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Comments
editI argue would no to wiktionary, since it true that the sense the first concerning this article that might be without difficultly expanded to included for instancio a discussion of the history of the CATCHWORDS, and the presence of them in the earliest printings of Europe and of mss. (My apology I speak no English well.)
- Perhaps the page should redirect to headword? --HappyDog 08:45, 30 December 2005 (UTC)
- Headword and catchword are not the same thing (well not in my language). I've expanded and clarified the definition and added an image which has an example of the use of a catchword. --Stalfur 09:40, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
Purpose
editIt would seem that the purpose of catchwords is uncertain. Assisting the binder in collation is credible, but use of signatures and registers were sufficient for this. Though admittedly it was the unsigned leaves that were usually misbound. And since a single leaf of two pages cannot be misfolded or otherwise misbound, there would be no need for them on both recto and verso.
Until the invention of the paper-making machine, ca 1800, paper was made usually made from rag linen, and hence expensive, resulting in contractions and condensation to minimize its use. Early books usually had no hyphen, so a word divided at the foot of a recto might be ambiguous. These days people seldom have to turn the page to ascertain the last word. If reading aloud to someone, the catchword might be a word to pause on before turning over. It must have been inconvenient to the printer to insert extra lines for a single word. Catchwords appear to be fussy and silly, in contrast to many very sensible printing inventions. They are an important dating/identifying tool for early printing, especially for fragments and single leaves. Hain and other bibliographers always mention their presence or absence in describing incunabula, together with headlines, side-notes, format, place, printer,collation, etc. - books from the first few decades of printing having fewer of these innovations.
The first known catchwords in a printed book appear in an undated Tacitus printed by Wendelin de Spira,at Venice in [1470]. [David Green & Helen Gentry, "Chronology of Books & Printing", Macmillan, New York: 1936]. Soon after the invention of the register, in about 1466-7 by Sixtus Riessinger at Rome.Koroke (talk) 23:10, 1 July 2013 (UTC)