In consequence of these deplorable events, as well as the perishableness of books, copies of works prior to the of printing exist only as rare and valuable curi osities. Even of the early printed books, there are comparatively few copies extant. In England, books of improved typography and binding, adapted for ordinary library, date no further back than the reign of queen Anne. In proportion as literature has been popularized, books have diminished in bulk and costliness. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the ordinary sizes of books were folio and quarto; and as works of these huge dimensions embraced light as well as much ponderous literature, a popular poet uses no metaphor, when he observes that ladies " read the books they could not lift." The dignified quarto survived in imaginative literature even till our own times; for it was in this costly form that the early editions of the poetry of Scott, Byron, and others made their appearance. Excepting for special purposes, all such large sizes are happily superseded by octavos and still lesser-sized books. Forms and prices arc no longer for the few, hut for "the million." And copies of the Bible, instead of being chained to shelves and desks, and being valued at hundreds of pounds, are now scattered iu myriads at the easy charge of a shilling.
The dimensions of printed books are regulated by the size and form of the sheets of paper of they are composed. A sheet, being folded in the middle, forms two leaves, or four pages; and a book of this size is called a folio. When the sheet is again folded, so as to make four leaves, or eight pages, it forms a quarto. The quarto, being folded across, so as to make eight leaves, or sixteen pages, forms an octavo. By folding the sheet into twelve leaves, or twenty-four pages, we make
a duodecimo; and if into eighteen leaves, or thirty-six pages, we form an oetodecuno. Below this there are small books of different denominations, and which are sometimes spoken of as pocket editions. Booksellers are accustomed, in speech, to Anglicize the terms for the sizes of books, with little regard to the proper terminations—as 9to, 8vo, 12mo, 18mo, 24mo, 82mo, 48mo, etc. For a long period, printing•paper was made chiefly of three sizes, respectively called royal, decoy, and crown: and according as any one of these was employed, the size of the book was large or small. Dcmy, however, was the most commonly used, and the dcmy 8vo may be said to have become the estab lished form of standard editions of books. As by means of the paper-making machine, paper is made in webs, and can be cut into every imaginable size of sheet, and as print ing-machines can print very large surfaces. the sizes of books are now comparatively arbitrary; though, for convenience, the old names remain, with the difference, that instead of the 12mo, a not very dissimilar size, called the post-8vo, has come extensively into use. The size of the present work is large royal 8vo.
A thin kind of book, consisting of a few sheets sewed or stitched together, without boards, is called a pamphlet—a term supposed to be derived from the French words par filet. a thread." The French term brochure (from basher, to stitch), signifying pamphlet, is coming into use; as also the French word lirraiAort, signifying a portion of a book (group of volumes) published separately. For an account of the modern traffic in books, we refer to the article BOOK-MADE.