L_1 v^{0/1}: 'when a mans
stomache
is in Folio,
and knows not where to haue a dinner in Decimo sexto.
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
= Mistresse Gallipot is the name of a
tobacconist in Dekker's and Middleton's _Roaring Girle_.
=4. 4. 50 In decimo sexto.= This is a bookbinder's or printer's
term, 'applied to books, etc., a leaf of which is one-sixteenth of
a full sheet or signature.' It is equivalent to '16mo.' and hence
metaphorically used to indicate 'a small compass, miniature' (see
_Stanford_, p. 312). In _Cyn. Rev._, _Wks._ 2. 218, Jonson says:
'my braggart in decimo sexto!' Its use is well exemplified in John
Taylor's _Works_, sig.
L_1 v^{0/1}: 'when a mans
stomache
is in Folio,
and knows not where to haue a dinner in Decimo sexto.
' The phrase
is fairly common in the dramatic literature. See Massinger, _Unnat.
Combat_ 3. 2; Middleton, _Father Hubburd's Tales_, _Wks._ 8 64, etc.
In the present passage, however, the meaning evidently required
is 'perfect: 'spotless,' and no doubt refers to the comparative
perfection of a sexto decimo, or perhaps to the perfection naturally
to be expected of any work in miniature.
=4. 4. 52 Virgins milke for the face.= Cf. John French, _Art
Distill._. Bk. 5. p.