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Arcane Book Sizes

his recent email exchange was initialed by my friend Ken A while back someone brought in a potentially rare edition of
Callahan of Callahan and Co. Books in Peterborough, N.H. Frederick Douglass’ narrative. It was obviously old, but to my eyes, it
TKen does a catalog business in old and rare sporting books. didn’t quite look quite right as regards to the type of paper, type, and
possibly size. I searched but was not able to find an exact measurement
Dear Jim; for the first edition for it, which would have been a big help in deter-
As you have written, size designations for books are confusing, contra- mining what it was.
dictory, and sometimes just plain silly. I was checking prices on AbeBooks Just measure the dang book, people, and stop trying to be cute with
for Fly Fishing in Australia and New Zealand by M.E. McCausland. all that vigesimo-quarto nonsense.
I found copies of the 1958 first edition – Jim
described as “8 vo., Super octavo, 8 vo. over 7” x
9” and Octavo.” Dear Jim;
And copies of the Third Edition 1967 Good stuff. There is another article nearly
described as “Large 8vo, 8vo (140 x 217 mm), ready to go. I did some checking and there
Small quarto, 4to, Large 8vo, and Small 4to.” are lots of other sizes. You are obviously not
My copy is the 1958 edition, which I am familiar with the double pinched post, quad
describing as 5“ x 8”. Or possibly Imperial demi- small demy, and Antiquarian. I copied the list
foolscap Royal Crown. and will drop it into the mail today. There are
– Ken interesting names for cardstock as well: extra
third, half large, large court, etc.
Dear Ken – Papermakers have their own names for paper
I’ve never heard of a super octavo, large 8 sizes. A new favorite is “Bogus Bristol.”
vo., or small quarto. Ken
Using those ridiculous and near-useless
descriptions as a guide for book sizes, then Dear Ken,
apparently a tiny double elephant folio and a That techno-babble is called jargon, and
mammoth giant 8 vo. might each be the the online definition is “special words or
same size! expressions that are used by a particular profes-
I can only imagine how frustrating those Thoreau’s Turtle Nest though small in size, sion or group and are difficult for others
arcane and obsolete descriptions must be to a its author is a giant to understand.”
bibliographer. They are apparently based on So sometimes it is deliberately obtuse on
how many times a piece of paper was folded purpose to confuse people who are not in the
to make pages except that you don’t know what the size was of that know and keep the commoners out, which I find extremely annoying.
sheet of paper. It seems to me that the whole purpose of language is for communica-
I just checked Book Collectors Fact Book by Haller and realized that tion and sharing ideas, not for forming an exclusive little clique with its
in the British size categories, there are 7 (seven) different octavos: own secret language. Now I realize that every profession or interest
Foolscap (6 1/2” x 4 1/2”), Crown (7 1/2” x 5”), Large Crown (8” x 5 develops its own specialized words from necessity – that is natural. But
1/2”), Demy (8 3/4” x 5 5/8”), Medium (9 1/2” x 6”), Royal (10” x 6 my argument is when it is done on purpose for no other reason than to
1/2”), and Imperial (11” x 7 1/2”). But “only” two U.S. octavos: small be exclusionary.
octavo (7 1/2” to 8”) and octavo (8” to 9”). So there.
There are 6 (six) different categories of quartos: Foolscap (8 1/2” x Jim
6 3/4”), Crown (10” x 7 1/2”), Demy (11 1/2” x 8 3/4”), Medium (12”
x 9 1/2”), Royal (12 1/2” x 10”), and Imperial (15” x 11”). However, Dear Jim;
for the American sizes, there are only two varieties of quartos: small I agree completely. That is why lawyers use Latin phrases, to impress
(about 10 inches) and quarto (between 11 and 13 inches). So techni- their clients, and to talk in code to other lawyers. Economists do it too:
cally, when you say “octavo” or “quarto,” you should note whether it is quantitative easing. Technical jargon in a trade makes sense – the other
an American or English size. people in your trade know exactly what you mean, such as in maritime and
And it did not even mention the Super Octavo you found, so who shipbuilding terms. In bookselling, obscure size measurements are meant to
knows what that is. sound impressive. Double Demi-Royal Octavo sounds a lot more impressive
Octavo being that the sheet of paper was folded 8 times and quarto than 6” x 9”.
4 times, except as I said, that you don’t exactly know what the size of Ken
the paper was, hence the vagarities.

James Dawson has owned and operated the Unicorn Bookshop in Trappe, MD since 1975, when he decided that it would be more fun to buy and sell old books and maps than to get
a “real” job. For a born collector like Jim, having a shop just might be another excuse to buy more books. He has about 30,000 second hand and rare books on the shelves, and just
about all subjects are represented. He can be contacted at P.O. Box 154; Trappe, MD 21673; 410-476-3838; unicornbookshopMD@gmail.com; www.unicornbookshop.com

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