[DCRM-L] help with note for signature oddity

[JOHN LANCASTER]

You beat me to it, Richard, on the explanation - though the binder would still have to work backwards from the usual order of gatherings to end up with the correct sequence.

In fact the 1727 edition is T153833, with the language incorrectly coded (as with some other Arabic works) - and an inconsistent pair of notes about the signatures (perhaps Patrick can correct that).

John Lancaster


On 2014 Oct 22, at 10:07, Noble, Richard <richard_noble at brown.edu> wrote:

> Top of my head: Compositors will letter the signatures in order of composition. Binders will work in  their usual direction--they would be instructed to arrange and sew the gatherings in reverse order, but they will want the signature to appear on what is for them the first leaf of each gathering. The text matters not at all to them (and they might not be entirely literate in English--binders, or at least their operatives, didn't need to be the sharpest knives in the drawer).
> 
> As for the NT pattern, might the $2 signatures, intended to mark the second leaf in the same manner as the first, be just consistently misplaced? (This edition seems not to have found its way into ESTC yet. It's not one of the 8 records with the "ara" code in the database.)
> 
> RICHARD NOBLE :: RARE MATERIALS CATALOGUER :: JOHN HAY LIBRARY
> BROWN UNIVERSITY  ::  PROVIDENCE, R.I. 02912  ::  401-863-1187
> <Richard_Noble at Brown.edu>
> 
> On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 9:39 AM, Cates, Patrick <cates at gts.edu> wrote:
> I'm working on an edition of the Psalms in Arabic published in 1725 by the SPCK (ESTC T154998). It's an octavo in fours signed A-2G^4 with only the first leaf of each gathering signed. In the usual Arabic fashion, it's paged back to front and the gatherings are likewise collected back to front--in other words, if you opened it as though it were a European language book, you would find the last page of the last gathering (2G4v in this case). What's weird about this book is that the signature marks are on the last page of each gathering so that the page signed B1 is functionally B4v. This is obvious on inspection, but I'm having a hard time coming up with a concise or even a lengthy note to explain it. SPCK's 1727 Arabic New Testament is signed similarly, but with the added complication that each signed leaf is signed on both sides (e.g. A on one side and A2 on the other). Any suggestions would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Patrick
> 
> Patrick Cates
> Technical Services Librarian
> Christoph Keller, Jr. Library
> General Theological Seminary
> 440 W. 21st Street
> New York, NY 10011
> 646-717-9789
> 

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