Bookbinding and The Care of Books
Douglas Cockerell with Drawings by Noel Rooke and other
Illustrations New York 1902
COLLATING
Bookbinding Chapter II Part 3
section of a printed book is lettered or
numbered. Each letter or number is called the
“sheet’s signature.” Printers usually leave out J
W and V in letter sheets. If there are more
sections than there are letters in the alphabet, the
printer doubles the letters, signing the sections
AA, BB, and so on, after the single letters are
exhausted. Some printers use Arabic numeral
before the section number to denote the second
alphabet, as 2A, 2B, &c., and others change the
character of the letters, perhaps using capitals for
the first alphabet and italics for the second.
In books of more than one volume, the number of the volume is sometimes
added in Roman numerals before the signature, as II A, II B.
The main pagination of the book usually commences with Chapter I., and all
before that is independently paged in Roman numerals. It is unusual to
have actual numbers on the title or half-title, but if the pages are counted
back from where the first numeral occurs, they should come right.
There will sometimes be one or more blank leaves completing sections at the
beginning or end. Such blank leaves must be retained, as without them the
volume would be “imperfect.”
To collate a modern book the paging must be examined to see that the
leaves are in order, and that nothing is defective or missing.
The method of doing this is to insert the first finger of the right hand at the
bottom of about the fiftieth page, crook the finger and turn up the corners
of the pages with it. When this is done the thumb is placed on page I, and
the hand twisted, so as to fan out the top of the pages. They can then be
readily turned over by the thumb and first finger of the left hand (see fig. 5).
This is repeated throughout the book, taking about fifty pages at a time. It
will of course only be necessary to check the odd numbers, as if they are
right, the even ones on the other side of the leaf must be so. If the pages are
numbered at the foot, the leaves must be fanned out from the head.
Plates or maps that are not paged can only be checked from the printed list.
When checked it will save time if the number of the page which each faces is
marked on the back in small pencil figures.
In the case of early printed books or manuscripts, which are often not paged,
special knowledge is needed for their collation. It may roughly be said, that
if the sections are all complete, that is if there are the same number of leaves
at each side of the sewing in all the sections, the book may be taken to be
perfect, unless of course whole sections are missing. All unpaged books
should be paged through in pencil before they are taken apart; this is best
done with a very fine pencil, at the bottom left-hand corner; it will only be
necessary to number the front of each leaf.
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