[DCRM-L] Glossary

[David Woodruff]

p. 191, Plate. A leaf that is chiefly or entirely non-letterpress, or a folded leaf of any kind, inserted with letterpress gatherings of text. - The broad definition in the Glossary of Letterpress as relief printing causes a problem here: if plates can’t be letterpress, woodcuts can’t be plates. The printing technique of the plate shouldn't matter for the purposes of definition. It may be different from that of the text, or the same (e.g. lithographic plates with lithographic text). I don’t see any alternative to some version of the DCRB definition, qualified to allow for engraved titles, etc., and tables. That definition reads: A primarily illustrative leaf that is not an integral part of a gathering. This could  be followed by the second sentence in the present definition: A plate usually contains illustrative matter, with or without accompanying text, but may contain only text (e.g., an engraved title page or a folded letterpress table).
Also a question about “a folded leaf of any kind” * would such a leaf still be a plate if printed with normal letterpress text, not in table form?