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Information Studies 603: Incunabula Project Guide: Part 1: Physical Characteristics of Incunabula

Part 1: Physical Characteristics

In this activity, students are expected to describe physical characteristics to the best of their abilities. In describing each part of the book, students should pay particularly close attention to material, damage, techniques, and styles. You should physically evaluate and describe each of the three incunabula you will use for your project before moving on to doing bibliographic searches. The reason for this is that these physical features will help you identify the correct bibliographic records, especially when searching World Cat. 

Parts of the Book

Image illustrating physical parts of a book

Parts of the Book: Binding, Cover, and Clasps

Binding: the covering which holds the pages of a book together

  • What is the binding made of? 
  • What is the condition of the binding?  
  • Is the binding contemporary to the book?

                                       Full Binding: Leather covers                 Half Binding: Leather covers                Quarter Binding: Leather covers

                                       spine and entirety of front and                spine, corners and approximately          approximately 1/4 of front and 

                                       back covers                                            1/4 of front and back covers                   back covers

 

Cover: the front and back board of the book, and the spine

  • Is the book bound in a full, half, or quarter binding?
  • What materials are the front and back covers made out of?
  • What color is the front and back cover?
  • Are the covers exposed or is there something on them like leather or marbled paper?
  • How tall are the covers?
  • What condition is the spine in?
  • Are there raised bands on the spine?
  • Does the cover look to you like it is contemporaneous with the publication or does it look more recent? Is there evidence of repair or restoration?

                                                                                     A 15th-century incunable with a blind-tooled cover, corner bosses, and two clasps.

A 15th century incunable with a blind-tooled cover, corner bosses, and two clasps.

 

 

example of book spine with raised bands

A book with raised bands on the spine

 

 

Image of leather-covered spine with chipping

Example of a leather book spine that has suffered chipping damages

Clasps: usually a piece of metal or leather which is connected to the front and back covers and spans across the fore-edge to hold the book closed

  • Does the book have clasps?
  • Does it look like the book had clasps at one point, also known as 'evidence of clasps'?
  • What are the clasps made out of?

                             Book with two hinged metal clasps

Book with two hinged metal clasps

Parts of the Book: Text

Textblock: the accumulation of paper that makes up the pages in a book

  • How many pages are there?
  • Are the pages numbered or unnumbered?
  • Does it look like pages are missing? 
  • Are there signature marks?

Example of page with a signature marking in the lower right hand corner of page

This page has a signature marking in the lower right hand corner

 

Body Text: the printed content within a book

  • How many columns of text are on each page? Is there commentary text surrounding the columns?
  • Are there printed notes in the margins? Handwritten notes?
  • What typeface style is used? Is it a humanist, gothic, or hybrid typeface?
  • What color is the ink? Is there more than one color of ink?
  • Are there illustrations or illuminations?
  • Are there catchwords?

Image of a page with two columns of text and commentary text surrounding the two columns

Example of a double column text with commentary text surrounding the center two columns 

 

 

         

Gothic Typeface

    

 

Humanist Typeface

 

 

Hybrid Typeface

 

 Initials:

  • Are there blank spaces for a rubricator or illuminator to complete the initials?
  • Are there printed indications for what letters need to be completed in manuscript?
  • If a manuscript hand is being applied to the initials, what colors are used? Are they used throughout? Are all potential initials completed throughout the book, etc?

Blank space for initial with printed indicator but no rubrication

Blank space for initial with printed indicator but no rubrication

 

 

Example of hand-lettered red headings and colorful epigraphic initial

Example of hand-lettered red headings and colorful epigraphic initial

 

 

Example of rubricated initial with printed indicator still visible

Example of a rubricated initial in red and blue inks with printed initial indicator still visible

 

Opened book showing two pages. The left page has catchwords printed in the lower right hand corner. The catchword is the same word that begins the text on the next page.

Notice the catchword in the lower right-hand corner of the left page

 

Parts of the Book: Paper

Paper: a flat fibrous writing or printing surface made by breaking down vegetable fiber.

  • What kind of paper is used?
  • Are there watermarks on the paper?
  • What is the condition of the paper? e.g., clean, foxed, browning at edges, water stains, wormholes, etc?

 

                                         

Closeup image of a watermark on a sheet of paper

Here is an example of a watermark on paper

 

 

A picture of a book's title page with foxing, looks like brown spots on the page.

An example of a book's title page with foxing

 

Image of two pages with extensive water staining

Water staining on pages. Note the difference in appearance between water stains and foxing.

 

Image of an opened book with wormholes on the pages

Wormholes on the pages of a book.

 

Image showing pages that have been unopened along the head-edge

These pages are unopened

Resources for Book Terminology

Take a look a these four resources to become more familiar with the professional vernacular for describing books. These sites will help you to learn the professional terminology used to describe the form, elements, and conditions of incunabula.