University of Virginia Library

Bibliographical Description of Periodicals: Notes on Procedure

Before launching fully into a discussion of procedures for bibliographical analysis and description of periodicals, some explanations are in order. First, I offer a very general set of observations, geared primarily towards the description of a single number of a periodical, on the assumption that other bibliographers will modify them according to the particular characteristics of the materials they wish to describe. I advocate the description of numbers for several practical reasons, the primary one being that some analysis and description of numbers is basic to any periodical-based project, no matter how large (i.e., description of an entire run of a given periodical) or small (analysis of typography, illustrations, or other parts of a run or number).

It is to be hoped that large projects such as descriptive bibliographies of entire runs of major periodicals will be made feasible and more flexible

through the use of technology such as CD-ROM and hypermedia. The CD-ROM version of the Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals, 1800 — 1900 allows users to view digitized images of title pages of some periodicals. One can easily imagine the benefits to be gained from presenting a descriptive bibliography in a similar format, and the even greater benefit of linking bibliographic descriptions to each other and to images (which could include not only title pages of the items described, but illustrations, wrappers, or even entire periodicals or books).[21] Bibliographies of complete periodical runs offer the advantages of presenting each number both as an individual publication and as part of the larger series, and of avoiding the duplication of effort that could result from including full descriptions of periodical numbers in author bibliographies. Indeed, one of the most compelling arguments for creating descriptive bibliographies of literary periodicals is that by so doing, a bibliographer could provide insight into the writing lives of a large number of authors. Bibliographies of periodicals would also be particularly useful to editors of texts that were first published in periodicals.

But while literary and biographical considerations may be foremost in the minds of many readers, the act of establishing the bibliographical histories of individual periodical numbers carries a larger significance. The simple fact that a periodical number might have a life of its own is generally ignored, and since any investigation of a number necessarily involves placing it in the context of the rest of the series, studies of even a single number shed light both on that individual publication and on the other members of the series. Therefore, while it is enjoyable to contemplate the possibility of large-scale work on periodicals, it is also important to realize that any bibliographical work on periodicals, however limited in scope, is welcome and needed.

Along these lines, it is important to consider whether author bibliographies might attempt to render periodicals in greater detail. Since the bibliographer's task always includes determining the kind and amount of information to include in a description, it is reasonable to ask that the process of compiling an author bibliography should include

a careful consideration of how the author's periodical contributions should be represented.[22] Of course, if reliable descriptive bibliographies of the relevant periodicals existed, no one would expect an author bibliography to do more than make note of the fact; at present, however, one hardly expects author bibliographies to make up for the absence of periodical bibliographies. It is all too easy to imagine situations in which full treatment of an author's periodical contributions would leave no room for descriptions of any other materials. But if an author served as the editor of a periodical, or as a primary contributor to one or more periodical numbers that are not likely to be covered in other author bibliographies or in a periodical bibliography, an expanded treatment within the author bibliography may be justified. A range of possibilities exists between the brief citation that is usually presented, and the full description that almost never appears. For example, a bibliographer may wish to establish the context for an author's contribution to a certain periodical number; one way to accomplish this goal would be to present a full list of contents, but the goal might also be met by mentioning the items that precede and follow the author's contribution, or by noting some other contents that are especially relevant. This point is that each author presents a unique publishing history, and that the bibliographer's decisions about the treatment of periodicals must reflect the particular circumstances of the author's career as well as the bibliographer's own interests and goals.

My comments are based on trial descriptions of a number of single numbers and bound volumes of Victorian periodicals; most of my work was done in the Newberry Library.[23] Unfortunately, I have rarely been

able to secure multiple copies of any number or bound volume. I have, however, been able to work with a variety of periodicals and thus to identify the main ways in which the collection and presentation of bibliographical data for periodicals differs from that of books. What I offer, then, is a general discussion of the special considerations that come into play in the process of analyzing and describing a periodical number, followed by a partial description of one number of The Broadway.

It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the elements of bibliographical description as developed in Bowers's Principles and in the work of other scholars such as G. T. Tanselle (whose "A Sample Bibliographical Description With Commentary" is especially useful both as a model of bibliographical practice and a guide to previous scholarship). Because Victorian periodicals are in many ways similar to Victorian books, the procedures articulated by Bowers, Tanselle and others often do not require modifications when applied to periodicals; it is to be understood, then, that one proceeds as one would with a book except in the matters discussed below.

General Considerations

One important way in which the description of a periodical will differ from that of a book is that it will have to recognize, both conceptually and structurally, that periodicals have a kind of dual existence that most books do not have. Whereas a book is almost always a self-contained publishing unit, a periodical exists both as a self-contained unit (the individual number) and as part of a larger unit (the entire run of the series, described by Scott Bennett as "a single entity that happens to be spread over time"[24]).

This problem is not an entirely unfamiliar one, because books published in parts or as volumes in collected editions or in series also have this kind of dual existence. However, descriptions of such books tend to place their emphasis on the larger context, giving a full description of one "representative" volume in the set or series, and briefly indicating the ways in which individual volumes differ — a practice that tends to distort the history of the individual volumes by forcing them into a framework that emphasizes similarity and glosses over differences.

The limitations of this approach make it as unsuitable for periodicals as it is for books in series. A description of a periodical will misrepresent its subject if it fails to give full consideration to both the periodical's individual and its corporate nature. Since the individual existence of

the periodical number is the aspect that has been most often overlooked, it is especially important that the separate issues, impressions, and editions of individual numbers be carefully delineated, just as they would be in a bibliographical description of a book. In most cases it will be necessary and logical to organize the description according to the smallest publishing unit — the daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly number — tracing the subsequent history of the unit in its larger amalgamations, such as the bound volume.

Even so, there are several reasons why the bibliographer's range of study must extend beyond the single number, even if (especially if) only one number is being described. Periodical numbers do not exist by themselves, but as part of a larger series of publications, and so the number's relation to that larger body must be indicated in the description. Also, as the foregoing discussion has indicated, important information about individual numbers is likely to appear in subsequent numbers, in errata slips, and in tables of contents and indexes.

The need to account for the periodical's dual citizenship will require the bibliographer to present more information than is customary in book descriptions. The body of the description will also be likely to contain more information than is usually the case. Periodicals, by their very nature, simply tend to present a great many bibliographical details; this is especially true of periodicals that contain numerous small articles per page or are copiously illustrated. Anyone contemplating bibliographical work on periodicals will have to come to terms, perhaps in new ways, with the old problem of how much detail can and should be included in a description.

Introductory Notes

The contents of the notes will vary depending upon the scope of the bibliographer's efforts. In most cases, whether the bibliographer is describing all the numbers of a particular periodical or a single number, the note will discuss the general features of the periodical run and indicate the relationship of the number(s) to the established practices of the periodical series. The note will provide information such as:

• 1) frequency of publication (quarterly, monthly, weekly?) and time-table of aggregation into volumes
• 2) existence of supplements, annual indexes, or other additions to the regular printing schedule of the periodical run
• 3) typical number of pages and collation formula
• 4) typical organization of contents
• 5) frequency and kinds of illustrations

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• 6) form(s) of distribution, price
• 7) editor(s)

In cases where only an individual number is described, the note will be oriented towards the individual features of the number, but will still contain sufficient information about the periodical run to place the number in its larger context.

Among the important external sources of information for the publication history of periodicals are prospectuses, announcements in newspapers and periodicals, and reviews. These materials can be especially useful in determining the status of periodicals that exist in only one or two numbers, or in other ways are difficult to identify as serial publications. References in Victorian printing journals point to additional methods of publicizing periodicals, including the distribution of placards, show cards,[25] and tables of contents. Some insight into the importance and the distribution of promotional materials can be gathered from comments in the Printing Times and Lithographer:

Another reference in the Printing Times and Lithographer suggests the extremes to which Victorian publishers would go to promote a new periodical: These references indicate the value of scanning trade journals for information about a periodical's promotional materials and methods, as well as the importance of including such information in the introduction.

Determination of Edition, Impression, Issue and State

As I have already indicated, the terms "edition," "impression," "issue," and "state" apply to numbers of periodicals just as they apply to books. Care should of course be taken to avoid any possible confusion that might arise from using the term "issue" to refer to numbers of periodicals.

It is reasonable to assume that many nineteenth-century periodicals will exist in several forms, each of which represents a distinct publishing unit. A complication arises, however, when one attempts to determine the bibliographical status of the same setting of type as it appears in an individual number of the periodical, and as it appears, along with other numbers, in a volume manufactured and sold by the publisher. A number presented in different wrappers (as is the case when the same sheets are distributed in Britain and the United States) is easily recognizable as comprising different issues of the same printed matter. But when the periodical number appears along with several other numbers in a cloth case, some additional considerations apply. The numbers that make up a bound volume may each have their own printing history; a bound volume may thus represent an additional issue of one number, and a new edition of another, so that there is no one way to categorize the volume as a whole.[26] The treatment of volumes will thus vary depending upon whether the bibliographer's interest is in a single number (in which case one would not have to be overly concerned with the status of other parts of the bound volume in which the number appears), in several or all of the periodical's numbers, or in the collection of numbers that resulted from active aggregation. When one is concerned with a single number that was presented by the publisher both in wrappers and in a bound volume, the latter version could be designated "issue in volume" as long as the text of the number in both circumstances (wrappers and bound) derives from the same setting and impression of type. If, however, one's focus is not limited to individual numbers but extends to the volume publication itself, the term "volume issue" could be used to designate the new publication of a group of numbers, the various histories of which can still form part of the volume's description. Thus the terms used by the bibliographer will vary, depending on whether the history of numbers (including their history as component parts of volumes) or

the history of volumes (with more or less emphasis on the prior history of individual numbers) is of primary concern.

A similar situation exists regarding the application of "edition" and "impression" to bound volumes. If the bibliographer's unit of study is the individual number, it seems reasonable that the determination of edition/impression would be made solely on the basis of the history of that number; therefore, a volume might contain the first edition, second impression of the December number, the second edition of the January number, etc. The volume itself then is not represented as a new edition, but as a collection of smaller units, each of which has its own bibliographical status. Of course, if the volume as a whole has been reset, there is no question as to its status as a new edition of all numbers.

The treatment of the volume always presupposes that the bibliographer will distinguish between bound volumes issued by the publisher as a publishing unit (active aggregation), and bound volumes collected and bound by other parties (semi-active and passive aggregation). The first instance results in a new publication, for which the bibliographer can establish the ideal copy produced by the publisher and printer. There can be no reconstruction of ideal copy in the second instance because the volume is the result of changes made after the original printing and sale by agents other than the printer and publisher. If the publisher made cloth cases available to subscribers the fact should be noted, and the cases described as a matter of interest in the general history of the periodical, but in no circumstance would the bound volumes be included in the bibliographical history of the periodical, though they may of course be studied and described for other purposes. Volume title-pages and indexes issued separately (as distinguished from those included in a publisher's binding) are also not part of ideal copy, and do not form part of the description proper.

Title-Page Transcription, Title-Page Substitutes, and Contents

Some periodicals include a page that is virtually identical to the title-pages found in books, and whenever such a page is present it should be treated just as one would treat the title-page in a book.[27] Bound volumes may include a volume title-page along with the title-pages of the individual numbers. Printing information on the volume title-page should be checked against information on the wrappers of the bound numbers or elsewhere in the volume to determine whether the title-page and the numbers were produced by different printers (this may help establish the pattern of aggregation).

For many periodicals, there is no title-page: the title, date, and other publishing information is either given at the top of the first page of text, or else the wrapper is essentially the title-page (as is sometimes the case with books; see Bowers, Principles, 415). It is also common for publishing information to be provided in several locations in the periodical, since the wrapper is subject to damage or removal. Even if a title-page is present, it may not contain certain publishing information specific to periodicals, such as statements indicating frequency of issue, location of the number in the series (volume/number/date statement), postal classification, and information about forms of distribution, such as subscription; this information will appear somewhere in the periodical (most likely in the masthead[28] or on the wrapper), and must be recorded.

In the absence of a title-page, the bibliographer might want to follow the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2) list of serial "title-page substitutes" which are (in order of preference): "the cover, caption, masthead, editorial pages, colophon, [and] other pages" (249).[29] In most cases, even when a title-page is present, the bibliographical description will feature a set of transcriptions including the masthead and head-title (if present), as well as descriptions of associated type ornaments and other decorative printed material.

Regardless of the presence of the title-page, masthead, or head-title, the number's wrapper should be closely examined; the front cover and spine should be transcribed, and other parts described in accordance with the bibliography's level of detail and the nature of the information that the wrapper contains. Because the wrapper can serve multiple purposes it may be described in more than one section of the bibliography. A periodical wrapper can include integral parts of the text of the periodical, such as tables of contents and even short essays, as well as

other matter such as advertisements. It may be difficult to establish whether the contents of the wrapper were determined by the publishers as part of the periodical's publishing unit (in which case it is analogous to a publisher's binding) and the extent to which it is an independent product of the printer (in which case it is analogous to advertisements not part of the sheets of a printed book). Given this ambiguity, in some cases the wrapper may be handled in the section on binding, while in cases where the wrapper clearly functions as a title-page substitute or extension or contains other information integral to the contents of the periodical, it is best either to handle the wrapper as part of the periodical's contents or to place it in a separate section of the description. As a rule of thumb, if it is clear that the sheets and the wrapper were printed separately (as might be indicated by differences in paper), the most logical way to handle them in a description will be to keep the contents of the sheets of the periodical and the wrapper separate, even if the wrapper contains part of the text of the periodical. Some cases might warrant the division of the contents section of the description into two parts (wrapper and sheets); otherwise, only the contents of the sheets are handled in the contents section.

Contents

The contents section will sometimes include a listing of the contents of the periodical's advertisement section. Often one or more gatherings of advertisements are printed and bound with the number or bound volumes, and headed with the title of the periodical and the word "advertiser"; such gatherings may precede or follow the text. The distinction between the advertisements and the rest of the periodical's contents was sometimes deliberately blurred, provoking complaints such as the following in the Printing Times:

In books, advertisements, even if they are part of the sheets, are rarely positioned or labeled as if they are continuous with the rest of the text; in periodicals, however, a special effort is sometimes made to link the advertisements with the rest of the periodical's contents. Because of this, it is important to look for evidence (such as differences in paper stock) that might indicate whether the advertiser is part of the sheets of the periodical.

The contents section of the description is likely to pose practical problems when a periodical contains numerous separate articles, advertisements, and illustrations on each page. The level of detail necessary in a transcription of contents will depend on several factors. If the periodical has been indexed, short titles of indexed articles are sufficient; if not, the transcription will be much more useful to potential readers if full titles and authors' names are included. One way to do this is to quote the full title; if the article is signed, a lower-case "s" and the author's name as given in the periodical appear in parentheses; if the author's name is given on a subsequent page, that page number is given. Thus

indicates that the essay "English Projectiles" begins on page 8 and is signed with the name "W. Bridges Adams" on page 10.

In cases where space will not permit any but the most abbreviated listing of contents, the bibliographer can provide the title of the first item on the page (that is, the item that appears in the upper left corner), the last item (that which appears in the lower right corner), and the total number of items per page (specifying whether advertisements are included in the total), as in the following example:

Certain features of the periodical's contents, such as editorial statements, advertisements for the periodical, announcements of special supplements, etc. should always be specifically identified in the contents and transcribed: If a separate listing of illustrations is not provided, and when illustrations are too numerous to be individually identified, the number of illustrations per page can be counted and given in parentheses after each page number.

As in the case of illustrations (discussed below), typographical features of the contents may be of separate interest to readers of the description, and for that reason may be presented either in a note following the listing of contents or in the section on typography. Typographical patterns, such as a larger font used for titles and bylines, or the characteristic placement of a rule or ornament between features, can be listed and measurements given.

Paper

It is important that paper measurements be provided, according to the model Tanselle recommends in "The Bibliographical Description of Paper," SB 24 (1971): 27 — 67. Since the paper used in periodicals of the machine-press era may differ significantly from that used in books, periodicals are likely to provide new insights for researchers who are interested in paper. In general, nineteenth-century paper is not particularly durable, thanks to the introduction of powerful rotary pulp beating machines, the use of chlorine bleach and alum-rosin sizing, and the substitution of wood pulp for rags.[31] Many periodicals (especially those with large circulations) also use thinner, lightweight paper to reduce mailing costs.

Since the discoloration produced by high acidity may make it difficult to determine paper color accurately, the bibliographer may want to comment on the condition of the paper in the copies examined.[32]

Typography

Typography is especially significant in bibliographical analysis and description of periodicals for two reasons: first, because periodicals served as showcases for new types, especially display types; and second, because typography often plays an important part in establishing the visual style of a periodical, much more so than is usually the case in books.

The development of ornamental type is one of the major events of nineteenth-century printing technology. The demand for display types was great, and the profit derived from them led to the relative neglect of plainer types.[33] Books (with the exception of cheaper paper-backs) tended not to make use of ornamental type; periodicals, on the other hand, made the most of this and other technological novelties. Wrappers, title-pages, and headings are likely places for decorative type. Many ornamental type faces can be identified in Nicolete Gray's Nineteenth Century Ornamented Typefaces (2nd ed., 1976), an essential reference for the bibliographer of Victorian periodicals. Plain type also underwent design modifications for use in newspapers and magazines. Perhaps the most famous example of innovation in magazine type is the new typeface designed by Theodore De Vinne and Linn Boyd Benton for the Century magazine; a version of this typeface is still in use (Lawson 283 — 284).

Typographical patterns such as text in columns, the use of rules or frames, and the designation of particular fonts for titles, bylines, or captions should be noted.

The headline and direction-line are especially important, since these will often include the date as well as the volume and issue numbers. Headlines and direction lines are often removed in bound volumes issued by the publisher; running titles in bound volumes should also be carefully checked for variation.

Illustrations and Plates

Illustrations were a selling point of certain periodicals, and should always be an important element of the description. Changes in illustrations or their accompanying captions can be an important source of bibliographical information, and both the content and means of production of illustrations have considerable historical and cultural relevance. Since scholars may have a special interest in illustrations apart from the other contents of the periodical, it may make sense to present them in a separate listing. In this way, detailed information about the processes used for illustration can be made easy to find, with the added benefit of not making the list of contents unnecessarily long.

Given the close relationship between the periodical press and the development of illustration in the nineteenth century, I would argue for mentioning all illustrations in the periodical and describing at least some of them, if not all, including advertisements. It is difficult to decide whether illustrated advertisements should be separated from illustrations listed in the contents or otherwise featured as part of "text." A

researcher interested in periodicals per se might find such a distinction to be artificial and counterproductive; on the other hand, the goals of the bibliography might make it logical to draw distinctions or emphasize some illustrations more than others, especially if one considers that the readers of a bibliography may be interested in the work of a particular illustrator, or in the ways in which a particular author's works were illustrated.

The same considerations apply to plates.[34] The placement of plates in periodicals should be carefully noted, especially in bound volumes, where variations in the positions of plates can help to establish active or passive aggregation. The actual position of plates should always be compared to positions designated on the plates themselves or elsewhere in the number or volume.

Binding

While it is clear that the bibliographer should offer a detailed description of the original wrappers, publisher's cloth bindings, and cases offered for sale by the publisher, it is less apparent whether these all belong in a section on binding. If the wrapper has been transcribed elsewhere in the account, only a description of the paper (thickness, pattern, and color) is placed here.

Cloth cases belong in the binding section only if they form part of the ideal copy of the number or volume. Thus cloth cases sold separately by the publisher, not being an aspect of ideal copy, should be noted at the end of the description, along with indexes, title-pages, and other such matter distributed separately from the number or bound volume.[35]

It can be difficult to determine the status of a bound volume in publisher's cloth. Some light is shed on this topic in John Carter's description of "Binding from Parts" in Binding Variants in English Publishing 1820 — 1900 (1932). Carter describes the practice of subscribers taking sets of books issued in parts to booksellers, who would "either return them to the publisher, who would have the job done by his regular binder, or else have the case sent down and the actual binding done by a local

binder" (74). Carter suggests that the involvement of local binders results in variation in the "colour and quality" of endpapers and in the trimming of edges (74); thus bibliographers who observe significant variation in these and other matters of binding (such as variations in the margin, which Carter mentions as a feature of bound-up volumes of books originally issued in parts [77]) among copies of a volume might have reason to doubt that the binding was handled by the publisher, whereas "endpapers printed with the publisher's advertisements indicate that the copy was bound by the publisher's binder . . ." (81). Further complications arise if both a volume issued by the publisher and volumes constructed by other parties exist:

The collection of external evidence such as advertisements for bound volumes, along with the examination of multiple copies (checking for stab holes, remnants of wrappers glued to sheets, or other evidence of previous binding), is necessary to sort out such instances.

Miscellaneous Materials

In addition to the separate issue of volume title-pages, lists of contents, and indexes, periodicals are likely to spawn numerous promotional materials, special supplements, calendars, and other miscellaneous materials. Volume title-pages and other materials closely identified with the number(s) presented in the description are of obvious interest, and should be treated in some detail; materials that are less closely connected with the number(s) under consideration can simply be mentioned, with sources of further information provided.

Copies Examined

Bibliographers of periodicals should be especially scrupulous in recording the number and location of copies examined. Since periodicals are often unavailable for interlibrary loan (the majority do not circulate at all), and since in many cases it may be extremely difficult for the bibliographer to see all forms of the periodical (especially the number in wrappers), some descriptions may have to be constructed from a small

number of copies. Readers who find that their number differs from ideal copy constructed by the bibliographer will certainly wish to know whether five or fifty copies were examined, and whether any of those copies are nearby for comparison.