A Note about Books…
In order to conserve on the cost of paper and binding, many book publishers produced volumes where each page of paper would fold out and present multiple printed pages or leaves, in reduced sizes, at one time. Over time the prices of paper and bindings came down and these types of books fell out of favor, but in 1890 they were still common.
Octavo refers to a standard printer’s sheet folded four times, producing eight leaves, or sixteen pages. Other standard sizes include folio which is folded only once, quarto which is folded twice for four leaves, and duodecimo, folded in a specific pattern for twelve leaves or twenty four pages.
