Counting Koh Khee Meng Tay Eng

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Published by
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USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Koh, K. M. (Khee Meng), 1944-
Counting / by Khee Meng Koh (National University of Singapore,
Singapore) &
Eng Guan Tay (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore). -- 2nd
edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-981-4401-90-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)--
ISBN 978-981-4401-91-3 (softcover : alk. paper)
1. Combinatorial analysis. 2. Counting. I. Tay, Eng Guan. II. Title.
QA164.K63 2013
511′.6--dc23
2012039454

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 Preface

Combinatorics is a branch of mathematics dealing with discretely

structured problems. Its scope of study includes selections and
arrangements of objects with prescribed conditions, configurations
involving a set of nodes interconnected by edges (called graphs),
and designs of experimental schemes according to specified rules.
Combinatorial problems and their applications can be found not only
in various branches of mathematics, but also in other disciplines
such as engineering, computer science, operational research,
management sciences and the life sciences. Since computers require
discrete formulation of problems, combinatorial techniques have
become essential and powerful tools for engineers and applied
scientists, in particular, in the area of designing and analyzing
algorithms for various problems which range from designing the
itineraries for a shipping company to sequencing the human genome
in the life sciences.
The counting problem, which seeks to find out how many
arrangements there are in a particular situation, is one of the basic
problems in combinatorics. Counting is used in forensic science to
calculate the probability that a sample of biological evidence found
at the crime scene matches that of a particular accused person. In
Chemistry, Cayley used graphs to count the number of isomers of
saturated hydrocarbons, while Harary and Read counted the number
of certain organic compounds built up from benzene rings by
representing them as configurations of hexagons joined together
along a common edge. In Genetics, by counting all possibilities for a
DNA chain made up of the four bases, scientists arrive at an
astoundingly large number and so are able to understand the
tremendous possible variation in genetic makeup. Counting has been
used as well to study the primary and secondary structures of RNA.
 The second edition of Counting brings together the 13 chapters
of Counting and the 7 chapters of Counting: Supplementary
Chapters and Solutions Manual. The book is intended as an
introduction to basic counting techniques for upper secondary to
undergraduate students, and teachers. We believe that it would also
be of interest to those who appreciate mathematics and to avid
puzzle-solvers.
The variety of problems and applications in this book is not only
useful for building up an aptitude in counting but is a rich source for
honing basic skills and techniques in general problem-solving. Many
of the problems evade routine and, as a desired result, force the
reader to think hard in his attempts to solve them. In fact, the
diligent reader will often discover more than one way of solving a
particular problem, which is indeed an important awareness in
problem-solving. This book thus helps to provide students an early
start to learning problem-solving heuristics and thinking skills.
The first two chapters cover two basic principles, namely, the
Addition Principle and the Multiplication Principle. Both principles are
commonly used in counting, even by those who would never count
themselves as students of mathematics! However, these principles
have equally likely been misunderstood and misused. These chapters
help to avoid this by stating clearly the conditions under which the
principles can be applied. Chapter 3 introduces the concepts of
combinations and permutations by viewing them as subsets and
arrangements of a set of objects, while Chapter 4 provides various
applications of the concepts learnt.
Many apparently complex counting problems can be solved with
just “a change of perspective”. Chapter 5 presents an important
principle along this line, i.e. the Bijection Principle; while Chapter 6
introduces a very useful perspective to which many counting
problems can be converted to, i.e. the distribution of balls into
boxes. The next three chapters flesh out the Bijection Principle and
the distribution perspective with a number of applications and
variations.
 In Chapter 3, we introduce a family of numbers which are
denoted by Chapter 10 to Chapter 12 put this family of
numbers in the context of the binomial expansion and Pascal’s
Triangle. A number of useful identities are proven and problems are
posed where these identities surprisingly appear.
Chapter 13 and Chapter 14 cover the Principle of Inclusion and
Exclusion (PIE), and its general statement. Many situations of
counting are complicated by the possibility of double counting.
Sometimes, however, while trying to make provisions for double
counting, one may overcompensate and deduct more than the
number which was double counted. PIE neatly handles this kind of
situation.
The quaintly named Pigeonhole Principle is studied in Chapter 15.
Unlike the other principles which we have discussed so far in this
book, the Pigeonhole Principle does not actually count the number of
ways for a particular situation. Instead, the Pigeonhole Principle is
used to check the existence of a particular situation. This aspect of
“checking existence” together with “counting” and, as yet not
discussed in our book, “optimization” are the three main focus areas
in Combinatorics. In the Pigeonhole Principle, we try to transform
the problem partly into one of distributing a number of objects into a
number of boxes. The questions to focus on then become “What are
the objects?” and “What are the boxes?”
The next four chapters are on recurrence relations. Some
counting problems defy the techniques and principles learnt thus far.
Chapter 16 introduces the technique of using recurrence relations.
These recurrence relations represent algebraically the situation
where the solution of a counting problem of bigger size can be
obtained from the solutions of the same problem but of smaller size.
It is by writing the recurrence relations and obtaining a number
series from them, that the original counting problem can be solved.
Chapter 17 to Chapter 19 study three series of numbers which are
derived from special recurrence relations. These are the Stirling
numbers of the first kind, the Stirling numbers of the second kind
and Catalan numbers.
 Chapter 20 closes this book with a collection of interesting
problems in which the approaches to solving them appear as
applications of one or more concepts learnt in all the earlier
chapters. Problems in this and other chapters marked with (AIME)
are from the American vlll Counting Invitational Mathematics
Examination. We would like to express our gratitude to Mathematical
Association of America for allowing us to include these problems in
the book.
This book is based on a series of articles on counting that first
appeared in Mathematical Medley, a publication of the Singapore
Mathematical Society. We would like to thank Tan Ban Pin who
greatly helped the first author with the original series. Many thanks
also to our colleagues, Dong Fengming, Lee Tuo Yeong, Toh Tin Lam
and Katherine Goh for reading through the draft and checking
through the problems — any mistakes that remain are ours alone.
For those who find this introductory work interesting and would
like to know more about the subject, a recommended list of
publications for further reading is provided at the end of this book.
Koh Khee Meng
Tay Eng Guan
September 2012
 Contents

Preface

Notation and Abbreviation

1. The Addition Principle

Exercise

2. The Multiplication Principle

Exercise

3. Subsets and Arrangements

Exercise

4. Applications
Exercise

5. The Bijection Principle

Exercise

6. Distribution of Balls into Boxes

Exercise

7. More Applications of (BP)

Exercise

8. Distribution of Distinct Objects into Distinct Boxes

Exercise

9. Other Variations of the Distribution Problem

Exercise
10. The Binomial Expansion
Exercise

11. Some Useful Identities

Exercise

12. Pascal’s Triangle

Exercise

13. The Principle of Inclusion and Exclusion

Exercise

14. General Statement of the Principle of Inclusion and Exclusion

Exercise

15. The Pigeonhole Principle

Exercise

16. Recurrence Relations

Exercise

17. The Stirling Numbers of the First Kind

Exercise

18. The Stirling Numbers of the Second Kind

Exercise

19. The Catalan Numbers

Exercise

20. Miscellaneous Problems

Books Recommended for Further Reading

Answers to Exercises

Index
 = {1, 2, 3, . . . }
= {1, 2, 3, . . . , k}
(AP) : Addition Principle
(MP) : Multiplication Principle
(CP) : Complementation Principle
(IP) : Injection Principle
(BP) : Bijection Principle
(PP) : Pigeonhole Principle
(GPP) : Generalised Pigeonhole Principle
(PIE) : Principle of Inclusion and Exclusion
(GPIE) : Generalised Principle of Inclusion and Exclusion
(BT) : Binomial Theorem
LHS : Left-hand side
RHS : Right-hand side
|S| = the number of elements in the set S
= the largest integer less than or equal to x
= the largest integer less than or equal to x
FTA : Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic
gcd : greatest common divisor
Bn = Bell number
the number of ways of dividing n distinct objects into
=
(nonempty) groups
C( n ) = Catalannumber
= the number of shortest routes from O(0, 0) to A(n, n)
which do not cross the diagonal y = x in the
rectangular coordinate system
Dn = the number of derangements of
the number of ways of arranging m distinct objects
s*(m, k) = around k identical circles such that each circle has at
least one object
s(m, k) = Stirling number of the first kind
 = the coefficient of xk in the expansion
of x(x – 1)(x – 2) … (x – (m – 1))
S(m, k) = Stirling number of the second kind
= the number of ways of distributing m distinct objects
into k identical boxes such that no box is empty
= the number of r-element subsets of an n-element set
Pn r = the number of r-permutations of n distinct objects
AIME : American Invitational Mathematics Examination
 Chapter 1

The Addition Principle

In the process of solving a counting problem, there are two very

simple but basic principles that we always apply. They are called the
Addition Principle and the Multiplication Principle. In this chapter, we
shall introduce the former and illustrate how it is applied.
Let us begin with a simple problem. Consider a 4-element set
In how many ways can we form a 2-element subset of
A? This can be answered easily by simply listing all the 2-element
subsets:

Thus, the answer is 6.

Let us try a slightly more complicated problem.

Example 1.1 A group of students consists of 4 boys and 3 girls.

How many ways are there to select 2 students of the same sex from
the group ?

Solution As the problem requires us to select students of the same

sex, we naturally divide our consideration into two distinct cases:
both of the two students are boys, or, both are girls. For the former
case, this is the same as selecting 2 elements from a 4-element set.
Thus, as shown in the preceding discussion, there are 6 ways. For
the latter case, assume the 3 girls are g1, g2 and g3. Then there are
3 ways to form such a pair; namely,
Thus, the desired number of ways is (6 + 3), which is 9.
In dealing with counting problems that are not so
straightforward, we quite often have to divide our consideration into
cases which are disjoint (like boys or girls in Example 1.1) and
exhaustive (besides boys or girls, no other cases remain). Then the
total number of ways would be the sum of the numbers of ways
from each case. More precisely, we have:

For a finite set A, the size of A or the cardinality of A, denoted by

|A|, is the number of elements in A. For instance, if A = {u,v,w,x,y,
z}, then if A is the set of all the letters in the English
alphabet, then if ø denotes the empty (or null) set, then
Using the language of sets, the Addition Principle simply states
the following.

Two sets A and B are disjoint if Clearly, the above result

can be extended in a natural way to any finite number of pairwise
disjoint finite sets as given below.
Example 1.2 From town X to town Y, one can travel by air, land or
sea. There are 3 different ways by air, 4 different ways by land and 2
different ways by sea as shown in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1

How many vjays are there from X to Y?

Let A1 be the set of ways by air, A2 the set of ways by land and
A3 the set of ways by sea from X to Y. We are given that

Note that is the set of ways

from X to Y. Thus, the required number of ways is which,
by (AP), is equal to

Example 1.3 Find the number of squares contained in the 4 x 4

array (where each cell is a square) of Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2
Solution The squares in the array can be divided into the following
4 sets:

A1 : the set of 1 × 1 squares,

A2 : the set of 2 × 2 squares,
A3 : the set of 3 × 3 squares, and
A4 : the set of 4 × 4 squares.

There are 16 “1 × 1 squares”. Thus There are nine “2 × 2

squares”. Thus Likewise, and
Clearly, the sets are pairwise disjoint and
is the set of the squares contained in the array of Figure 1.2. Thus,
by (AP), the desired number of squares is given by

Example 1.4 Find the number of routes from X to Y in the oneway

system shown in Figure 1.3.

Figure 1.3

Solution Of course, one can count the number of such routes by

simply listing all of them:
 Let us, however, see how to apply (AP) to introduce a more
general method.
Call a route from X to Y an X–Y route. It is obvious that just
before reaching Y along any X-Y route, one has to reach D, E, F or
G. Thus, by (AP), the number of X-Y routes is the sum of the
numbers of X-D routes, X-E routes, X-F routes and X-G routes.
How many X-D routes are there? Just before reaching D along
any X-D route, one has to reach either A or B, and thus, by (AP), the
number of X-D routes is the sum of the numbers of X-Aroutes and X-
B routes. The same argument applies to others (X-E routes,...) as
well.

Figure 1.4

It is clear that the number of X-A routes (X-B routes and X-C
routes) is 1. With these initial values, one can compute the numbers
of X-D routes, X-E routes, etc., using (AP) as explained above. These
are shown in brackets at the respective vertices in Figure 1.4. Thus,
we see that the total number of possible X-Y routes is 2 + 3 + 3 +
2, i.e. 10.

Exercise
1.1 We can use 6 pieces of to cover a 6 × 3 rectangle, for
example, as shown below:
 In how many different ways can the 6 × 3 rectangle be so
covered?
1.2 Do the same problem as in Example 1.3 for 1 × 1,2 × 2, 3 × 3
and 5 × 5 square arrays. Observe the pattern of your results.
Find, in general, the number of squares contained in an n × n
square array, where n ≥ 2.
1.3 How many squares are there in
(i) the following 4 × 3 array (where each cell is a square)?

(ii) an n × 3 array (where each cell is a square), with n ≥ 5?

1.4 How many squares are there in the following array (where each
cell is a square)?

1.5 Find the number of triangles in the following figure.

1.6 Find the number of triangles in the following figure.

1.7 How many squares are there in the following configuration

(where each cell is a square with diagonals)?
1.8 Following the arrows given in the diagram, how many different
routes are there from N to S?

1.9 Following the arrows given in the diagram, how many different
routes are there from N to S?
 Chapter 2

The Multiplication Principle

Mr. Tan is now in town X and ready to leave for town Z by car. But
before he can reach town Z, he has to pass through town Y. There
are 4 roads (labeled 1, 2, 3, 4) linking X and Y, and 3 roads (labelled
as a, b, c) linking Y and Z as shown in Figure 2.1. How many ways
are there for him to drive from X to Z?

Figure 2.1

Mr. Tan may choose road “1” to leave X for Y, and then select “a”
from Y to Z. For simplicity, we denote such a sequence by (1,a).
Thus, by listing all possible sequences as shown below:

we get the answer (4 × 3 =) 12.

Very often, to accomplish a task, one may have to split it into

ordered stages and then complete the stages step by step. In the
above example, to leave X and reach Z, Mr. Tan has to split his
journey into 2 stages: first from X to Y, and then Y to Z. There are 4
roads to choose from in Step 1: To each of these 4 choices, there
are 3 choices in Step 2. Note that the number of choices in Step 2 is
independent of the choice in Step 1. Thus, the number of ways from
X to Z is given by 4 × 3 (= 12). This illustrates the meaning of the
following principle.

Example 2.1 How many ways are there to select 2 students of

different sex from a group of 4 boys and 3 girls ?

E : forming a pair consisting of a boy and a girl;

E1: selecting a boy;
E2: selecting a girl.

Figure 2.2

Solution The situation when the 2 students chosen are of the same
sex was discussed in Example 1.1. We now consider the case where
the 2 students chosen are of different sex. To choose 2 such
students, we may first choose a boy and then select a girl. There are
4 ways for Step 1 and 3 ways for Step 2 (see Figure 2.2). Thus, by
the Multiplication Principle, the answer is 4 × 3 (= 12).

The Addition Principle can be expressed using set language. The

Multiplication Principle can likewise be so expressed. For the former,
we make use of the union A ∪ B of sets A and B. For the latter, we
shall introduce the cartesian product A × B of sets A and B. Thus
given two sets A and B, let

namely, A × B consists of all ordered pairs (x,y), where the first

coordinate, “x”, is any member in the first set A, and the second
coordinate, “y”, is any member in the second set B. For instance, if A
= {1,2,3,4} and B = {a, b, c}, then

Assume that A and B are finite sets. How many members (i.e.
ordered pairs) are there in the set A × B? In forming ordered pairs in
A × B, a member, say “x” in A is paired up with every member in B.
Thus there are |B| ordered pairs having “x” as the first coordinate.
Since there are |A| members in A, altogether we have |A| |B|
ordered pairs in A × B. That is,

Principle (2.1) and result (2.2) are two different forms of the
same fact. Indeed, an event E which is split into two events in
ordered stages can be regarded as an ordered pair (a, b), where “a”
stands for the first event and “b” the second; and vice versa.
Likewise, Principle (2.1) can be extended in a very natural way as
follows:
 By extending the cartesian product A × B of two sets to A1 × A2
×…× Ak of k sets, we shall also derive an identity which extends
(2.2) and expresses (2.3) using set language.
Let A1 ,A2,…,Ak be k finite sets, and let

Then

Example 2.2 There are four 2-digit binary sequences: 00,01,10,11.

There are eight 3-digit binary sequences: 000,001,010,011,100,101,
110,111. How many 6-digit binary sequences can we form?

Solution The event of forming a 6-digit binary sequence can be

split into 6 ordered stages as shown in Figure 2.3.

Figure 2.3

Thus, by (2.3), the desired number of sequences is 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 ×

2 × 2 = 26 .
Using set language, the same problem can be treated as follows.
We have
 The members in A1 × A2 ×…× A6 can be identified with 6-digit
binary sequences in the following way:

Thus, the number of 6-digit binary sequences is given by | A1 × A2

× … × A6 |, which, by (2.4), is equal to

From now on, (MP) shall refer to Principle (2.3) or the identity (2.4).

Example 2.3 Figure 2.4 shows 9 fixed points a,b,c,…, i which are
located on the sides of ∆ABC. If we select one such point from each
side and join the selected points to form a triangle, how many such
triangles can be formed?

Figure 2.4

Solution To form such a triangle, we first select a point on AB, then

a point on BC and finally a point on CA. There are 3 ways in Step 1
(one of a, b,c), 4 ways in Step 2 (one of d, e, f, g) and 2 ways in
Step 3 (either h or i). Thus by (MP), there are 3 × 4 × 2 (= 24) such
triangles.

We have seen in both the preceding and the current chapters

some problems that can be solved by applying (AP) or (MP)
individually. Indeed, more often than not, problems that we
encounter are more 14 complex and these require that we apply the
principles together. The following is an example.

Example 2.4 (Continuation of Example 2.3) Find the number of

triangles that can be formed using the 9 fixed points of Figure 2.4 as
vertices.

Solution This problem is clearly more complex than that of Example

2.3 as there are other triangles whose three vertices are not
necessarily chosen from three different sides; but then, where else
can they be chosen from? The answer is: two from one side and one
from the remaining two sides. In view of this, we shall now classify
the required triangles into the following two types.
Type 1 — Triangles whose three vertices are chosen from three
different sides.
As shown in Example 2.3, there are 3 × 4 × 2 (= 24) such
triangles.
Type 2 — Triangles having two vertices from one side and one from
the other two sides.
We further split our consideration into three subcases.
(i) Two vertices from AB and one from BC or CA.
There are 3 ways to choose two from AB (namely, {a,b},
{a,c} or {b,c}) and 6 ways to choose one from the other
sides (namely, d, e, f, g, h, i). Thus, by (MP), there are 3
× 6 (= 18) such triangles.
(ii) Two vertices from BC and one from CA or AB.
There are 6 ways to choose two from BC (why?) and 5
ways to choose one from the other sides (why?). Thus, by
(MP), there are 6 × 5 (= 30) such triangles.
(iii) Two vertices from CA and one from AB or BC.
There is only one way to choose two from CA and there
are 7 ways to choose one from the other sides. Thus, by
(MP), there are 1 × 7 (= 7) such triangles.
Summing up the above discussion, we conclude that by (AP), there
are 18 + 30 + 7 (= 55) triangles of Type 2.
As there are 24 triangles of Type 1 and 55 triangles of Type 2,
the required number of triangles is thus, by (AP), 24 + 55 (= 79).

Exercise
2.1 Following the arrows given in the diagram, how many different
routes are there from W to E?

2.2 In the following figure, ABCD and FEC are two perpendicular
lines.

(i) Find the number of right-angled triangles AXCY that can be

formed with X, Y taken from A, B, D, E, F.
(ii) Find the number of triangles that can be formed with any
three points A, B, C, D, E, F as vertices.
2.3 There are 2 distinct terms in the expansion of a(p + q):

There are 4 distinct terms in the expansion of (a + b)(p + q):

 How many distinct terms are there in each of the expansions of

2.4 In how many different ways can the following configuration be

covered by nine 2 × 1 rectangles?

2.5 A ternary sequence is a sequence formed by 0, 1 and 2. Let n be

a positive integer. Find the number of n-digit ternary sequences
(i) with no restrictions;
(ii) which contain no “0”
(iii) which contain at most one “0”
(iv) which contain at most one “0” and at most one “1”.
2.6 The following diagram shows 12 distinct points:
a1,a2,a3,b1,…,b4,c1,…,c5 chosen from the sides of ∆ABC.

(i) How many line segments are there joining any two points,
each point being from a different side of the triangle?
(ii) How many triangles can be formed from these points?
(iii) How many quadrilaterals can be formed from these points?
 Chapter 3

Subsets and Arrangements

There are 25 students in the class. How many ways are there to
choose 5 of them to form a committee? If among the chosen five,
one is to be the chairperson, one the secretary and one the
treasurer, in how many ways can this be arranged? In this chapter,
our attention will be focused on the counting problems of the above
types. We shall see how (MP) is used to solve such problems, and
how (MP), by incorporating (AP), enables us to solve more
complicated problems.
From now on, for each natural number n, we shall denote by
the set of natural numbers from 1 to n inclusive, i.e.

Consider the 4-element set How many subsets of are

there? This question can be answered readily by listing all the
subsets of . Table 3.1 lists all the subsets according to the number
of elements they possess: It is now easy to count the total number
of subsets of
Table 3.1
 We note that the 5 numbers, namely, 1, 4, 6, 4, 1 (whose sum is
16) shown in the rightmost column of Table 3.1 are the
corresponding numbers of r-element subsets of , where r =
0,1,2,3,4. These numbers are very interesting, useful and important
in mathematics, and mathematicians have introduced special
symbols to denote them.
In general, given two integers n and r with we denote by
the number of r-element subsets of . Thus, Table 3.1 tells us
that

The symbol is read “n choose r”. Some other symbols for this
quantity include
Now, what is the value of counts, by definition, the
number of 2-element subsets of , we may list all these subsets as
shown below:

and see that there are 10 in total. Thus, we have

You may ask: How about ? We are sure that we are too busy
to have time to compute by listing all the 6-element subsets of
. Thus, a natural question arises: Is there a more efficient way to
compute ? The answer is “Yes”, and we are going to show you.
Let us first consider a different but related problem. How many
ways are there to arrange any three elements of in a
row? With a little patience, we can list all the required arrangements
as shown in Table 3.2.
Table 3.2
 Thus, there are 24 ways to do so. The answer is “correct” but the
method is “naive”. Is there a cleverer way to get the answer?
Imagine that we wish to choose 3 numbers from and put them
one by one into 3 spaces as shown.

This event can be thought of as a sequence of events: We first

select a number from and place it in the 1st space; we then select
another number and place it in the 2nd space; finally, we select
another number and place it in the 3rd space. There are 4 choices
for the first step, 3 choices (why?) for the second and 2 choices
(why?) for the last. Thus, by (MP), there are 4·3·2 (=24) ways to do
so. The answer agrees with what we obtained above. Isn’t this
method better?
This method is better not only in shortening our solution, but also
in giving us an idea on how to generalise the above result.
In the above example, we considered the number of ways of
arranging 3 elements of in a row. We now ask a general question:
Given integers r, n with how many ways are there to arrange
any r elements of in a row?
Consider the r spaces shown in Figure 3.1.

Figure 3.1
 We wish to choose r elements from {1,…, n} to fill the r spaces,
where the ordering of elements matters. There are n choices for the
1st space. After fixing one in the 1st space, there are n – 1 choices
remaining for the 2nd space. After fixing one in the 2nd space, there
are n – 2 choices left for the 3rd space, and so on. After fixing one
in the (r – 1)th space, there are n – (r – 1) choices left for the rth
space. Thus, by (MP), the number of ways to arrange any r elements
from in a row is given by

For convenience, let us call an arrangement of any r elements from

in a row, an r-permutation of , and denote by the number of
r-permutations of . Thus, we have

For instance, all the arrangements in Table 3.2 are 3-permutations of

, and, by (3.1), the number of 3-permutations of is given by

which agrees with what we have counted in Table 3.2.

The expression (3.1) for Py looks a bit long. We shall make it
more concise by introducing the following useful notation. Given a
positive integer n, define n! to be the product of the n consecutive
integers n, n – 1,…, 3,2,1; that is,

Thus 4! = 4 · 3 · 2 · 1 = 24. The symbol “n!” is read “n factorial”. By

convention, we define 0! = 1.
Using the “factorial” notation, we now have
That is,

When n = 4 and r = 3, we obtain

which agrees with what we found before.

The expression (3.3) is valid when Consider two
extreme cases: when r = 0 and r = n respectively. When r = 0, by
(3.3),

(How can this be explained?) When r = n, an n-permutation of is

simply called a permutation of . Thus, by (3.3) and that 0! = 1,
the number of permutations of is given by

i.e.

Thus, for example, counts the number of permutations of ,

and we have, by (3.4),

Let us now return to the problem of evaluating the quantity .

 We know from (3.3) that the number Py of r-permutations of
is given by We shall now count this number (namely, the
number of r-permutations of ) in a different way.
To get an r-permutation of , we may proceed in the following
manner: first select an r-element subset of , and then arrange the
chosen r elements in a row. The number of ways for the first step is,
by definition, , while that for the second step is, by (3.4), r!. Thus,
by (MP), we have

As

we have

and thus

For instance,

Note that when r = 0 or n, we have

Again, by convention, we define

By applying (3.5), one can show that the following identity holds
(see Problem 3.1):

Thus,
We define as the number of r-permutations and as the
number of r-element subsets of . Actually, in these definitions,
can be replaced by any n-element set since it is the number of the
elements but not the nature of the elements in the set that matters.
That is, given any n-element set S, (respectively, ) is defined as
the number of r-permutations (respectively, r-element subsets) of S.
Any r-element subset of S is also called an r-combination of S.
We have introduced the notions of r-permutations (or
permutations) and r-combinations (or combinations) of a set S.
Always remember that these two notions are closely related but
different. While a “combination” of S is just a subset of S (and thus
the ordering of elements is immaterial), a “permutation” of S is an
arrangement of certain elements of S (and thus the ordering of
elements is important).

Exercise
3.1 Show that for non-negative integers r and n, with r ≤ n,
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
3.2 Show that for 1 ≤ r ≤ n,
 (i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
3.3 Prove that the product of any n consecutive integers is divisible
by n!.
3.4 Find the sum
 Chapter 4

Applications

Having introduced the concepts of r-permutations and r-

combinations of an n-element set, and having derived the formulae
for we shall now give some examples to illustrate how
these can be applied.

Example 4.1 There are 6 boys and 5 men waiting for their turn in a
barber shop. Two particular boys are A and B, and one particular
man is Z. There is a row of 11 seats for the customers. Find the
number of ways of arranging them in each of the following cases:

(i) there are no restrictions;

(ii) A and B are adjacent;
(iii) Z is at the centre, A at his left and B at his right (need not be
adjacent);
(iv) boys and men alternate.

Solution (i) This is the number of permutations of the 11 persons.

The answer is 11!.
(ii) Treat {A, B} as a single entity. The number of ways to arrange
the remaining 9 persons together with this entity is (9 + 1)!. But
A and B can permute themselves in 2 ways. Thus the total
desired number of ways is, by (MP), 2 · 10!·
(iii)
 As shown in the diagram above, A has 5 choices and B has 5
choices as well. The remaining 8 persons can be placed in 8!
ways. By (MP), the total desired number of ways is 5 · 5 · 8!.
(iv) The boys (indicated by b) and the men (indicated by m) must be
arranged as shown below.

The boys can be placed in 6! ways and the men can be placed in
5! ways. By (MP), the desired number of ways is 6!5!.

Example 4.2 In each of the following cases, find the number of

integers between 3000 and 6000 in which no digit is repeated:

(i) there are no additional restrictions;

(ii) the integers are even.

Solution Let abcd be a required integer.

(i) As shown in the diagram below, a has 3 choices (i.e. 3, 4, or 5),

say a = 3.

Since no digit is repeated, a way of forming “bcd” corresponds

to a 3-permutation from the 9-element set {0,1, 2, 4, 5,..., 9}.
Thus the required number of integers is 3 ·
(ii) Again, a = 3, 4 or 5. We divide the problem into two cases.
Case (1) a = 4 (even)

In this case, d has 4 choices (i.e. 0, 2, 6, 8), say d = 2. Then a

way of forming “bc” is a 2-permutation from the 8-element set
{0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9}. Thus the required number of integers is 4
 ·
Case (2) a = 3 or 5 (odd)
In this case, d has 5 choices, and the number of ways to form
“bc' is The required number of integers is 2 · 5 ·
By (AP), the desired number of integers is

Example 4.3 There are 10 pupils in a class.

(i) How many ways are there to form a 5-member committee for
the class?
(ii) How many ways are there to form a 5-member committee in
which one is the Chairperson, one is the Vice-Chairperson, one is
the Secretary and one is the Treasurer?
(iii) How many ways are there to form a 5-member committee in
which one is the Chairperson, one is the Secretary and one is the
Treasurer?

Solution (i) This is the same as finding the number of 5-

combinations of a 10-element set. Thus the answer is
(ii) This is the same as choosing 5 pupils from the class and then
placing them in the following spaces.

Clearly, this is a “permutation” problem, and the answer is

(iii) This problem can be counted in the following procedure: we first

select one for Chairperson, then one for Secretary, then one for
Treasurer, and finally two from the remainder for committee
members as shown below:
 Figure 4.1

Thus, by (MP), the answer is given by

Note There are different ways to solve (iii). You may want to try
your own ways.

Example 4.4 As shown in Example 2.2, the number of 6-digit

binary sequences is 26. How many of them contain exactly two 0’s
(e.g. 001111,101101,...)?

Solution Forming a 6-digit binary sequence with two 0’s is the same
as choosing two spaces from the following 6 spaces into which the
two 0’s are put (the rest are then occupied by 1’s) as shown below:

Thus, the number of such binary sequences is

Example 4.5 Figure 4.2 shows 9 distinct points on the

circumference of a circle.

(i) How many chords of the circle formed by these points are there
?
(ii) If no three chords are concurrent in the interior of the circle, how
many points of intersection of these chords within the circle are
there?
 Figure 4.2

Solution (i) Every chord joins two of the nine points, and every two
of the nine points determine a unique chord. Thus, the required
number of chords is .

(ii) Every point of intersection of two chords corresponds to four of

the nine points, and every four of the nine points determine a
point of intersection. Thus the required number of points of
intersection is

Example 4.6 At a National Wages Council conference, there are 19

participants from the government, the unions and the employers.
Among them, 9 are from the unions.
In how many ways can a 7-member committee be formed from
these participants in each of the following cases:

(i) there are no restrictions?

(ii) there is no unionist in the committee?
(iii) the committee consists of unionists only?
 (iv) there is exactly one unionist in the committee ?
(v) there is at least one unionist in the committee ?

Solution (i) This is the number of 7-element subsets of a 19-

element set. By definition, the desired number is
(ii) This is the number of ways to form a 7-member committee from
the 10 non-unionists. Thus, the desired number is
(iii) Obviously, the desired number is
(iv) We first select a member from the 9 unionists and then select
the remaining 6 from the 10 non-unionists. By (MP), the desired
number is
(v) There are 7 cases to consider, namely, having r unionists, where
r = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Thus, by (AP) and (MP), the desired
number is given by

Indeed, we can have a shorter way to solve this part by using the
idea of “complementation”.
By (i), there are 7-member committees we can form from 19
participants. Among them, there are such committees which
contain no unionist by (ii). Thus, the number of 7-member
committees which contain at least one unionist should be
(The reader may check that these two answers agree.)
The second solution given in (v) for the above example is just an
instance of applying the following principle.
 If you revisit Example 2.4 you may then observe that the
problem can also be solved by (CP). There are ways to form a 3-
vertex subset from the given 9 vertices. Among them, the 3 on AB
and any 3 on BC do not form a triangle. Thus, the number of
triangles one can form is, by (CP),

which is 79.
We have seen from the above examples how, by applying (CP),
we are able to considerably shorten the work needed to solve a
counting problem. When a direct approach involves a large number
of cases for which a certain condition holds, the complementary view
of the smaller number of cases in which the condition does NOT hold
allows a quicker solution to the problem. What follows then is that
we count the number of ways afforded by the smaller number of
“complementary” cases and finally obtain the required answer by
subtracting this from the total number of ways.

Exercise
4.1 (Continuation from Example 4.1)

(v) A and B are at the two ends;

(vi) Z is at the centre and adjacent to A and B;
(vii) A, B and Z form a single block (i.e. there is no other person
between any two of them);
(viii) all men form a single block;
(ix) all men form a single block and all boys form a single block;
(x) no two of A, B and Z are adjacent;
(xi) all boys form a single block and Z is adjacent to A;
(xii) Z is between A and B (need not be adjacent).
4.2 (Continuation from Example 4.2)
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Foreign Office, though in Notary’s time it appears to have extended
from Westminster to Charing Cross. Lewis, in his life of Caxton, says
that Caxton’s printing-office was in King Street, but I do not know of
any reason for his assertion.
The last of Notary’s books printed at Westminster is an edition of
Chaucer’s Love and complaintes between Mars and Venus, with
some other pieces. This rare little book, having passed through the
collections of Farmer, the Duke of Roxburghe, Sir Mark Masterman
Sykes and Heber, is now at Britwell. The colophon runs: “Thys
inpryntyde in westmoster in kyng strete. For me Julianus Notarii.” In
spite of the word For, I think the book was printed by Julian Notary
himself. It contains two cuts, reversed copies of two of Caxton’s.
At what time Notary left Westminster cannot at present be settled,
but probably almost immediately after W. de Worde. When his next
dated book was issued in 1503 he had moved to London, and with
his departure from King Street to Pynson’s old house near Temple
Bar printing ceased altogether in Westminster.
 LECTURE II.
THE PRINTERS AT LONDON.
The art of printing was introduced into London in 1480, three years
after Westminster, two years after Oxford, and probably one year
after St Alban’s, by a printer called Joannes Lettou. The name
evidently denotes that he came originally from Lithuania, of which
the word Lettou is an old form. One thing is at once apparent when
we come to examine his work, and that is that he was a skilled and
practised printer, producing books entirely unlike Caxton’s, and
bearing every appearance of being the work of a foreign press.
Where he learned to print it is impossible to find out, but whence his
type was obtained no one can have the least doubt: it was certainly
brought from Rome.
The type is identical with that used by a printer at Rome in 1478 and
1479, who really ought to have some connexion with English printing
as his name was John Bulle. In his Roman books he describes
himself as from Bremen. If it were possible to arrive at any
explanation how a man from Bremen could be described as a
Lithuanian, I should at once assume John Lettou and John Bulle to
be identical, since the one apparently begins where the other leaves
off. However, until some reasonable explanation is forthcoming it will
be best to consider them as different people.
Lettou seems to have been assisted during the first two years of his
career by a certain William Wilcock, but who this man may have
been I have not been able to discover, unless he was a certain
William Wilcock who is mentioned in the State Papers as having
been presented to the living of Llandussell in 1487. The two books
printed by Lettou were the Questiones Antonii Andreae super
duodecim libros metaphisice and the Expositiones super Psalterium
of Thomas Wallensis. Both these books are printed in a neat small
Italian gothic, with two columns to the page and forty-nine or fifty
lines in a column. The first of the two books, the Antonius Andreae,
is a small folio of 106 leaves, and almost all the six known copies are
imperfect. The book is very probably reprinted from the edition
printed at Vicenza in 1477, the only earlier edition than the present,
which, like it, is edited by Thomas Penketh. Penketh was a friar of
the Augustinian house at Warrington, but went later as teacher of
theology to Padua. He returned to Oxford in 1477, where he also
taught theology, and was probably living there when his book was
being printed at London.
The second of these two books is printed in exactly the same style
and form as the first, with the exception of having fifty lines to the
column in place of forty-nine. In the imprint the book is ascribed to
the “Reverendissimus dominus Valencius,” that is Jacobus Perez de
Valentia, who was, however, not the author of this work, though he
did write a commentary on the Psalms. The real author was a certain
Thomas Wallensis or de Walleis. Henry Bradshaw, who discovered
the mistake, gives the following explanation of it: “This edition is
printed from an incomplete copy, and from the words of the colophon
‘Reverendissimi domini Valencii,’ the final s having been misread as
an i, the work has been confounded with the commentary of Jacobus
Perez de Valencia, which was printed at that place in 1484 and
1493. The v for w and the absence of the Christian name would also
serve to create the confusion, or at any rate to perpetuate it.”
Three editions of the indulgence of John Kendale were printed by
Lettou in 1480. The first two have been preserved in a very curious
manner. It was a common custom of the early binders to paste a thin
strip of vellum down the centre of each quire of paper in order to
prevent the thread which ran down the centre of the quire and
stitched it to the bands of the binding from cutting through the paper.
A copy of a foreign printed Bible, which appears to have been bound
in England, perhaps by Lettou himself, and which is now in the
library of Jesus College, Cambridge, has the centre of each quire
throughout the book lined with a strip of vellum, part of cut up copies
of these two indulgences. Indulgences having their year printed upon
them soon went out of date, and as they were of vellum and printed
only on one side were very much used by bookbinders for lining
bindings. These two indulgences were issued early in the year and
have the date 1480, but no mention is made of the pontifical year of
the pope. The third indulgence, of which a copy is in the British
Museum, also dated 1480, has besides, the date of the pontifical
year, “the year of our pontificate the tenth,” and as the popes dated
like the kings, from the exact date of their accession or coronation,
this copy must have been printed after August 7, 1480, on which
date the tenth year of Sixtus IV began.
After the printing of his two books and editions of the indulgence,
Lettou entered into partnership with a printer called Wilhelmus de
Machlinia, a native, as his name shows, of Mechlin in Belgium.
Together they printed five books, the Tenores Novelli of Littelton, the
Abridgement of the Statutes, and the Year-books of the thirty-third,
thirty-fifth, and thirty-sixth years of Henry VI.
For these books the printers used a small very cramped black letter,
abounding in abbreviations, and often difficult to read. It appears to
have been designed after the law hand of the period. The edition of
the Tenures is the only one of these books with an imprint, and it
contains the names of both printers, and the statement that the book
was printed in the city of London, “juxta ecclesiam omnium
sanctorum.” There were, however, several churches in London at
this time dedicated to All Saints, and it is not possible now to settle
which particular one was meant. Complete sets of these five books
are in the British Museum and the Cambridge University Library.
The entire change in the character of the books produced after
Machlinia had joined Lettou shows that his strong point was legal
printing, and during his continuance in business he seems to have
printed all the law-books issued in England. But perhaps the most
marked peculiarity of his partnership is the extraordinary
deterioration in the books produced. The work of Lettou was marked
by excellence of typography and the many improvements introduced
by an evidently practised printer. As soon as Machlinia joined him
the work became slovenly. It might be supposed that Mr William
Wilcock, who had defrayed the expense of Lettou’s work, had either
tried it as a speculation and found it a poor one, or had only wished
the two books to be specially printed for his own use and had then
left the printer to shift for himself. It is curious, too, that Lettou’s neat
type should have entirely disappeared. The real reason for this
probably was that though it was very neat it had none of the
abbreviations necessary in a type used for printing law-books.
While Lettou remained in the firm the work, though much
deteriorated, retained a certain amount of regularity. All the books
had signatures and were regular in size, though their appearance
was not good. After the issue of these five books Lettou seems to
have ceased printing, but the type was used for one more book,
which it will be well to notice here, The History of the Siege of
Rhodes. This was written in Latin by Gulielmus Caorsin, vice-
chancellor of the Knights of Malta, and was translated into English by
John Kay, who styles himself poet-laureate to Edward IV. It gives an
account of the great victory of the Rhodians against the Turks and
the death of Mahomet.
It is the only early English printed book which we cannot definitely
ascribe to any particular printer. By most early writers it was classed
as a production of Caxton, and Dibdin places it under Caxton in his
Typographical Antiquities, though he there expresses a doubt as to
its being his work. “The typography,” he says, “is so rude as to
induce me to suppose that the book was not printed by Caxton. The
oblique dash for the comma is very coarse; and the adoption of the
colon and the period, as well as the comparatively wide distances
between the lines, are circumstances which, as they are not to be
found in Caxton’s acknowledged publications, strongly confirm this
supposition.” Five years later, writing in the Bibliotheca Spenceriana,
he seems to have settled more accurately. “I have very little doubt,”
he writes there, “of its having been executed by Lettou and
Machlinia, or by the former of these printers, rather than by Caxton.
The letters, however, great and small, especially the larger ones, and
some of the compound smaller ones, bear a strong resemblance to
the smallest types of our first printer; but on a comparison with those
of the Tenures of Lyttelton and the Ancient Abridgement of the
Statutes, printed by Lettou and Machlinia, the resemblance is quite
complete.” The type is certainly that used by Lettou and Machlinia,
and the considerable difference in appearance from the other five
books is caused by the text being in English, which makes more
difference than would be imagined, and also that there are very few
of the abbreviations which crowd the other books. Then again the
lines of type are spaced out, giving the page a much lighter
appearance.
Though the dedication is to Edward IV, it does not necessarily follow
that the book was printed before his death, for the early printers in
reprinting a manuscript would keep to the preface as there written. It
might, however, have been printed as early as 1483, and
immediately the law books had been completed. Who the printer was
I do not think can ever be settled. When it was printed Machlinia had
probably started by himself with his new types, and I do not think it
can have been printed by Lettou, as it has not the signatures to the
pages which he invariably used.
We may, I think, date the break up of the partnership of John Lettou
and William de Machlinia about 1482-83, and from that date onwards
Machlinia worked alone. He seems to have made a fresh start with
new type, for he has at least three founts which had not been used
before. The difficulties in the way of making any arrangement or
arriving at any definite conclusions about his books are very great.
We know that he printed at least twenty-two books, and not one
single one is dated. Signatures, directors, headlines, seem to be
present or absent without rule or reason. There is hardly any method
of arranging the books in groups, every book stands alone in
splendid isolation.
The only division possible is according to the type used in the books,
and in this way we can separate them into two groups. Those of the
first group are printed in two founts of a square gothic type, and as in
colophons of the two books in this series which possess them the
printer speaks of himself as living near the “Flete-bridge,” we call
these books the ones printed in the Fleet-bridge type. The other
group are in a regular English type, similar in general appearance to
some of Caxton’s or that used by the printer of St Alban’s, and in the
imprint to one of these books Machlinia speaks of himself as printing
in Holborn, so that we speak of this series of books as printed in the
Holborn type. As Flete-bridge was at the east end of Fleet Street and
a considerable distance from Holborn it is impossible that these two
addresses could apply to one office.
It is probable that the Fleet-bridge group is the earlier, so we will take
it first. In it there are altogether eight books. Three folios, the Tenures
of Lyttelton, the Nova Statuta, and the Promise of Matrimony, four
quartos, the Vulgaria Terentii, the Revelation of St Nicholas to a
Monk of Evesham, and two books by Albertus Magnus, the Liber
Aggregationis seu de secretis naturae, and the Secreta mulierum,
and one small book, probably a 16º, an edition of the Horae ad usum
Sarum.
The two books of Albertus Magnus are certainly the most neatly
printed, the press work being tidy and regular, which was not
generally the case with this printer’s productions.
The copy of the Secreta mulierum in the University Library is an
interesting one, though, unfortunately, imperfect. On the first leaf
which is blank there is a certain amount of writing, amongst other
things the following sentence: “Annus domini nunc est 1485 in anno
Ricardi tercii 3º.” This note, supposing it to have been written at the
time to which it refers, and there is no reason to doubt it, must have
been written between June 26 and August 22, 1485, showing that at
any rate the book was printed before that date. The other book of
Albertus Magnus, the Liber aggregationis, has a colophon stating
that it was printed by “William de Machlinia in the most wealthy city
of London, near the bridge vulgarly called the Flete-bridge.” The
wealth of London seems to have impressed the alien printer, for he
always applies the word “opulentissima” to that city.
The small Horae we have little information about, for we know of its
existence only from nineteen leaves scattered about the country.
There are eight in Corpus Christi College, Oxford, seven in the
British Museum, four in Lincoln Minster, and two in the University
Library, Cambridge. These have all been extracted from bindings,
and in the cases where we know the particular bindings from which
they came these bindings were the work of the same man, whose
initials were W. G. From the way in which the leaves were printed,
and the way in which they were afterwards folded, a point too
technical and difficult of description to touch on here, we may pretty
safely say that the Horae was a 16º and not an 8º. It may be worth
while remarking that the early printers used only the simple folding,
which with each successive folding exactly halves the size of the
previous one. The sheet folded into two leaves produced folio size,
this folded again once made 4to, folded again 8º, again 16º, again
32º, and again 64º. The duodecimo or 12º, which depends on more
complicated folding, was quite unknown.
The Horae, so far as we can see from what remains, contained no
illustrations, but it had an engraved border which was used round the
pages beginning certain portions of the book. This engraved border
we afterwards find in Pynson’s hands, and it is the only definite link
connecting him with this press. Bradshaw, in his paper on the “Image
of Pity,” suggests that Ames, who quoted this book in his
Typographical Antiquities, had seen a complete copy, but as he
describes it merely as “a book of devotions on vellum” and adds no
particulars I think that he simply described it from the few leaves in
his own possession, which are now in the British Museum in the
great so-called Bagford volumes of despoiled title-pages.
The Revelation of St Nicholas to a Monk of Evesham is one of the
most remarkable volumes of the fifteenth century, very well worth
reading, for it is full of early English stories and allusions. (I may say
in passing that Mr Arber has issued a cheap reprint of it.) The story
tells of a man who was taken through purgatory and was shown
various people whom he had known or heard of and listened to their
stories. It seems to me very curious that no other editions of the
book were issued in early times: it seems exactly the kind of book
which must have been popular. Typographically, the book is
interesting as showing an excellent example of wrong imposition,
that is that when the one side of the sheet had been printed, the
other side was put down upon its form of type the wrong way round,
and consequently the pages come all in their wrong order, page 1
being printed on the first side of the first leaf, page 14 follows it on
the other side, then page 16, then page 4, and so on. Now, most
printers who had done this stupid thing, and it was not an uncommon
accident, would have destroyed the sheet and reprinted it. Not so
Machlinia. He printed off some more copies of the wrong sheet and,
cutting it up, pasted the four pages in their proper places. In one of
the two known copies this has had unfortunate results, for some
curious inquirer, noticing the pages pasted together, has tried to
separate them to find out what was underneath, and they have
suffered severely in the process.
The Vulgaria Terentii is the last of the quartos in this group. It is a
book that was often printed, but of the present edition the copy in the
University Library is the only one remaining, and it, unfortunately, is
slightly imperfect.
Of the folios, the Nova Statuta is the most important, and also by far
the commonest, for I have examined over a dozen copies myself,
and I know of a good many more. The book must have been printed
after April, 1483, as the subject-matter runs up to that date, while an
action in Chancery relating to it was tried between 1483 and 1485.
The Promise of Matrimony, another folio in this type, consisting only
of four leaves, relates to the agreement made in 1475 between
Edward IV and Louis XI for the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth of
York and Prince Charles, afterwards Charles VIII, King of France.
I have noticed that in nearly all the copies of the law-books printed
by Lettou and Machlinia, or Machlinia alone, that I have examined,
the initial letters, which were filled in by hand in colour, appear to
have been done by the same person; the letter roughly in red, and a
twirl or two by way of ornament in pale green or blue. I suppose the
subject of the books was so severely practical that unless this had
been done before the book left the office it would never have been
done at all. However, in English printing generally, though the spaces
were left for fine initials, I can remember very few books with them
filled in in any but the plainest way, a contrast to the beautiful work
so often found in Italian books.
The last group of books, which number fourteen, are called the
Holbom type books, because, in the imprint of one of the two books
that contain them we find the words, “Enprente per moy william
Maclyn en Holborn.” The general type used for the text of these
books is very remarkably like that used by Veldener at Utrecht and
by John Brito at Bruges, and may, perhaps, have been obtained by
Machlinia from abroad, though it is of the same school of type as
several used in England.
The most important book issued in this series is an edition of the
Chronicles of England. It is a very rare book, but there is an
imperfect copy in Cambridge in the Barham collection in Pembroke
College. The space for the initial letters, as is usually the case with
early books, has been left blank to be filled in by the rubricator, but in
one copy that I have seen, the initials have been filled in in gold, not
gold leaf, but gold paint, and this is the only example of its use that I
have found in an early English book. Another curious point about the
book is that though it is a folio, a folio of 238 leaves, yet in all copies
leaves 59 and 66, the first and last leaves of a quire, are printed on
quarto paper. I thought once that perhaps for some reason these
leaves had been cancelled and reprinted, but it seems more
probable that the printer had for the moment run out of his supply of
ordinary-sized paper, and had to use some of a much larger size cut
in half. A similar case of mixed papers is found in the Nova Rhetorica
printed at St Albans in 1480, which is partly quarto and partly octavo.
Three editions were published by Machlinia of the curious Treatise of
the Pestilence by Canutus or Kamitus, Bishop of Westeraes in
Sweden, and of each edition only one copy is known, one in the
British Museum, one in the University Library, and one sold lately in
the sale of the Ashbumham Library and now at Manchester. I must
warn anyone who uses Dibdin’s Typographical Antiquities, that the
facsimile page of the book which he gives is made up from the upper
part of the first leaf of the Cambridge copy and the lower part of the
same leaf of the Manchester copy, which he must have seen when it
was in the possession of Triphook, the bookseller, so that the
resulting facsimile is rather puzzling. The fact that one of these
editions, that in the British Museum, has a title-page, makes us
inclined to put it to rather a late date, but at any rate it is the earliest
title-page in an English printed book.
Another book in this group, by far the commonest and best known, is
the Speculum Christiani, ascribed to a writer named John Watton, a
curious medley of theological matter interspersed with pieces of
English poetry. The colophon states that the book was printed for
and at the expense of a merchant named Henry Vrankenbergh.
About this merchant I could find out nothing until, curiously enough,
on my last visit to Cambridge a fortnight ago, my attention was
drawn by a friend to a note in the Descriptive Catalogue of ancient
deeds in the Record Office, where is a note of a “Demise to Henry
Frankenbergk and Barnard van Stondo, merchants of printed books,
of an alley in St Clement’s Lane, called St Mark’s Alley, 10th May,
1482.”
This is, I believe, the earliest note relating to foreign stationers or
merchants of printed books in England, but I hope from the same
source we may expect to obtain many more as soon as the endless
series of documents in the Record Office are calendared.
An edition of the Vulgaria Terentii was also printed in this type. An
almost perfect copy was added to the British Museum Library some
years ago, and a considerable portion of another copy is in the
library of Caius College.
Machlinia also printed two of the Nova Festa, the Festum visitationis
beate Marie virginis and the Festum transfigurationis Jesu Christi.
The first of these is only known from two leaves which had been
used to line the boards of the binding of Pynson’s Dives and Pauper.
Of the second a beautiful and perfect copy is in the library of the
Marquis of Bath. It is curious to notice that it contains not only the
feast according to the Sarum use, but also according to the Roman
use.
The last three of Machlinia’s books to be noticed are the three which,
though undated themselves, contain certain evidences of date. The
first of these contains the statutes made in the first year of Richard
III, and, as this first year ran from June 26, 1483, to June 25, 1484,
the book cannot be earlier than the second half of the latter year.
The second book is one about which I am very much inclined to
doubt whether it was printed by Machlinia at all, but rather by
Veldener, who used apparently identical type; and though I have had
for several years under my charge at Manchester the only copy of
the book known I cannot make up my mind about it. It is an edition of
the Regulae et ordinationes of Innocent VIII, and could not at any
rate have been printed before the very end of 1484. The type seems
newer in appearance than any of Machlinia’s, though to all
appearance identical. Dibdin, with his usual readiness, helps us by
remarking, “It presents us with the same character or general
appearance of type as that which Caxton and Machlinia occasionally
used. It is not much unlike the St Alban’s type.”
The last production is a Bull of Innocent VIII confirming the marriage
of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. It was reissued in 1494 by
Alexander VI, and there the date is given as 27th March, 1486.
Two copies of this Bull are known, one in the library of the Society of
Antiquaries and one in the Rylands Library, Manchester. Both are in
poor condition, and show signs of having been used at one time to
line the boards of a binding.
Richard Pynson was by birth a native of Normandy, but practically
nothing is known of his personal history. It is probable that he was
educated at the University of Paris, for we find in a list of students in
1464 the name “Ricardus Pynson Normannus,” and this may very
well be the printer. It was, however, in Normandy that he learned to
print, probably from Guillaume le Talleur, a noted printer of Rouen,
as may be seen by certain small habits connected with printing
which he fell into, and which are very typical of Rouen work.
Although we have only circumstantial evidence, evidence depending
on a number of almost trifling details to back up the statement, it
seems now almost certain that Pynson succeeded Machlinia. My
own impression is that he succeeded immediately on the death or
retirement of the latter, with hardly any interval. A very strong reason
for this impression is that had any long time elapsed between the
cessation of Machlinia’s press and the commencement of Pynson’s,
England would have been left without a printer who could set up law
French. Caxton and Wynkyn de Worde were presumably unable to
do it, at any rate they printed no books of the kind except some
statutes of Henry VII, and it must be remembered that in Henry VII’s
reign for the first time the statutes were written in English. I do not
mean to suggest that Pynson ever worked with Machlinia, but only
that when the latter ceased to work Pynson came over and started in
his place, perhaps taking over some of his printing material or even
starting work in his old office. The engraved border which Machlinia
had used in his Sarum Horae, the only piece of ornament he seems
to have possessed, we find used afterwards by Pynson, and it is a
very common thing to find Pynson’s earliest bindings lined with
waste leaves of Machlinia’s printing. Had Pynson worked with
Machlinia we should have expected the latter’s founts of type to
have passed into his hands, as Caxton’s were inherited by Wynkyn
de Worde, but they did not. Indeed they totally disappeared, and
what we do find of Machlinia’s in Pynson’s hands is merely the
refuse that we might expect a printer to find in an office just vacated
by another. Had Pynson not been ready to take over the place this
waste stuff would have been destroyed. The question is, then, when
did Machlinia cease or Pynson begin? I should say that Machlinia
ceased much later than is supposed and Pynson began much
earlier, and that the two events happened between 1488 and 1490.
At first when Pynson arrived he was without material, so he
commissioned Le Talleur at Rouen to print for him the two law-books
most in demand, Littelton’s Tenures and Statham’s Abridgement of
Cases to the end of Henry VI.
Probably in 1490-1491 he began printing on his own account. His
first dated book was issued in November, 1492, but five books, if not
more, can be placed earlier; these are an edition of Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales, a Latin Grammar, a poetical book, and two or
more Year-books. The Chaucer is a particularly fine book, printed in
two sizes of type, a larger for the poetry, and a smaller for the prose,
which is printed in two columns. It is also illustrated with a set of
woodcuts illustrating the different pilgrims. It is interesting to notice
that these cuts were altered in some cases while the book was
passing through the press in order to serve as the portrait of another
pilgrim. The serjeaunt with a little alteration becomes the doctor of
physick, the squire becomes the manciple. There has been a good
deal of controversy as to the date of the printing of this book and
whether it could have appeared before Caxton’s death in the latter
part of the year 1491. Pynson in his prologue, which is rather
confused and difficult to understand, says, speaking of Chaucer: “Of
whom I among alle other of his bokes, the boke of the tales of
Canterburie, in whiche ben many a noble historie of wisdome policie
mirth and gentilnes. And also of vertue and holynes whiche boke
diligently ovirsen and duely examined by the pollitike reason and
ouirsight of my worshipful master William Caxton accordinge to the
entent and effecte of the seide Geffrey Chaucer and by a copy of the
seid master Caxton purpos to imprent, by ye grace, ayde, and
supporte of almighty god.” I think had Caxton been dead Pynson
would have alluded to it in some way, speaking of him, perhaps, as
“my late worshipful master” or “my worshipful master late dead.” The
term worshipful master does not imply that Pynson had been an
apprentice or assistant to Caxton, but was merely a courteous way
of referring to the printer and editor whose work he was about to
reprint. Blades in his life of Caxton, speaks of Pynson’s having used
Caxton’s device, but this mistake has arisen through a made-up
book in the British Museum, a copy of Bonaventure’s Speculum vite
Christi. The copy wanted the end, and some former owner, in order
to make the book look more complete, has added a leaf with
Caxton’s device printed on it.
The Latin Grammar is known only from three leaves, one in the
Bodleian and two in the British Museum. The leaf in the Bodleian
appears from an inscription upon it to have been used to line a
binding as early as 1494. The book was printed entirely in the large
black type of the Chaucer, the first of Pynson’s types, and which he
does not appear to have used after 1492.
Another book printed about this time was a book of poetry of a
quarto size. All that is at present known of this book are two little
strips making part of a leaf, and each containing six lines of verse,
three on each side. I found these fragments a year or two ago
amongst a bundle of uncatalogued leaves in the Bodleian, but was
not able at the time to determine from what book they came. The
story is apparently of someone who having been in purgatory is
allowed to revisit the world in order to warn others of what he had
seen there. This was a common story, and the occurrence of part of
a line “But y the goste of guido” makes it certain that the fragments
belong to some version of a work called Spiritus Guidonis.
The two other books in this series are two year-books, for the first
and ninth years of Edward IV. All these early books, with the
exception, of course, of the poetry fragments, contain Pynson’s first
device, which consists of his monogram in white upon a black
background, not at all unlike in style that used by Le Talleur at
Rouen, with whom he had been associated. When the device was
used in November, 1492, a small alteration had been made in it, so
that from the state of the device as well as by the type used we are
able to settle which books belong to this earliest group.
In 1492 Pynson’s first dated book appeared, an edition of the
Doctrinal of Alexander Grammaticus, editions of which had already
been printed abroad in considerable numbers. Pynson’s was not
copied from any of these, having a different commentary, but who
this commentary is by I have not yet been able to ascertain.
This book was only discovered quite lately, and I came upon it by a
fortunate accident. The owner, or rather guardian, of it happened to
have read in some book that the earliest dated book of Pynson’s was
issued in 1493. Knowing that he had an earlier one he wrote to the
British Museum about it, and I heard casually that the book had been
sent to them to examine. I went up to London immediately to see if I
could see the book, but was told it had been returned, nor could I
obtain any information as to where it was to be found. Luckily, the
owner was so far interested as to write a note to one of the papers
mentioning the existence of the book, and also the place where it
was preserved—the Grammar School at Appleby. The following
Saturday I set off to Appleby, and had the pleasure of examining it at
my leisure. It is a beautiful copy, quite perfect, in its original binding,
and, as one would have hoped, with end leaves taken from
Machlinia’s Chronicle. It has a perfectly clear Latin imprint which
runs: “And thus ends the commentary of the Doctrinale of Alexander,
printed by me Richard Pynson of the parish of St Clement Danes
outside the bar of the new Temple at London the 13th day of the
month of November in the year of the incarnation of our Lord 1492.”
From this colophon it is clear that if Pynson did commence work in
Machlinia’s old office, which was in Holborn, he had by this time
removed to other premises. The commentary in the book is printed in
a very small, neat type which Pynson had probably had made for
him abroad, as it contained no w. I am sorry that the discovery of this
book has thrown out of order the list of Pynson’s types which I gave
in the introduction to my Facsimiles of Early English Printing. In 1903
this volume was sold by the school trustees, and is now in the British
Museum.
In 1493 appeared Henry Parker’s Dialogue of Dives and Pauper,
which was always considered, before the discovery of the Doctrinale,
Pynson’s first dated book. It is printed in a new and handsome type,
and this is the only dated book in which it is used, though there are
four undated quartos in the same type, which may be put down to
the same year. These are the Festum nominis Jesu, one of the Nova
Festa printed as supplements to the Sarum Breviary, the Life of St
Margaret, Lidgate’s Churl and Birde, and an edition apparently of
some statutes or a similar work known from two leaves in the library
at Lambeth. Of the Festum nominis Jesu one copy is known, bound
up in a volume with several other tracts, among them being Caxton’s
Festum transfigurationis Jesu Christi. It was for a while in the
Congregational Library in London but was eventually sold to the
British Museum. Three printed leaves from the beginning of the
poem amongst the fragments in the Bodleian are all that remain of
the Life of St Margaret. The Lidgate’s Churl and Birde after passing
through the sales of Willett, the Marquis of Blandford, Sir F. Freeling
and B. H. Bright, passed with the Grenville Library into the British
Museum.
Two editions of Mirk’s Liber Festivalis, each known from a single
copy, one in the Pepysian Library, the other in the University Library,
belong probably to this time. The various changes in the book are
interesting to trace. In the earliest editions there are no references
to, or additional chapters for, the new feasts which were then coming
into use; then come editions with the extra feasts printed together at
the end as a kind of supplement to the book, and finally we get the
editions with these extra feasts put into their proper places in the
body of the book. The edition in the Pepysian Library is without these
extra feasts, while that in the University Library has them as a
supplement of ten leaves at the end. In the next edition, which was
printed about the end of 1493 by W. de Worde, the feasts have been
incorporated into their proper places.
In 1494 Pynson reverted to his earlier types and issued a translation
by Lidgate from Boccaccio called the Falle of Princes, remarkable for
its charming woodcuts. In this book, for the first time, Pynson used
his second device, a large woodcut containing his initials on a black
shield with a helmet above on which is perched a small bird. This I
imagine is meant for a finch, a punning allusion to his name, since
pynson is the Norman name for a finch. Round the whole is a border
of flowering branches, in which are birds and grotesque beasts. This
device supplies us later with a most useful date test, for the edge
split in 1496 and the piece broke off entirely towards the end of
1497. After 1498 the use of this device was discontinued but it was
not destroyed, and it made a solitary reappearance, in a sadly
mutilated state in an edition of a grammar of Whitinton in 1515.
Probably in this year (1494) Pynson issued his edition of the
Speculum vitae Christi, of which an almost perfect copy is in King’s
library. It is illustrated with a large number of neat woodcuts, which
are copied more or less from Caxton’s illustrations to the same book,
though they are by no means identical with them, as has been often
stated. As a general rule Pynson’s cuts are of very much better
execution and design than either Caxton’s or De Worde’s, and
though not in all cases good, as for instance in the Canterbury Tales,
yet they never sink to the very bad drawing and engraving so often
found in the works of the other two printers.
An edition of the Hecyra of Terence bears the date January 20,
1495, but no other dated book of this year is known, and 1496 was
hardly better, having only the two grammars, the Liber
Synonymorum and Liber Equivocorum, the latter usually wrongly
attributed to Joannes de Garlandia; but many undated books of very
considerable interest appeared about this time. Two of these, the
Epitaph of Jasper, Duke of Bedford, and the Foundation of Our
Lady’s Chapel at Walsingham are to be found in the Pepysian
Library. Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford, and half-brother of Henry VI,
died on December 21, 1495, and the book must have been printed
early in 1496. It is ostensibly written by one Smarte, the keeper of
the hawks to the Duke, and begins as follows:—

Rydynge al alone with sorrowe sore encombred

In a frosty fornone, faste by Severnes syde
The wordil beholdynge, whereat much I wondred
To se the see and sonne to kepe both tyme and tyde.
The ayre ouer my hede so wonderfully to glyde
And how Saturne by circumference borne is aboute
Whiche thynges to beholde, clerely me notyfyde
One verray god to be, therin to haue no dowte.

The end runs:—

Kynges prynces moste souerayne of renoune

Remembre oure maister that gone is byfore
This worlde is casual, nowe up nowe downe
Wherfore do for your silfe, I can say no more
Honor tibi Deus, gloria et laus
Qd’ Smerte maister de ses ouzeaus.

This poem has been attributed to Skelton, though I do not know for
what reason. On the title-page is a special cut, not used elsewhere,
of Smarte kneeling, with his hawk on his wrist, and presenting with
his other hand a book to a person standing. The Foundation of Our
Lady’s Chapel at Walsingham is a small tract relating to the priory of
the Augustinian canons of St Mary, once one of the most important
places of pilgrimage in England, and which was described by
Erasmus. The first leaf, which would have contained the title, is
wanting, but the text begins on the second:—

Of this chapell se here the fundacyon

Bylded the yere of crystes incarnacyon
A thousande complete, sixty and one
The tyme of Sent Edward kyng of this region.

About this time appeared the first English edition of Mandeviles

Travels, the only edition, I think, issued without illustrations, and a
little reprint of Caxton’s Art and Craft to Know Well to Die, of which
the only known copy, formerly Ratcliffe’s, is in the Hunterian Museum
at Glasgow.
Another poetical tract is the Life of Petronylla, beginning:—

The parfite lyfe to put in remembraunce

Of a virgyn moost gracious and entere
Which in all vertu had souereyn suffysaunce
Called Petronylla petyrs doughter dere.

This little tract consists of four leaves, and though only three copies
are known at present it is probable that more are in existence, for the
book seems to occur in all the sales of large libraries which have
occurred within the last hundred years.
About 1496 Henry Quentell, a Cologne printer, had issued the first
edition of the Expositio Hymnorum et Sequentiarum, according to the
use of Sarum, but it was found that several hymns and sequences
were omitted, so Pynson issued two supplements, one of sixteen
leaves to the hymns, another of six to the sequences.
Another rather quaint book issued about this time is a kind of
vocabulary or phrase book in English and French. “Here is a good
book to lerne to speak french, Vecy ung bon liure a apprendre a