Hand-Press Book Leaf Laboratory, with Leaf Assignments

Brief Laboratory Instructions: Describe and transcribe the leaves you are assigned as completely as you can.  Notice what the digital surrogate reveals to you, and notice what you cannot determine from the digital surrogate.  Use the class-meetings devoted to the laboratory to investigate the leaves, themselves, taking great care to subject them to as little stress, moisture, or other contamination, as possible.  Share your evidence with your fellow researchers in person and digitally.  Create a list of questions you need to research in order to improve your bibliographic description and, for each question, a short list or note of resources you will consult to answer the question.  Click on this link for more detailed instructions.

        Note that the Arabic numeral leaf numbers given in this table are only temporary markers for the assignment.  They correspond to pasted labels on the outside of your leaves' protective plastic sleevves, and do not necessarily correspond to the leaves' actual position in the book from which they were disbound.Clicking on any "Reduced Image" hyperlinked to this page will take you to a full-sized image for closer inspection.  Finally, it bears repeating: note carefully what you can and cannot detect using the high-quality digital image, and pay attention to those questions which only could be answered by examining the physical document, itself.  Those are the questions which would require a scholar to request access to the document, itself, even if a collection had digitized the whole book, and archivists will require that kind of reasoning before they allow anyone to handle pieces of the collections they guard.  For research assistance, see the links at the bottom of this page.  Note that you have access to the digital surrogate images at any time, and in addition to our class time devoted to this lab, you can use the physical leaves in Special Collections from 10 to 12:30 and 1:30 to 4PM most weekdays.  Leaves marked "Class Participation extra credit" can be claimed by emailing the class and posting to the "Handpress Book Leaf Lab" folder a brief description of what is on the recto and verso of the leaf.  Pay attention to the text's content in comparison with your assigned leaf (similarities/differences) and to the leaf's physical description.  Is it part of a continuous "run" of leaves before and after it, or is there a gap either before or after it, and if a gap, how many leaves are missing.  Does it match exactly the mise-en-page (layout) of the other leaves or does it have unusual features.