venice, and proof-reader for Aldus; OEcolampadius, professor of theology, reformer, and proofreader for Cratander at Basel; Friedrich Syl-burg, who corrected the editions of the classics published by Wechel, and also those by Com-melin; Turnebus, royal printer of Greek books in France, instructor of Henry Stephens, and a friend of the most illustrious scholars of his time; and Cruden, the author of the concordance to the Bible.