Mary E. Brown, Ph.D., Professor
Information Science

Southern Connecticut State University
501 Crescent Street, New Haven, CT 06515

Department of Information and Library Science
Fax: 1.203.392-5780 / Phone: 1.203.392-5781
Toll Free: 1-888-500-SCSU, then press 4

NOTE: This is a synopsis of chapters 1, 2, and 9 from Stokes' Esdaile's Manual of Bibliography

A few quotes:

"Each book is a monument, great or small, of the civilization of its time and place: in the aggregate, therefore, an understanding of that generation's mind" (Stokes, 1981, p. 11).

"Books, contrary to a common notion, are very little bought for mere rarity; it is rarity combined with interest that gives them their market value" (Stokes, 1981, p. 19).

"In all sciences laboratory work on the specimen precedes classification. Before entries of books can be rationally assembled, it is necessary to create the individual entries--in other words, to describe books" (Stokes, 1981, p 10). The briefest library catalog entry must answer these questions: 1) What work or works does this volume contain? 2) What edition of that work is this? and 3) Is this copy perfect?

"Before very much useful work can be done in studying the books as a material object it is necessary to understand the functions of its parts" (Stokes, 1981, p. 32).

Central definitions:

SHEET

- the full sheet of paper as laid on the bed of the press for printing

SECTION, GATHERING, QUIRE

- a sheet folded, after printing in a predetermined manner to create a grouping of pages.

OPENING [a book]

- to cut through the folds (also called bolts) or to guillotine them away so that all the text may be easily visible (this is necessary in all formats other than the folio).

UNOPENED

- a copy of a book where the bolts, folds made when the sheet was folded according to its format,, have not been opened or cut.

UNCUT

- trimming or cutting edges of the leaf, reducing the size of the margin on the page.

LEAF

- two pages, one on the recto (face) of the leaf and one on the verso (back). [The leaf is the smallest element in the book that can have a separate identity.]

FOLIATED

- leaves of the book are numbered

PAGINATED

- pages of the book are numbered

Parts of a Book

Preliminaries

- generally the last printed and on a separate sheet or sheets (except in a reprint when no new prefatory matter is expected).

- generally paged separately and more often in a distinguishing font

- common European practice: to use roman figures for the preliminaries and Arabic figures for the body of the text

- tipped-in leaves, artistic or textual, are problematic

The half-title, bastard title, or faux-titre

- title leaf and a wrapper to the first page of text

- began in the latter half of the sixteenth century to be preceded and protected in its turn by another leaf which often carried only the signature letter A on the recto

- from the mid-seventeenth century the verso of the half-title was used for the imprimatur and in the latter part of the century it became common to print the short title on the recto: this is the half-title page of today

- the primary purpose of the half-title leaf is to protect the title page, which protects the text; the practice then arose to print the half-title on the second or third recto so that any page with text was away from the paste used to attach the end pages. Another purpose of half-title is to identify the book to which the first sheet (or protective sheet) belongs.

- the verso of the half-title is used for different purposes including for the printer's imprint and listing other works within a series or other books by the same author.

The title page

- book titles can appear in a variety of places: on the spine, on the half-title, on the title page, on the running headlines throughout the book.

- the title listed in these various locations might differ, sometimes dramatically.

- the importance of the title page is that is declares the "official" title of the work.

- manuscripts and early printed books had no title page; around 1480 a short "label" title, similar to the half-title, began to be printed on the blank recto of the first leaf

- first known title pages (1463 and 1470) were wordy and after 1485 the space below the short title was used to print the device, name, and address of the publisher (the printer's imprint was in the colophon)

- while the title was intended to inform the I tended reader of the contents of the book, as early as 1802 "fancy titles" were observed that bore no clue to the book's subject; in such cases, a subtitle was expected to explain the discrepancy

- five important facts can be expected to be found on the title leaf: 1) book's title and subject matter, with or without the aid of subtitles; 2) the author's name and relevant facts as to status in relation to the book's subject, such as academic position or authorship of similar works; 3) name of any translator, editor, introducer, or illustrator; 4) edition number; 5) imprint, giving the place, the publisher's name and address, and the date of publication

- the date of publication is often the most elusive piece of title-page information; undated books were common in the fifteenth century as manuscripts were not generally dated nor, due to repressive measures, were political and religious works of the mid-sixteenth century; many twentieth-century books did not include the date, an attempt to dissuade comparison between the publication date and the datedness of the contents.

The statement of editions

-the verso of the title leaf is a common place to find a complete listing of editions and impressions of the work

- common listings are: record of previous publication in periodical or other form; details of original version in the case of translations; and photographic reprints record the printing that was used and, if applicable, the identifidation of the copy/ies that were reproduced

-since 1802 it has been a legal obligation in the US (and since 1956 in the UK) to record here the date of copyright

The statement of the number of copies printed

-in its simplest form, a guarantee of the number of copies printed in a limited edition (This edition is limited to 750 copies.)

-number of copies not available for sale should be clearly stated (This edition is limited to 750 copies; of which Nos. 1-25 are not for sale.)

-which appropriate, the copy number is given (This is copy number ____)

The imprimatur (licence for publication)

-was granted by secular or ecclesiastical authority; usually gives name of the licenser and generally a date

-usually found on the verso of the title leaf

-[this is not a copyright; rather a sanction to publish a given type of book such as legal, divinity, philosophy, science, art]

-rarely found today except when required by canon law of the Roman Catholic Church

The dedication

-especially early dedications note dedications of temples, altars, and sacramental vessels and dedications of books to Christ, the Virgin, the Trinity, and God the Father.

-in books of some periods it is often the only place the author's name appears

-for a history of deedications and their literary, social, and cultural significance see Wheatly, H. B. (1887). The dedication of books. The Book-lover's Library.

The preface

-main purpose is to permit the author an opportunity to publish afterthoughts or other comments that are not regarded as appropriate to the main body of the book

- may contain purpose and sco0pe, comments on work published after the text was written, reference to contemporary events, acknowledgements, links to others working in the same field

-a variety of names have been used for prefatory information: "To the Reader," "Fore-talk," "Front matter," "The Preamble"

The introduction

-usually written by someone other than the author

-can be a major piece of writing in its own right

The table of contents

-value: can conveniently deal with the subject matter of the book in the order in which it is treated

-in its simplist form it is a systematic layout of book, by chapter in the order of the treatment of the subject

-in its more sophisticated form is provides early examples of abstracting (of factual books)

-a habit among 19th century novelists was the attempt to summarize each chapter in one sentence, for example "In which Mr. Warrington treats the company with tea and a ball" (The Virginians, Chapter 34)

-part of the apparatus within a book to enable the reader to find required portions

The list of illustrations

-serves the same pupose for illustrative material as the Table of Contents does for the text

-should distinguish between figures in the text and plates, with each series having a separate sequence of numbers

-the listing should have the same caption as the item to which it refers and indicate the exact position (such as, "following page 293")

Errata and addenda / Cancels

-errata and addenda (announcing errors noted after printing) may be found printed on an otherwise blank pages at the end of a book (if errors found before printing of final signature/section) or tipped or tucked in as a separate leaf

-Cancels are corrections on bits of paper to full leaves that are pasted over the letter/s, word/s, line/s, paragraph/s or, if a leaf, tipped into the book as replacement for the erroring letter, word, lines, paragraph, or removed page. [For good examples of cancels, browse bound dissertations completed on typewriters.]

Headlines

-headlines are common in books of all kinds from all periods

-the function of headlines is to guide the reader turning over the leaves to find a particular section

-a headline on the verso might carry the full or shortened title of the book or of the chapter or section

-a headline on the recto generally carries label of equal or less scope than that on the verso -- never greater

-the headline normally includes, at the outer ends, the pagination

The plates

-plates are whole-leaf-sized illustrations that are printed separately from the text

-plates are frequently supplied with "tissues" that serve to protect the facing pages and the plate from any set-off while the ink is fresh (tissues are generally loose and a book would not be regarded as imperfect if the tissues are removed)

-some folding plates have been five feet in length when extended/unfolded

-some folding plates are bound into the text, others may be placed in pockets in the casing or issued in a separate portfolio

Notes and references

-commonplace in books througout the history of books

-most frequent in works that require extensive explanation and reference

-marginal and interlinear glosses were favored in the manuscript period

-early printers tended to follow manuscript tradition

-over the past two hundred years notes tend to be at the foot of the page and, more recently, gathered at the end of a chapter or the end of the book

references can be used as "internal evidence" of the date of a book

Index or indexes (indices)

as any reader can attest, there are good indexes and there are poor indexes

-alphabetical listing is most common

-a book can have a single (combined) index, a single classified index, or multiple indexes (for example separating subjects from proper names)

The imprint, or colophon, which may include the printer's device/logo

-the colophon is occasionally found in manuscripts, giving the scribe's name and the date

-in printed books the colophon appeared on the Psalter printed by Fust and Schoeffer in 1457 and gradually became common only, around 1600, to be replaced by the title-page imprint

-originally the imprint/colophon was found at the end of the book; the printer's imprint is now commonly on the verso of the title page

Finis

-an old habit of book makers to mark the end of the text with "Finis" or "The End" or other appropriate statements such as "End of Volume 1"

Blank leaves

-[blank leaves are created by pages in a signature (sewn section) that contains no text on the recto or verso]; blank leaves are part of the book's collation (opposed to endsheets which are not)

-some [famous] book owners are known to have used blank leaves for personal writing/drawing

Advertisements

-advertisements appeared in many books from the mid-seventeenth century

-early forms generally either used blank sheets at the end of book to announce recent and forthcoming publications or (in the 19th century) included a separate gathering within the book

Subscription lists

-common in the 18th century was to publish by subscription

-a prospectus (commonly in newspapers) invited subscriptions to a proposed work, generally with the agreement to publish, in the book, a list of the subscribers

Endpapers

-the basic function of endpapers is to provide a pair of conjugate leaves, one of which could be pasted down on the inside of the boards; endpapers may be a folio or a small section of 2 or 3 sheets

-endpapers, bibliographically, are not considered part of the book

Dust jackets or dust wrapper or book jacket

-earliest known use of a dust jacket was in 1832

-jackets/wrappers, bibliographically, are not considered part of the book

Collation

A Collation [or descriptive collation] is the technical description of a book, including its bibliographical details and information about its physical construction.

A Descriptive Bibliography is the record, in detail, of the bibliographical nature of a book.

"...it can be said that bibliographical research is largely concerned with errors and imperfections in the various stages of production" (Stokes, 1981, p. 290).

Identifying a work and describing its parts can be a rather challenging exercise at times. Below are examples of some of the problems that may be encountered.

References

Stokes, R. (1981). Esdaile's manual of bibliography (5th rev. ed.) (pp. 3-56 and 290-341). Scarecrow Press.