ABSTRACT
An understanding of the processes of book-building will enable one to examine and describe books. The bibliographer, who includes the cataloguing librarian has to examine it for the answers to the three questions. These include: What work, or works, does this volume contain? Of what recension and of what edition is it? i.e. by whom is it edited and where, when, and by whom was it printed? And Is this a perfect copy of that edition? Careful examination of the title-page, colophon, preliminaries, and incipit will reveal any facts about the editing, translating, and printing of the edition. The use of signatures in a modern book is queried by some people in view of the presence of pagination and back marks. The registrum achieves the frequently expressed bibliographical ideal, that every book should carry its own collation; but what is meant by the phrase is the more restricted requisite, that the pagination and signatures should clearly cover the entire book.
