"Camerado! This is no book; who touches this touches a man."

-Walt Whitman (1819-92)

We take the book for granted. We also take for granted the parts, names, and traditions used in book making. Where did the name for signature come from? Why do we have title pages? What's a "bastard title page?" Why do the first pages of most books start on the right hand side? What's a "colophon" and would a printer want one?

READ ON!

Books evolved from scrolls. Early Egyptian, Greek, and Roman authors would sometimes write in continuous lines for the entire unrolled-length of the scroll. Upon completing the line, the scroll had to be rolled up again and reading resumed on the second line that also went to the length of the scroll. Finally, some forgotten genius invented columns and the lines went for sorter measures in page-like form on the scroll.

T scroll then evolved into fan-fold pages that could be sewn at the back. This accordion-like device was known as an "orihon." It resembled a book, but only one side of the paper could be used. After the pages were securely bound the leaves could be separated and a scribe could write on the inside pages. It was in Germany that someone suggested wooden boards could be placed on the ends for protection. "Book" comes from the German word for the wood used.

Because the sewn spine of the book was rather unattractive, an early bookbinder covered it with leather. With only the spine covered it was called a quarter bound book. More leather increased the name to half-bound, and three-quarters bound. Gradually, the entire book was covered, decorated, and bejeweled. After all, the purchase of an early hand copied book was a major expense in the days before printing. The elaborate outside decoration was even applied to the edge opposite the spine, the face of the book. It was sometimes painted with a decorative scene that could only be viewed upon opening the book and allowing the pages to fan out.

The technology of papermaking had an impact on what was inside of the book. With papyrus and parchment it was convenient to paste the pages together into long scrolls. If you needed more room to write, just paste on another page. The scroll could easily be added to, but it lacked the ease of randomly accessing any page at will. It took the development of the paged-book to necessitate page numbers and this led to the table of contents in the front of the book and a more detailed index in the back.

When paper came to be made in sheets, there was a natural tendency to fold the paper into pages. A single fold resulted into a four-page folio. Applying a right angle fold to this created an eight-page "quarto." A sixteen-page "octavo" came next, and so on. The result was signatures of 4, 8, 16, and possibly 32 pages. If you bound a book of four signatures, sixteen pages each; there were sixty-four pages. Suppose the author had only written 58 pages worth? The six blank pages were often left in the back of the bound volume or the bookbinder cut them out of the completed book.

The publishing of an entire book at once was costly. Often chapters were issued serially allowing the publisher a faster return on investment. Authors were told to write a chapter long enough to fill a signature. These were called "chap" books. The term signature might have been applied to the identifying letters and numbers placed on the first page of signatures. They were used to later give the bookbinder an indication to the order of assembly.

In the early days, book production was far from "demand publishing." It took a long time to compose and makeup type pages. Once a job was on the press, a publisher would order all he thought he could sell. He would only pay to have a portion bound at first. If these sold he would issue orders to bind the rest as sales dictated. This left the bookbinder with bundles of unbound books in his shop. Handling and storage tended to damage the top pages. The printer was told to take one of the blank pages in the back and rearrange his imposition to put it in the front. This created a natural "self cover."

This blank top page was good for protection, but bad for identification. The printer was now instructed to print the title of the book or chapter on this top sheet. The bookbinder began to bind this into the book and thus the title page was born. Later, as this page was damaged in storage another blank page was created before it and they were back to the original problem. The title page became quite an elaborate page preceded by a blank page. Again, a very plain top identifying page was created with only the title. This was called the "bastard title" page. Depending upon the number of unused pages available, they sometimes even put a blank page before it!

The first page of text is traditionally a right-hand page. Undoubtedly, this came from the original signature layout without any blank pages preceding it. This conveniently left the facing pages blank until publisher's addresses, copyrights, ISBN numbers, etc. needed a place to reside. Readers would not want to have this technical publishing information to mar the first spread of the book, so another blank page was inserted.

The blank pages in the beginning and end of the book should not be confused with the end papers. These were not part of the signatures, but heavier sheets of paper whose purpose was to hold the book block to the cover. They also fell into the designer's hand and became decorated, printed with arabesque patterns, and marbled.

The tendency for authors and publishers to write introductions, forwards, dedications, and acknowledgments filled the first pages of the book and used up any blanks that would have been in the back of the book. If there was room in the back of the book, an author was encouraged to put in additional "oddments" such as appendixes, bibliographies, indexes, or notes. Publishers often stuck in advertisements of book lists or coming attractions.

If there was any room at all left after the egos of publisher and author were satiated, the printer was allowed his small boast in the colophon. The word "colophon" comes from Latin from Greek "kolophon" and means crowning touch or finishing stroke. Sometimes, on the last page, the printer would simply place his imprint, monogram, shield, device, or logo. In other books, compete details of the book production were elaborated. A bold printer, especially those in league with the publisher, might go so far as to join the author and publisher in placing his imprint in the front of the book.