Can I add a question? Is there evidence of this practice (ie interleaving for provision to annotate a work) going beyond law? We have a copy of
The works of Hafez: with an account of his life and writings. (ESTC T147526, Shaw186) published in Calcutta in 1791 which has been interleaved
and indeed annotated. I had assumed that this was a customised copy for the owner as a) there is also a printed item about the work of
Sir William Jones also bound in and b) nobody else on ESTC notes extra blank leaves in their copy (and all are 'verified'). Is interleaving common and if so was it ever done by the printer in all copies rather than on demand?
This is my first message to the list - if I have done it incorrectly, someone please advise me - thank you.
Sandra Cumming
Dunimarle Library at Duff House
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-----Original Message-----
From: Mailing list for rare books and Special Collections librarians
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of David Shaw
Sent: 20 January 2010 21:26
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Early law books
An interesting question.
I can imagine a demand for interleaved law books, not just from students
to record notes, but for practitioners to record new developments,
clarifications and useful information.
Bibliographically, the blank pages are not part of the edition as
issued; they would be an element of the copy-in-hand for a modern
cataloguer.
But the existence of copies with wide margins suggests that they were
produced for purposes of note taking.
Were all copies of an edition printed with wide margins? or were there
"large-paper" copies and normal-sized copies of the same edition? This
was a frequent practice with the top end of the market, especially for
literary texts.
It would be interesting if it could be documented for law books.
David Shaw
--
Dr David J. Shaw
email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.djshaw.co.uk/
--
Susan Stead wrote:
> I am currently cataloguing our STC books - English, pre 1640- and many of
> them are law books. I have noticed that a number of them are interleaved,
> some obviously by the printer because there is cast off on the blank leaves.
> Was this a common practice for law text books? Or did students or lawyers
> have them made up specially? Some also have very wide margins on all sides,
> which are then full of annotations - again was this a deliberate practice? I
> would be interested to know if a study has been done of legal printing that
> I could look at.
>
> Any information will be most gratefully received.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Susan Stead
> Rare Books Librarian,
> UCL Library Special Collections
> University College London
> Gower Street,
> London
> WC1E 6BT
> tel: 020 7679 5154
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
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