[DCRM-L] format confusion

[Deborah J. Leslie]

This sounds like a perfectly normal American 12mo in half-sheet imposition. At 14 cm high, it's unlikely to be a smaller format.

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.

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.

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 assign 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.

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 25 when we need to refer to it.

Attached is a two-sided image of a common 12mo, taken from Gaskell. Try it yourself.
______________________
Deborah J Leslie, M.A., M.L.S. | Senior Cataloger | Folger Shakespeare Library | 201 East Capitol Street, S.E. Washington, DC 20003 | djleslie at folger.edu<mailto:djleslie at folger.edu> | www.folger.edu<http://www.folger.edu/> | Opinions her own

From: DCRM-L <dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu> On Behalf Of Washington, Brittney
Sent: Thursday, 26 August, 2021 12:11
To: DCRM Users' Group <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>
Subject: Re: [DCRM-L] format confusion

Hi Daniel,

With regard to “The third leaf of each gathering is signed A2, B2, C2 etc.” 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.

This may not answer your question really, but it could be a weird situation like this that is causing so much confusion.


Brittney Washington
Metadata & Cataloging Librarian for Special Formats
Harry Ransom Center
The University of Texas at Austin
(512) 232-1681



From: DCRM-L <dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu>> On Behalf Of Daniel Axmacher
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2021 10:51 AM
To: dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu<mailto:dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>
Subject: [DCRM-L] format confusion

Howdy everyone,

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.

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.

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.

Best,
Dan Axmacher
--
Daniel P. Axmacher
[he/him/his]
Rare Materials Catalog Librarian
Boston Athenæum
10½ Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02108
617-227-0270 ext. 245<tel:%28617%29%20227-0270>
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