Introduction to Signature Marks

LEMDO captures two categories of signature marks, both in the context of the semi-diplomatic transcriptions: the signature marks explicitly printed in the original text (on signed pages), and those implied by the imposition of the early modern book (inferred or bibliographic signature numbers).

Signature Marks

Signature marks were meant to help the book binder assemble printed sheets in the right order. Early modern printed books were constructed out of folded sheets of paper. Normally, a book printed in folio is made from gatherings of three folded sheets (a folio in sixes). Each sheet is folded in half and the three sheets are then nested or quired.1 Normally, a book printed in quarto is made from one sheet of paper folded twice (a quarto in fours) or from two quired twice-folded sheets (a quarto in eights).
Book format Folds per sheet Leaves per sheet Pages per sheet Quired sheets in gathering
Folio 1 2 4 3 or 4 with some gatherings in 1 or 2 (usually preliminary materials)
Quarto 2 4 8 1 or 2
To help the bookbinder fold and quire these sheets together in the right order to make a book, each sheet is marked with a signature mark. The signature mark is an alphanumeric string appearing at the bottom of what will become a page when the sheet is folded and bound. A gathering marked with A on the first sheet, A2 on the second, and so on is called the A gathering. A gathering marked with B on the first leaf, B2 on the second leaf, and so on is called the B gathering.
A page from The Merchant of Venice with the signature number A2. circled.
A2 leaf of The Merchant of Venice, Q1 (1600). Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library.
The printer uses 23 letters in these alphanumeric strings: the standard English alphabet but with only one of I or J (interchangeable characters in early modern English) and only one of U or V (also interchangeable in early modern English); W is omitted because of the potential confusion with VV. For long books that require more than 23 gatherings, the printer goes through the alphabet again, like this: Aa, Bb, and so on. A third set of gatherings would be numbered Aaa, Bbb, and so on.
When the sheets are folded, the signature marks appear at the bottom of some pages. They are never on the verso (second side) of a leaf, which means they appear only on the right side of an opening (the two-page spread that you are looking at when you read a book). They usually do not appear on the conjugate leaves (the second leaf of a folded sheet in the case of a folio, or the two leaves that remain connected in the final binding regardless of folding and cutting).
The following table gives the most common patterns for signature marks in folio-size books. Because the A gathering is often the title gathering (with an unsigned title page and fewer quired sheets), this table describes a typical B gathering:
Number of sheets quired Number of leaves Name Sequence
1 2 Folio in twos B on 1st leaf; 2nd leaf usually unsigned
2 4 Folio in fours B on 1st leaf; B2 on 2nd leaf; 3rd and 4th leaves (conjugate with 2nd and 1st) unsigned
3 6 Folio in sixes B on 1st leaf; B2 on 2nd leaf; B3 on 3rd leaf; 4th, 5th, and 6th leaves (conjugate with 3rd, 2nd, and 1st) unsigned
4 8 Folio in eights B on 1st leaf; B2 on 2nd leaf; B3 on 3rd leaf; B4 on 4th leaf; 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th leaves (conjugate with 4th, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st) unsigned
The following table gives the most common patterns for signature marks in quarto-size books, again taking the B gathering as an example:
Number of sheets quired Number of leaves Name Sequence
1 4 Quarto in fours B, B2 (sometimes B3 is signed)
2 8 Quarto in eights B, B2, B3, B4 (sometimes B5 is signed)

Other Resources

See Deciphering Signature Marks by Sarah Werner on the Folger Shakespeare Library’s The Collation blog.
To see an array of signature marks on early printed pages, see the search results at Main Printed Feature: Signature Mark on Sarah Werner’s Early Printed Books: Resources for Learning and Teaching.
For a video introduction to the anatomy of books (including signature marks), see Anne Pealeʼs Key Terms in Book History on the University of Edinburghʼs Centre for the History of the Book Instructional Videos page.
For a video guide to book format (quartos, folios, etc.), see Elizabeth Quarmby-Lawrenceʼs Bibliographical Formats on the University of Edinburghʼs Centre for the History of the Book Media Content page.
For a fun paper-folding exercise, download the practice early modern folding sheet from the Folger Shakespeare Libraryʼs DIY Quarto page.

Further Reading

To encode printed signature marks, see Signed Leaves.
To encode bibliographical signature numbers, see Practice: Encode Bibliographical Signature Numbers.
To cite early modern printed leaves and pages by signature numbers, see Practice: Cite Signature Numbers.

Notes

1.See Signatures at the MIT Shakespeare Electronic Archive for helpful visualizations of the quiring of a folio in sixes.↑

Prosopography

Isabella Seales

Isabella Seales is a fourth year undergraduate completing her Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Victoria. She has a special interest in Renaissance and Metaphysical Literature. She is assisting Dr. Jenstad with the MoEML Mayoral Shows anthology as part of the Undergraduate Student Research Award program.

Janelle Jenstad

Janelle Jenstad is a Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and Director of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media: Old Words, New Tools (Routledge). She has edited John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Elizabethan Theatre, Early Modern Literary Studies, Shakespeare Bulletin, Renaissance and Reformation, and The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. She contributed chapters to Approaches to Teaching Othello (MLA); Teaching Early Modern Literature from the Archives (MLA); Institutional Culture in Early Modern England (Brill); Shakespeare, Language, and the Stage (Arden); Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate); New Directions in the Geohumanities (Routledge); Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter); Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana); Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota); Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge); and Civic Performance: Pageantry and Entertainments in Early Modern London (Routledge). For more details, see janellejenstad.com.

Joey Takeda

Joey Takeda is LEMDO’s Consulting Programmer and Designer, a role he assumed in 2020 after three years as the Lead Developer on LEMDO.

Mahayla Galliford

Research assistant, remediator, encoder, 2021–present. Mahayla Galliford is a fourth-year student in the English Honours and Humanities Scholars programs at the University of Victoria. She researches early modern drama and her Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Award project focused on approaches to encoding early modern stage directions.

Martin Holmes

Martin Holmes has worked as a developer in the UVicʼs Humanities Computing and Media Centre for over two decades, and has been involved with dozens of Digital Humanities projects. He has served on the TEI Technical Council and as Managing Editor of the Journal of the TEI. He took over from Joey Takeda as lead developer on LEMDO in 2020. He is a collaborator on the SSHRC Partnership Grant led by Janelle Jenstad.

Navarra Houldin

Project manager 2022–present. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA in History and Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. During their degree, they worked as a teaching assistant with the University of Victoriaʼs Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America.

Nicole Vatcher

Technical Documentation Writer, 2020–2022. Nicole Vatcher completed her BA (Hons.) in English at the University of Victoria in 2021. Her primary research focus was womenʼs writing in the modernist period.

Tracey El Hajj

Junior Programmer 2019–2020. Research Associate 2020–2021. Tracey received her PhD from the Department of English at the University of Victoria in the field of Science and Technology Studies. Her research focuses on the algorhythmics of networked communications. She was a 2019–2020 President’s Fellow in Research-Enriched Teaching at UVic, where she taught an advanced course on Artificial Intelligence and Everyday Life. Tracey was also a member of the Map of Early Modern London team, between 2018 and 2021. Between 2020 and 2021, she was a fellow in residence at the Praxis Studio for Comparative Media Studies, where she investigated the relationships between artificial intelligence, creativity, health, and justice. As of July 2021, Tracey has moved into the alt-ac world for a term position, while also teaching in the English Department at the University of Victoria.

Orgography

LEMDO Team (LEMD1)

The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors.

Metadata

Authority title Introduction to Signature Marks
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Publisher University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform
Series Linked Early Modern Drama Online
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TEI Customization created by Martin Holmes, Joey Takeda, and Janelle Jenstad; documentation written by members of the LEMDO Team
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