[DCRM-L] Gathered in 9's?

[JOHN LANCASTER]

18mo in 9s is briefly mentioned by Gaskell, p. 329, documenting instructions for imposing it as early as 1755.  I imagine it must have been used in Britain, but I've only ever seen it in American printing of the late 18th-early 19th century.  Ccing Jim Green is a good idea, since I know it appears in some Philadelphia printing; I believe Joe Felcone's recent N.J. bibliography has examples; and there are a few from the hinterlands of western Massachusetts.  A consistent gathering in 9s like this almost certainly points to 18mo, I believe.  I've never seen an imposition diagram, but I'd imagine the only layout that would make sense would be two rows of nine, and I recollect the examples I've seen as tall in proportion to width.

John Lancaster


On Nov 29, 2012, at 12:06 PM, "Deborah J. Leslie" <DJLeslie at FOLGER.edu> wrote:

> We're cataloging an 1825 Boston imprint of William Bellamy, Select comedies from Shakspeare, which is gathered in 9's throughout. Our deteriorating copy with uncut leaves have helped us determine that the singleton is inserted after the 4th leaf of each gathering.
>  
> I've long known about the existence of gatherings in 9's--and give it as the one exception to prohibition against signature statements with a superscript odd number--and am pretty sure I even handled one at the Library Company, but can't track down documentation on it. The ExLibris-L archives are down so I can't search there. I seem to remember it as a Philadelphia German thing. Before we put down the signatures as A-L^9, though, it would be nice to have confirmation that this formulation is legit. As for identifying the format, Jaggard (Shakespeare bibliography) calls it a 12mo but I'm inclined to call it an 8vo.      
>  
> Thanks,
> Deborah  
>  
> Deborah J. Leslie, M.A., M.L.S. | Head of Cataloging, Folger Shakespeare Library | 201 East Capitol St., S.E. | Washington, D.C. 20003
> djleslie at folger.edu | 202.675-0369 | http://www.folger.edu