[DCRM-L] Puzzling signatures

[Barbara Tysinger]

Calling on those with more experience than I...

I am cataloging a copy of the 1st ed. (London: J. Johnson, 1771) of /The 
natural history of the human teeth : explaining their structure, use, 
formation, growth, and diseases/. by John Hunter.  [8], 128, [16] p. 28 
cm. 4to (plus 16 plates, but I'll address those below)

In attempting to record the signatures I notices some anomalies that I 
didn't understand.

First, ignoring the anomalies, the volume is gathered and signed as [A^4 
] B-T^4

The plates are numbered, interleaved and sewn-in between the leaves of 
S-T^4 , each plate facing the page that describes it. From examination 
of the chain lines, S-T^4 appear to still be 4to gatherings and not 
singletons.

The real anomalies are numbers (and an occasional letter) that resemble 
signature marks, but are in addition to the alphabetic sequence above, 
and do not appear where one would expect them to be.

For example, the leaves in signature B^4   are marked: B B^2   [blank]   
[blank], as one might expect. But on the verso of B2 is the Arabic 
numeral 6 and on the verso of B3, the Arabic numeral 4. These numbers 
are centered at the bottom of the page, apart from the catchwords.
This first caught my eye in C^4 which is marked:   C   C^2 4   7 
although there are no markings on the verso in this case.
At first I thought perhaps it was some notation to show cancellation, 
but the 4to gatherings seem to be intact, and with the exception of A^4 
(which is completely unsigned) and S^4 , all of the signatures have at 
least one of these odd additional markings.

I will happily ignore these extra markings if they are unimportant, but 
I do not have the experience to know!

Thank you, I hope I haven't asked a question with an embarrassingly 
obvious answer!

Barbara
PS. I am attaching a spreadsheet in which I have attempted to record the 
signature sequence and the anomalies.

...................All opinions are entirely my own....................

Barbara R. Tysinger                                Phone: (919)966-0949
Health Sciences Library                            Fax: (919)966-1388
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
335 S. Columbia Street, CB# 7585
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7585
e-mail: Barbara_Tysinger at unc.edu

......."Non pilus tam tenuis ut secari non possit."-- St. Minutia......

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