We’re a few days before the beginning of April still, but who doesn’t want to push this season ahead and get on with spring already? So here is our new crocodile mystery. Some of you will recognize immediately what category of object this is, and if that’s true for you, feel free to push on to try to work out the specifics. Click on the image to enlarge it, share your thoughts in the comments, and come back next week (in April!) to see the answer.
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Comments
Does this show a piece of printer’s waste used as a lining for the inside cover of a book or, an endpaper ( The page on the left ends with a “Finis” , indicating it comes at the end of a book, so logically, the next page would either be the endpaper or inside cover)
Anthony — March 27, 2014
It’s the last page of Folger STC 863 copy 3 (John Asser, Aelfredi Regis res gestae, 1574), facing the printed waste (A3r.A6v) of STC 16481 (C. of E., A fourme of prayer with thankes giuing, [1580?]) used in the binding (not so noted in the Hamnet record, but easy to determine from the images in EEBO – no doubt the cataloguing was done before EEBO was available). Folger does not appear to have a copy of STC 16481.
John Lancaster — March 27, 2014
Looks like binder’s waste to me. A waste sheet comprising two pages printed in quarto format being used as an endpaper in the binding of a book printed in folio format.
Bob MacLean — March 28, 2014
Yes, to all three answers! I’ll say more about the book itself, cataloging, and wastepaper in my post next week. In the meantime, if you want to take a look at the rest of the back endpaper or at the front endpapers, you can see them in Luna: http://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/s/760h48.
Sarah Werner — March 28, 2014
Well, now that I’ve recovered from the flu, I’ve managed to put together a coherent explanation of what this crocodile mystery is—and I tossed in a little extra mystery just for fun!
Sarah Werner — April 17, 2014