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The Collation

A practical look at the Practical Science of Printing

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title page for Fertel, La science pratique de l’imprimerie

In 1723, a Frenchman named Martin-Dominque Fertel published a book on printing, La science pratique de l’imprimerie. It’s good to look at early printing manuals, especially when one is trying to understand how early printing works, so I was delighted to learn that the Folger acquired a copy of the book from the Veatchs in September 2012. When I called the book up from the vaults, I saw that it was housed in a specially-made case:

Case for the Folger copy of Fertel's La science pratique de l'imprimerie

The Folger copy of Fertel’s La science pratique de l’imprimerie

But why was the book in a box? 

  1. This arrangement leaves the final leaf of the B gathering unattached to any of the other B leaves—it should be conjugate along the spine to B1 and along the top to B3. To insert the plate in its spot, the connection to B1 would have to be cut; I’m guessing that the connection to B3 has split of its own accord over time and with handling.

Comments

Nice work. I followed your explanation perfectly. I love this book but never did the analysis that you provide here. Brava.

Dan

Daniel De Simone — November 26, 2013

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