[Ads-l] ESTC and TMI [Was: "man" avoidance]

[Joel Berson]

I blundered in one statement -- 2 pages is indeed one sheet; I used two definitions of "page" simultaneously.  No error in the footnote.


Joel


      From: Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton3 at virginmedia.com>
 To: "ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU" <ads-l at listserv.uga.edu>; Joel Berson <berson at att.net> 
 Sent: Monday, September 26, 2016 6:39 PM
 Subject: Re: [ADS-L] ESTC and TMI [Was: "man" avoidance]
   

Joel,Interleaved:
As the footnote says, "usefully".  If one is interested in different imprints or different impressions, then the citation number is a more specific entry point to the ESTC than author/title, and the physical format information may be helpful.

In this case, I'm putting title/publisher details in the body of the text, and the ESTC number in the footnote for mostly those reasons.  Anyone who wants to chase more details can do that via the ESTC number, and the rest can simply ignore the (I hope, non-intrusive) footnotes.  Also, of course, those lucky enough to have access to both EEBO and ECCO can chase the actual text fairly easily.  For me, 1700 is the cut-off point between EEBO and ECCO, so after then, I'm left staring at the Promised Land. 
P.S.  I wonder if the explanation "1 sheet ([2] p.) ;  1/2⁰," which expands to, "A two-page work printed on both sides of a single folio sheet" is correct.  One sheet of two pages would not fit the meaning of "folio" as "one sheet folded"; that would be four pages.
If you work back from 1/2⁰=folio <= half a broadsheet/full sheet, you have, "A single [the 1 above] folio [1/2⁰] sheet, printed on both sides [thus producing the '[2]p.' above]," which was what the physical image did indeed show.(I had to use a cheat-sheet to work this out, initially -- http://folgerpedia.folger.edu/Bibliographic_format)
I don't know what the "1/2⁰" means, unless perhaps "a half sheet" (in which case the footnote explanation seems again wrong).  
1/2⁰=folio as above, as per the good people at the Exceedingly Useful Folger Site.
A half-sheet with two pages (two printed sides) could be produced from a full sheet by taking one impression, then turning the sheet over reversing it end to end for a second impression, then cutting the full sheet in half to produce two identical copies.  (In 18th-century Boston, four-page newspapers were produced like this, only with the two impressions being pages 1 & 4 and then 2 & 3, and folded rather than cut.)
Yeah, but the printers I'm working on at the moment were *really* downmarket -- mostly print in double columns on one or sometimes both sides of a single folio sheet, no labour other than the (relatively easy) setting of a single forme.  It they were being really classy, they'd go for 8-page pamphlets -- a single folio sheet folded twice.  More trouble to set up two formes for four pages each, but still no cutting (let the punters go to that trouble if they wanted to) or binding required.Respectable printers wouldn't touch the printing of Sessions Trials. (State Trials -- more fully reported, often with full shorthand transcription of every word said, and Deeply Boring -- at least to me -- were another matter.  Which is a shame, as they're a damn sight easier to read,) 
Joel

(Mostly to Joel, but anyone else to whom this might be relevant -- Working with Zotero and ESTC in tandem is utter magic, as I only discovered last week, if you want to chase printers hither and yon.  At least for English/London imprints.  Dunno how useful it would be for American imprints.  Backchannel me if you want more detail on this -- I'm still coming to terms with it, but so far ... like, Wow!!! )Robin
From: Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM>
...

When is TMI not TMI?

Reason I say this, is that seconds before I write this, I'd spent more time than
it deserved on the following footnote:

"ESTC Citation No. R177278, via the British Library (http://estc.bl.uk).  Future
references, where appropriate, will be given in the form, "ESTC [NUMBER].  The
English Short Title Catalogue usefully provides full publication details of,
among other things, the physical format of the work, in this case, "1 sheet ([2]
p.) ;  1/2⁰," which expands to, "A two-page work printed on both sides of a
single folio sheet."

TMI or EI?  You tell me, sunny jim.

Robin




 

   

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