Quire formulas

English system

Under work

The codification below is based on that offered by N.R. Ker in his Catalogue, p. xxii. Anders Winroth has adapted it to reflect his practice, which is based on the descriptions found in Barbara Shailor, Catalogue.

Collation. The formulas used to show the construction of a quire are these:

1. 1⁸. The eight leaves forming the quire are four conjugate pairs (i.e. four sheets or bifolia), 1 and 8, 2 and 7, 3 and 6, and 4 and 5. In some cases it is not possible to absolutely positively determine that all four are complete bifolia (because the binding is too tight or for other reasons), but careful examination respecting the integrity of the material manuscript has revealed no reason (e.g., stubs) to suspect otherwise.
2. 1⁸ 3 and 6 are singletons (half-sheets). Six of the leaves are conjugate pairs, 1 and 8, 2 and 7, and 4 and 5. Two of them, 3 and 6, are not conjugate.
3. 1⁸ (+1 leaf after 5). Six of the leaves are conjugate pairs, 1 and 6, 2 and 5, and 3 and 4. A seventh leaf lies between 15 and 1° and is an original part of the quire.
4. 1⁸ (+1 leaf inserted after 5). This differs from (c) in that the odd leaf is not an original part of the quire, but has been inserted at a later date.
5. 1⁸ wants 2. Formally this quire is identical with (c), but a gap in the text or some other evidence shows that the odd leaf, 17, was once paired with—but may not have been actually conjugate with—a leaf now missing after 1¹.
6. 18 wants 8, probably blank. The scribe finished writing his text on or before the seventh leaf. The eighth leaf of the quire, now missing, was presumably blank. Formally the collation 1+-1 before 1 is equally possible, but it seems unlikely that a scribe would deliberately begin his quire with a half-sheet. More probably he, or another scribe, or a binder, or a later owner or librarian in need of parchment removed the blank leaf at the end.
7. 1⁵ (singletons). The quire consists of five leaves, which appear to be singletons (half-sheets). The same circumstances may also be indicated with "1 five".

Example. We describe the quire structure in Firenze, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Conv. Soppr. A I 402 (Fd) thus:

Fascicoli: 1⁸ 2⁸(-1, 7th leaf) 3-5⁸ 6⁴ 7-21⁸ 22⁴ 23⁸ 24¹ 25² 26³(singletons).

In clear text this means:

The first quire in the book (as preserved) is a regular quire of eight leaves, presumed (or known) to be made up of 4 bifolia, a quaternion.

The second quire had the same structure when the book was first made, but the seventh leaf has been cut out. The second quire contains, thus, now only 7 leaves. Since no peculiarities in the pagination has been pointed out, we can calculate that the missing leaf once was between f.14 and f. 15, and that f.10 is a singleton (half-sheet).

The third through fifth quires are all regular eights (quaternia).

Literature

Franz M. Bishoff, Methoden der Lagenbeschreibung, Scriptorium 46 (1992), p. 3-27. N.R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford 1957). Barbara Shailor, Catalogue of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University (Binghamton, N.Y., 1984-2004).