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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#993366">This sounds like a perfectly normal American 12mo in half-sheet imposition. At 14 cm high, it's unlikely to be a smaller format.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#993366"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#993366">The signing weirdity isn't actually weird if you think about how 12mo's—whether full-sheet or half-sheet—are imposed and assembled. For full sheet 12mo's, a 4-page
strip is removed from the sheet. The 8-page portion is folded like an octavo, and the 4-page strip is folded twice on itself. Then the 4-page section is inserted in the middle of the 8-page section.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#993366"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#993366">For a half-sheet imposition, a 2-page strip is separated from the 4-page section, the larger section folded like a quarto, and the 2-page strip is folded once and
inserted into the middle of the 4-page section. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#993366"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#993366">So far, so good. But Americans pioneered the practice of signing only the first leaf of the gathering and the first leaf of the insertion for 12mo's. For a gathering
in 12's, this would be leaf 1 and leaf 5; for one in 6's, it would be leaf 1 and leaf 3. In Dan's book, the signing is completely regular: for each gathering, the first leaf is signed with the letter, say 'B', and the third leaf, or the first leaf of the insertion,
is signed B2. It doesn't meant that the third leaf is B2—it's still B3. That's because we
<i>assign</i> leaf values for reference notation based on the collation. It's awkward and confusing because it's a departure from the typical signing method of earlier periods, but still intelligible thanks to the collational formula.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#993366"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#993366">American printers started signing with numbers instead of letters sometime around late 18th-early 19th century. For 12mo's, the signing often looked like, say, the
first leaf of 12 leaves signed '2', and the fifth leaf signed '2-2'. That fifth leaf is still 2<sub>5</sub> when we need to refer to it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#993366"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#993366">Attached is a two-sided image of a common 12mo, taken from Gaskell. Try it yourself.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#2E74B5">______________________<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#2E74B5">Deborah J Leslie, M.A., M.L.S. | Senior Cataloger | Folger Shakespeare Library | 201 East Capitol Street, S.E. Washington, DC 20003 |
<a href="mailto:djleslie@folger.edu"><span style="color:#2E74B5;text-decoration:none">djleslie@folger.edu</span></a> |
<a href="http://www.folger.edu/"><span style="color:#0563C1">www.folger.edu</span></a> | Opinions her own<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#993366"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> DCRM-L <dcrm-l-bounces@lib.byu.edu>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Washington, Brittney<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, 26 August, 2021 12:11<br>
<b>To:</b> DCRM Users' Group <dcrm-l@lib.byu.edu><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [DCRM-L] format confusion<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#44546A">Hi Daniel,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#44546A"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#44546A">With regard to
</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">“</span>The third leaf of each gathering is signed A2, B2, C2 etc.”
<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#44546A">I had something similar like this recently, too. It turns out the gatherings were in twos. In the OCLC record I found this described: “Signatures: A1-L1² A2-L2², with quire A2 following
quire A1, B2 following B1, etc.” I found that confusing so I wrote it out for our catalog as follows: A1² A2² B1² B2² C1² C2² D1² D2² ² E1² E2² F1² F2² G1² G2² H1² H2² I1² I2² K1² K2² L1² L2².<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#44546A"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#44546A">This may not answer your question really, but it could be a weird situation like this that is causing so much confusion.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#44546A"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Brittney Washington<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Metadata & Cataloging Librarian for Special Formats<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Harry Ransom Center<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">The University of Texas at Austin
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">(512) 232-1681<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#44546A"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> DCRM-L <<a href="mailto:dcrm-l-bounces@lib.byu.edu">dcrm-l-bounces@lib.byu.edu</a>>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Daniel Axmacher<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, August 26, 2021 10:51 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:dcrm-l@lib.byu.edu">dcrm-l@lib.byu.edu</a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [DCRM-L] format confusion<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Howdy everyone,<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I'm seeking advice on an edition of The Wonderful life and surprising adventures of that renowned hero Robinson Crusoe. Boston: J. White and Co., 1792. The bookseller calls it an 8vo, ESTC and the OCLC record call it a 12mo, and it's down
in Evans American Bibliography as a 24mo.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">It's 14 cm in height, in gatherings of six, A-F, with vertical chain lines, and no watermarks that I can find. A1 and F6 are used as paste-downs, and it's signed on the first and third leaves. The third leaf of each gathering is signed
A2, B2, C2 etc. and I'm not entirely sure what to make of that.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Based on all that, I'm inclined to think it's an 18mo, or maybe long 24mo? But I'm not sure how to distinguish the two, and with the uncertainty between ESTC and Evans I think I might be missing something. Does anyone have advice or insight
that might help clear this up? Thanks in advance.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Best,<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Dan Axmacher<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">-- <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#888888">Daniel P. Axmacher<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#888888">[he/him/his]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#888888">Rare Materials Catalog Librarian<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#888888">Boston Athenæum<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#888888">10½ Beacon Street<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#888888">Boston, MA 02108<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#888888"><a href="tel:%28617%29%20227-0270" target="_blank">617-227-0270 ext.
<span style="color:#888888">245</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#888888"><a href="https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/pttYC9rA0jUvg3JuECVn7?domain=bostonathenaeum.org" target="_blank">www.bostonathenaeum.org</a></span><o:p></o:p></p>
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