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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=671005113-12092008>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Bookman Old Style'"><SPAN
class=671005113-12092008><FONT size=3>Alisa--</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Bookman Old Style'"><FONT
size=3></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Bookman Old Style'">What you're seeing is a
standard 19th-c. signature pattern for gatherings of six leaves. The printed
sheet (actually a half sheet, or third of a sheet, depending on whether this is
12mo or 18mo) needs to be divided into two pieces; then the pieces are folded:
the larger one twice, to make four leaves, and the smaller one once to make two
leaves; then the smaller piece is inserted into the middle of the larger piece,
and you've got a gathering of six leaves. (You can fold paper to see how this
works: it's very hard to fold paper in your head.) 19th-c. printers, in some
places, got into the habit of signing the just the first leaf of the gathering
and the first leaf of the "offcut". Using an asterisk with numeric signatures
was the most common pattern; with letter signatures it was usual to use e.g. A
and A2, which is even more confusing if you don't know what's going on<SPAN
class=671005113-12092008><FONT size=3>, since leaf A3 in this case is signed
"A2"</FONT></SPAN>.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Bookman Old Style"
color=#0000ff size=3></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="COLOR: blue; FONT-FAMILY: 'Bookman Old Style'">So, the real formula for
your book is<SPAN class=671005113-12092008> simply</SPAN>:<SPAN
class=671005113-12092008> </SPAN></SPAN><FONT face="Bookman Old Style"><FONT
color=#0000ff>1-9<SUP>6 </SUP>10<SUP>4</SUP></FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Bookman Old Style"
color=#0000ff size=3></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Bookman Old Style"
color=#0000ff size=3>If I were providing a "collation" note rather than just a
"signatures" note, I would usually add a signing statement, "[$1,3 signed;
signing $3 as '$*']". That looks a bit esoteric: it's just a way of saying that
the first and third leaves of each gathering are signed ("$" is a sort of
algebraic "x" meaning "any signature", so "$3" means "the third leaf of any
signature") and the third leaf is signed by adding an asterisk to the basic
signature.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Bookman Old Style" color=#0000ff size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Bookman Old Style"
color=#0000ff size=3>A similar pattern will be found with gatherings of 12
leaves, where the outer part has 8 leaves and the inner part 4. In this case,
the first and fifth leaves would be signed in the same fashion as the first and
third leaves of gatherings in 6s. (Early in the century some printers would
signed the first, second, and fifth leaves, e.g. A, A2, [no sig.], [no sig.],
A3, which is even more puzzling at first.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Bookman Old Style"
color=#0000ff size=3></FONT><!-- Converted from text/plain format --></P>
<P><FONT size=2>RICHARD NOBLE : RARE BOOKS CATALOGER : JOHN HAY LIBRARY : BROWN
UNIVERSITY<BR>PROVIDENCE, RI 02912 : 401-863-1187/FAX 863-2093 : <A
href="mailto:RICHARD_NOBLE@BROWN.EDU">RICHARD_NOBLE@BROWN.EDU</A></FONT></SPAN><BR></P></DIV>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left>
<HR tabIndex=-1>
<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> dcrm-l-bounces@lib.byu.edu
[mailto:dcrm-l-bounces@lib.byu.edu] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Alisa
Ellingson<BR><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, September 11, 2008 6:10 PM<BR><B>To:</B>
dcrm-l@lib.byu.edu<BR><B>Subject:</B> [DCRM-L] Signatures
question<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal>Hello all,<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>I’m a fairly new cataloger, and this is my first post to the
list. I never post to these lists because I haven’t got all the “cataloger
lingo” down, so I hope you’ll forgive my inexperience if I say something
wrong! I am cataloging a 19<SUP>th</SUP>-century Italian publication with
some unusual numbering on the signatures. It starts with two unsigned
leaves, then the first numbered signature says 1* and has four leaves.
Next comes signature 2 with two leaves, then 2* with four leaves, then 3* with
two leaves, then 3 with four leaves, and so on and so forth until 10, which has
four leaves. I hope that makes sense. Basically, it looks like
this:<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>[1]<SUP>2</SUP> 1*<SUP>4</SUP> 2<SUP>2</SUP> 2*<SUP>4</SUP>
3<SUP>2</SUP> 3*<SUP>4</SUP> 4<SUP>2</SUP> 4*<SUP>4 </SUP>5<SUP>2</SUP> 5*<SUP>4
</SUP>6<SUP>2</SUP> 6*<SUP>4 </SUP>7<SUP>2</SUP> 7*<SUP>4 </SUP>8<SUP>2</SUP>
8*<SUP>4 </SUP>9<SUP>2</SUP> 9*<SUP>4 </SUP>10<SUP>4</SUP><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>I imagine there is a better way to do that, but I don’t know
how. It is in a modern pamphlet binding, which is too tight to see the
stitching. Any ideas?<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Thanks,<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Alisa Ellingson<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Special Collections Cataloger<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Brigham Young University<o:p></o:p></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>