Glossary
Advance Copy: copies of a new book circulated to the publishing industry prior to the release of the true first edition. These advance copies, which may or may not show variation from the true first editions, are considered to be examples of an early state of the printed text. Often released in wrappers, they may also be bound. The binding or text may carry a feature that is left out of the first edition released to the public, although the latter is still considered the true first edition.
Annotations: Hand-written notations in the book regarding the text, on blanks or in the margins.
Aquatint: Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
Armorial: Used to describe a binding bearing the coat of arms of the original owner, or with bookplates incorporating the owner’s arms.
As Issued: Used to emphasize the original state of the book being described, when that state might normally seem unusual in such a book. As in, “with 19 pages of advertisements, as issued.”
As Usual: Used to explain the presence of a commonly found imperfection present in multiple copies of a book. The imperfection is so common that is considered almost expected.
Association Copy: copy that belonged to someone connected with the author or the contents of a book.
Autograph: (adj.) Applies to a letter, document or manuscript in the hand of the author.
Autograph Letter Signed: (ALS) Entirely handwritten letter signed by the author.
Blind: Refers to decoration or lettering on a binding that has been pressed into the leather and left bare. It is without additional color such as gold. As in, “binding with blind-stamped decoration.”
Boards: Hard front and rear covers of a bound book which are covered in cloth, leather or paper. “Original boards” refers to cardboard-like front and back boards, from about 1700 to 1840, used as temporary protection for books before their
purchasers would have them bound. Of particular value to collectors as evidence of a very early form of the book.
Book-Plate: Label, generally affixed to the front pastedown, identifying a book’s owner.
Broadside: Sheet printed on one side, typically for public display, usually larger than folio size (a folio being a broadside-size sheet printed on both sides and folded once, to make four pages).
Calf: Binding material made from cowhide—versatile, durable, usually tan or brown in color, of smooth texture with no or little apparent grain. Readily marbled (“tree calf”), mottled, diced, colored, polished, tooled in gilt or blind, even scented (known as “russia”). Reverse calf, with a distinctive suede-like texture, is occasionally used.
Cancel: Leaf inserted in place of another removed leaf to correct an error, or as a result of censorship; the page removed is called the cancelland. Can also refer to a slip of paper pasted over the changed passage, often then called a cancel slip.
Catchword: First word of the next page placed just below the last line of the preceding page, most common in books from the 17th century and earlier. Catchwords were for the binders (not the readers) to ensure that the signatures had been properly folded and assembled in order; one only had to make sure each catchword matched the first word on the following page as he flipped through the text. These can often be useful in collating an early printed book in which page numbers are sometimes incorrect or repeated (mispaginated).
Chromolithograph: Lithograph printed in colors, typically three or more.
Collation: Process by which the contents of a book are inspected for completeness, checking against internal evidence, the table of contents and/or plate list, and reference works. Also a shorthand bibliographical description of a book’s composition by its leaves and signatures, rather than its pages. A-C, for example, would indicate a quarto volume composed of three signatures or gatherings of eight pages each for a total of 24 pages.
Colophon: Printed note at the end of a text containing information about the printing of the book.
Contemporary: Of the period of issue. Can be used to describe a book’s binding, if within a decade or so of publication; marks of ownership or marginalia; hand coloring; rubrication; anything done to a text block at roughly the same time as it was issued. Not to be confused with “modern,” meaning “recent” for books.
Dedication Copy: Copy of a book presented by the author to the book’s printed dedicatee.
Doublure: Pastedowns made not of paper but of leather, for decorative purposes.
Duodecimo: (12MO) Smaller than an octavo, typically less than six inches tall; smaller formats, such as 24mo and 32mo, are uncommon.
Edition: Print-run from a single setting of type without substantial change. Depending on demand, any number of printings can be made from a setting of type For example, a first printing might consist of 1000 copies, followed by a second printing of 2500 copies; in which case the book would have a first edition, first printing of 1000 copies, and a first edition, second printing of 2500 copies.
Endpapers: Extra leaves—plain, colored or decorated—with which a bookbinder covers the insides of the book’s boards, therefore not part of the actual text block. The part of the leaf pasted to the inside of the front board is the front “pastedown,” while the other part of the leaf that forms the first page of the book is the “front free endpaper”; the same applies to the rear pastedown and rear free endpaper.
Engraving: Illustration produced by carving lines into a metal plate. This is an intaglio process, in which ink is poured over the plate, then wiped from the surface, leaving ink only in the recesses made by the engraver’s tools. The image is then transferred by pressing thick dampened paper against the metal plate with great force—requiring engravings to be printed on a separate stock and separate press from any text.
Ephemera: Any printed material not in book form. These pieces are ephemeral, i.e. not intended to last.
Errata: List of mistakes and corrections noted after printing, often compiled on a separate sheet or slip and inserted into the text block.
Ex-Library Markings: Bookplates, blind- or inkstamps, shelf numbers and other indications that a book once belonged to a circulating or institutional library.
Extra-Illustrated: Process of inserting illustrations, letters or autographs in addition to those already present in a book, supplied either by the collector or the publisher, to make a more deluxe edition. Also called “grangerized,” after pioneering English publisher James Granger.
Flyleaves: Additional blank leaves following or preceding the endpapers.
Folio: Book composed of sheets that are folded once and printed on both sides, making two leaves and four pages. Typically above 14 inches tall. Oblong folios are produced the same way but bound at the short edge, producing a book typically more than 14 inches deep.
Fore-Edge: Edge of the book furthest from the spine. Occasionally the text of a book will be put into a specialized book press and painted, often with a scene from the book or a landscape, so that the painting is invisible when the book is closed but visible when somebody bends the text and fans the pages—known as a fore-edge painting.
Foxing: Light brown spots that naturally appear on some papers due to oxidation as they age.
Frontispiece: An illustration facing the title page of a book
Gathering: Single sheet of paper that has been printed and folded to form the pages required by the book’s format. A single gathering of a quarto book, then, would be a sheet folded twice, containing four leaves, eight pages of text.Gatherings are identified by a letter, symbol or number in the lower margin of the first page (the “signature”) to make it easy for the printer to stack them in proper order for sewing.
Gilt Edges: The three exposed edges of a book have been smoothed and gilded.
Half Title: Leaf preceding the title page that bears the book’s title, originally used to identify the unbound text block. The book’s binder would often remove and discard the half title at the time of binding. Remaining half-titles are therefore of interest to collectors.
Hand-Colored: Illustration that has been colored by hand, typically with watercolors, at or shortly after the time of publication. Before color printing processes were widely available, hand coloring was the most economically feasible way of producing illustrations in color; the coloring could range from finely rendered paintings with rich palettes to a few brushstrokes of color. In some cases the colorist would finish with clear varnish (gum arabic) to heighten colors.
Hinge: Interior joining of the covers to the text block, the gutter formed by the pastedown and the front free endpaper.
Illuminated: Decorated by hand. Typically early printed books and especially manuscripts.
Imprint: Satement of place, publisher and date of publication on a book’s title page. Incunable: From the cradle of printing, i.e., any book printed before 1501.
Inscribed: Refers to anything written by the author in the book beyond his or her signature. This can be a dedication, as in “To Paul”; or it can be other forms of handwriting, such as including the date of the signing.
Issue: A group of books issued by the publisher as a discrete unit. At times, issue refers to timing, such as the “first issue” being offered to the public at an earlier date than the “second issue.” At other times, it refers to specially planned different batches, such as the “trade issue” (widely available) in opposition to a “signed limited issue” (limited to a small amount of copies differing somehow from the trade issue and not widely available).
Japanese Vellum: Expensive handmade paper often used in deluxe editions.
Laid In: Adjective describing paper or other material loosely inserted into a book.
Letter Signed: (LS) Letter in a secretarial hand to which the author has added his or her own signature.
Lithograph: Illustration produced by transferring an image drawn on a carefully prepared stone to paper. The process allowed illustrations to more closely resemble the original drawings, paintings or sketches, as it gave the lithographer a freedom of line impossible to achieve in earlier intaglio and relief processes. It does not require the same sort of pressure as an engraving to transfer the image, but still has to be printed on separate stock from the text
Livre D’Artiste: (or Artist’s Book) An example of a tradition of books illustrated with original hand-printed plates, usually issued in small editions on fine paper and often signed by the artist and author.
Marginalia: Handwritten notes made in the margins by a previous owner.
Mispaginated: Printer’s error in pagination, typically skipping, transposing or repeating page numbers. Not uncommon in older, larger books, it is not considered a defect, so long as all integral leaves are present.
Modern: Recently accomplished, when used to describe a book’s binding that is not the original casing. Some books bound recently are bound using techniques, tools and styles of the period of the book’s original issue; when done well this is called a period-style binding, a term that implies “modern” as well.
Morocco: Binding material made from goatskin—versatile, durable, with a distinctive pebbled texture and visible grain. Readily stretched (“straight-grain”), crushed (flattened smooth), tooled in gilt or blind, inlaid with leathers of different colors. So-called because much of the raw material originally came from the tanneries of North Africa (other types of goatskin bindings denoting regions of origin include levant, turkey, niger).
Octavo: (8vo) Book composed of sheets printed on both sides and folded thrice, making eight leaves and 16 pages. Typically between six and nine inches tall, and more rectangular than square, this is the typical size of most printed books today.
Offset: The unintended transfer of ink from one printed page to an adjacent page.
Period-Style: binding executed with materials, tools and techniques to approximate the look of a contemporary binding from the period of the book’s publication. The term implies that the binding is modern, or recent, unless otherwise specified.
Plate: Full-page illustration printed separately from but bound with the text.
Point: Variation in text, illustration, design or format that allows a bibliographer to distinguish between different editions and different printings of the same edition, or between different states or issues of the same printing.
Presentation Copy: Book given as a gift by its author, illustrator or publisher. Sometimes refers to a volume given by a notable donor.
Proofs: provided by the printer for the author and the publisher to correct and amend as needed prior to the printing of the first edition.
Provenance: History of a particular copy of a book.
Quarto: (4to) Book composed of sheets printed on both sides and folded twice, making four leaves and eight pages. Typically between nine and 14 inches tall, more square than rectangular.
Raised Bands: Horizontal protruding strips found on the spine of a book.
Reback: To supply a worn binding with a new spine, usually made of the same material as the rest of the binding and decorated to match. When feasible the binder may preserve the original spine and affix it to the new material, described as “rebacked with the original spine laid down.”
Recase: To reattach a text block to its binding when it has become loose from its covers.
Recto: The front side of a leaf. The back side is known as the “verso.”
Signature: A letter, symbol or number in the lower margin of the first page of a gathering used by the binder to bind the sheets in the right order. By extension, a “signature” is also often used to mean “gathering.”
State: When there is a noted variation in a book’s text, illustrations, binding or dust jacket effected during the manufacturing process, this variation creates two or more “states” of the book.. Sometimes a bibliographer can determine which state was produced first, but often the different states co-exist without any such determination. For example, if it is known that at some point during a print run a letter dropped from the page, producing a typographical error, then copies with the correct text would be considered first-state and copies with the error second-state.
Tipped In: Leaf, plate or other paper neatly glued or otherwise attached to the text block.
Trade Edition: Printing or printings of a book made available for purchase by the general public on publication day (as opposed to a limited edition, often available only by subscription).
Uncut: When the edges of the text block (most apparent at the fore and lower edges) have not been trimmed to a uniform size, and are therefore characterized by a ragged or deckle edge. A book may be uncut but opened—i.e., with a paper-knife—but all unopened books (see below) are by nature uncut as well.
Unopened: When the folds of the sheets of paper making up the text block have not been trimmed away or opened with a paper-knife. While this makes it impossible to read all of the pages, it also indicates a probability that the text block has not been altered since leaving the printer.
Vellum: Binding material made from specially treated calfskin—durable, with a distinctive ivory color and smooth appearance. Can be tooled in gilt or blind. So-called Japan vellum (or Japon) is a type of thick paper that has been polished smooth and given a glossy finish to resemble vellum.
Verso: The back or reverse side of a leaf or page. (See “recto.”)
Woodcut: Illustration or textual decoration made by cutting away from the surface of a block of wood until the reverse of the image is left in relief; this is then inked and pressed to the paper to leave the image. The woodblock, or multiple blocks, can be fit into the page along with the type, allowing text and illustrations to be printed in the same print run and share the same page (not possible with engravings, which require thicker, damp paper and much more force; nor with lithographs, which require a different printing process altogether). Woodcuts preceded moveable type and are the earliest known printing technology.
Wood-Engraving: Engraving made with the graver or burin on the cross-section of a piece of boxwood; the harder wood and finer tools allow for more delicate, finely detailed images, while the block can still be set in the page alongside text and printed on the same stock as the text. While much older, wood engravings enjoyed an important renaissance in the late eighteenth century through Thomas Bewick and continued in popularity thorugh the nineteenth century.
Wormhole: Tiny pinhole-sized trails left by bookworms as they eat through a text block. Much more common in older books printed on handmade papers with a high rag content than in books printed on manufactured papers made from wood pulp with a higher acidic content.
Wrappers: Paper coverings—plain, marbled or printed—attached by stitches, staples or glue to a text block to identify it and afford it some protection (though much more fragile than a binding in plain, cloth or leather-covered boards). More typical of slim and/or inexpensive volumes such as pamphlets. “Self wrappers” are leaves, blank or printed, that are integral to the text block, conjugate with other leaves and from the same stock. “Original wrappers,” those attached at the time of issue, are scarce and extremely desirable to most collectors.