A1 quarto Second fold First fold First Early modern paper was made of pulped linen, cot- ton, or hemp fibers, mixed into a large vat of water. A ‘vat man’ produced one sheet at a time by catching up the pulp in a sieve-like mold. Chain lines and watermarks were im- pressions left in the paper from the wire mesh of the mold. The thinning out of the pulp left uneven, or ‘deckle,’ edges. These features are pictured here on the left (from Folger ms. L.f.4, photographed with transmitted light). Standard sizes of sheets of paper were much larger than today’s. Different formats for writing or printing were shaped This is not a sheet by a series of folds. One fold of the sheet made a folio, two folds a quarto, and three folds an octavo. A broadsheet had of handmade paper, no folds. The format also determined the text’s orientation but it could help you understand and page layout for printing. some features and uses To fold this sheet, position the selected A1 ‘signature’ mark fold Third at the bottom right, facing up. Follow the folding sequence of early modern paper. indicated, keeping the signature A1 centered at the bottom of the first page for each layout. A spine fold remains on the left, the foundation for any stitching, binding, or even sometimes pin- A1 folio ning. Folds on other edges have to be cut, or ‘opened,’ for inner pages to be read. A1 octavo Coming to terms When a sheet of paper is folded, leaves are created. LEAF Gatherings are sometimes also called signatures. The term signature mark refers A leaf has two sides: a front (recto) and a back specifically to the letters (or sometimes symbols) and numbers added to the recto of (verso). A page is one side of a leaf. leaves to help ensure printers and binders assembled the sheets in the correct order. The o s r ve A’s on the front of this sheet indicate the first leaf in the gathering.B would be the In a way, sheet, leaf, and page are all units of signature mark of the second gathering, if there were one. C, D, and E would follow in measurement. Writers probably thought of the number order, if necessary. of sheets it would take to write something in the same way we think of page length for classroom assignments. Full signature statements 4 5 3 6 Printers calculated the cost of a job by the number of are marked in the diagrams 2 7 sheets it would take. Today, bibliographers might describe here. But in early modern 1 8 the length of a book in sheets or leaves. Page numbers books, the versos are not might not even have been included in an early modern labeled, and the second half text, and, if they were, they might not have been correct. recto of the gathering is also not labeled. The backside of A Many written and printed texts were short enough to be 3 a recto, the verso, doesn’t v completed within one sheet of paper. But longer texts required multiple sheets of paper. A2r need its own signature A2v Those sheets had to be printed one at a time and then assembled in the correct order r r 4 A because it is always 1 A A3 v for folding, cutting, and stitching. Terms like gatherings and signatures come into A1 connected to its frontside, v A4r play then. just as the second half of the gathering is normally A gathering is one section of a handmade book, labeled for placement in a larger QUARTO part of the same sheet. sequence. In the case of a quarto or octavo, a gathering is contained within the pages printed on one sheet (eight and sixteen, respectively). For folios, a gathering usually 8 9 took up several sheets of paper. The First Folio gatherings are of three sheets each, for 7 10 instance, making it a “gathering in sixes,” if you count by leaves. 6 11 4 5 12 13 2 15 3 14 1 16 6 7 5 8 4 9 A 2 3 10 11 5 1 v 12 A4r OCTAVO A4v r A FOLIO r 3 v 6 A A3 A5 (in sixes) r 2 v A6r v 7 A A A A2v r 4 A7 v A1r A3r A1v A8r v 8 A A3v r A r 2 v 5 A A2 A4 v r 1 A A5r v 6 A A1v A6r Learn more about the working knowledge of printers and enter the virtual printing house at DIY First Folio. www.folger.edu/diyFF .