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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">I think I have some idea based on my course at Rare Book School. The book I’m working on now, A manual of practical surgery by Lewis A. Stimson from 1900, has “signatures” marking the various “gatherings” in
the book. Since this is an ordinary size book, it’s an octavo, meaning there are 8 leaves and 16 pages in each gathering. Gathering 2 starts on page 17 because gathering 1 would end at xvi (16) if it were the full number of pages. But often the preliminary
part of a book turned out not to be that long, so there was a gap between the end of it and page 17. Perhaps I could be mistaken to think the ending page was xii so often. But I do think I’ve seen xii or xiii a lot more often than xiv, xv, or xvi.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Ted Gemberling<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">UAB Lister Hill Library<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> Gemberling, Ted P
<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Sunday, March 12, 2017 6:04 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> AUTOCAT (AUTOCAT@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU); DCRM Revision Group List (dcrm-l@lib.byu.edu)<br>
<b>Subject:</b> xii, 17- pages<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It seems like I’ve seen this pattern many, many times in old books! There are preliminary pages up to xii, and the second series starts with 17. Anybody got an idea why that would be? It can’t be an accident. It’s a mysterious aspect of
printing to me. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Ted P. Gemberling<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Historical Collections Cataloger<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">UAB Lister Hill Library, rm. 234B<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">1720 Second Ave. South<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Birmingham, Ala. 35294-0013<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Phone: (205)934-2461<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Fax: (205)934-3545<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1E6B52">#uablibraries<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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