The worm that turned

Duodecim Prophetae, from a multi-volume Hebrew Bible in quarto published by Robert Estienne (Paris, 1539-44), A1v-2r. (Bodleian Library, Opp. add. 4° I. 246)

The holes at the lower edges of these two pages, close to the spine, were created by a worm, which chewed its way through sheet A after it had been collated with subsequent sheets of this title and the pile of them had been folded in half once and placed next to the like-folded pile of sheets for the book of Daniel: thus, the wormholes appear on two leaves of the four in each quire of both books.