Addendum:

Steve from languagehat.com informs me that the work referenced below is the "1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, probably the best ever published (it had articles by the top authorities in the world, e.g. Einstein on physics)." Steve adds: "The problem, of course (besides the popups), is that it's scanned in and thus full of `typos'; in this case, I'm pretty sure `Gob' is simply a scanning error for `Golo.'"

Makes sense. Thanks Steve.