The basic technical problem of bibliographical description arises from
the
difficulty of expressing the visual in verbal terms. Parts of a description like
the collation and contents paragraphs, which are condensed statements of
sequential arrangement, can be handled easily enough in words or formulas;
but the title-page transcription and the paragraphs on binding, paper, and
typography present the same challenge that one meets in the attempt to
frame an exact (not impressionistic) description of any physical object,
whether it be a tree or a sculpture. Books are not exempt from the human
urge to decorate empty spaces, and the descriptive bibliographer is faced
with a wide array of patterns and designs (as in binding cloths and
endpapers) which he must somehow record in a fashion precise enough to
serve as an identification.
Among the decorative elements of a book, patterns and illustrations
can
be usefully distinguished. A pattern results when a figure (or
combination of figures) is repeated (either exactly or approximately) at
regular (or irregular) intervals or in a systematic arrangement; if a figure
(or
combination of figures) appears only once, the result is an
illustration. While illustrations are frequently representational
and
patterns abstract, these qualities do not serve to distinguish the two, since
a
representational figure can be repeated as the motif in a pattern and an
abstract figure can be used by itself as a single decoration. Repetition
—
whether precisely detailed or suggestively vague — of a basic unit
is the
essential feature of a pattern, and it provides a means for classifying the
pattern. Although the number of possible patterns is infinite, individual
patterns bear structural relationships to one another and can be grouped into
a limited number of
families. Whenever such a framework can be established as a standard of
reference, verbal descriptions can become both more concise and more
exact. Illustrations, by their nature, are less readily amenable to
identification
on the basis of a structural classification (though they can be
classified by technique of reproduction) and therefore present a separate
problem. Pragmatically, from the bibliographer's point of view, illustrations
can best be handled, as they come up, on an individual basis; but patterns,
which occur in some form in nearly every book, can often be treated most
meaningfully and efficiently in terms of a classification scheme.
There are three ways in which patterns can be recorded in a
bibliography
— in pictures, in words, or in a combination of the two. The first is
the
most straightforward and explicit method and at the same time the most
objectionable — and not simply on the grounds of expense. To rely
exclusively on photographs of patterns is to abandon description in favor of
reproduction. The task of a description is to provide a verbal identification
which can be quoted in contexts where pictures are inappropriate. Pictures
may of course be useful supplements to a description, but they are not
substitutes for any part of it. The opposite extreme, of describing patterns
exclusively in words, can be successful and precise only if an adequate
vocabulary has evolved. In heraldry, for example, the technique of
blazoning
utilizes a special vocabulary and syntax which make the resulting
descriptions both concise and unambiguous. The bibliographer has no such
established terminology to draw on
in describing patterns, except perhaps in the case of marbled papers. As a
result, bibliographical descriptions of patterns must use some kind of
combination of words and pictures. That is, the description itself will
contain
only words (preferably a standardized wording which will convey the same
meaning to a large number of readers), but part of that verbal description
will be a reference to a readily accessible illustration; in this way any
reader
who cannot visualize the pattern from the verbal description clearly enough
for his purposes can look up the illustration which serves as a standard of
reference.
The two essentials, then, in the bibliographical description of patterns
are
a standard terminology and a visual standard of reference. In a few areas,
bibliographers already have such references at their disposal — R.
B.
McKerrow and F. S. Ferguson's Title-page Borders Used in England
and
Scotland, 1485-1640 (1932) is a good example — but for the
most
part no accepted standards exist. Enough research has taken place in certain
areas, however, that it would not be premature to attempt to codify a
standard of reference for those areas, particularly if it is set up in an
expandable fashion, so that additions can be made in the future without
affecting the basic classification. Patterns in books generally appear in one
of
three media: in binding cloths, both
as a grain and as a stamping upon the grain; in decorated papers, whether
used as endpapers or as a covering for boards; and in sheets of letterpress,
either as borders or as divisional indicators. Each of these areas involves
special problems and should be considered separately.
