University of Virginia Library

Faulty Signings

Frequently a printer did not sign a folio or two which would normally
have been signed. In most cases, especially when the title-page is involved,
he allowed for it in his numbering system, for this was important for his
own methodology as much as for the binder. Then, the modern scholar can
assign the number editorially, in the customary manner. Sometimes, however,
the folio is not allowed for in the sequence of numbers, and here one
has to examine the source more carefully.

• 64. Cazzati: Il terzo libro de motetti a voce sola . . . Opera Decima terza.
  Venice: Alessandro Vincenti, 1651.

  RISM C1594. Copy at Bologna, Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale.[31]

  One volume in portrait quarto: A-C16.

  Signatures:] A 2 [$1-8, -A1, A2. A3-8 are signed A2-A7.

A1r contains a title, A1v is blank, A2r contains the dedication, and the
music begins on A2v. There are several possible explanations for this signing
pattern. One is that the printer originally intended the first bifolio to be
separate, but found that he had more music than would fit into the resulting
smaller volume. The first bifolio was then converted into two bifolios
wrapped around the rest of the book.[32] An alternative, and more probable,
suggestion is that the music was always intended to start on A1v, so that the
present folio signed A2 would indeed be the second of the book. The decision
to insert the Dedicatory folio would then have been made after typesetting
began, but presumably before reaching the 8th folio of music.

Fairly often, however, the "extra" folio is not matched by a conjugate
in the other half of the gathering, and is truly surplus. This folio may then
have been tipped in:

• 65. Donati: Il secondo libro delle messe da capella . . . Op. 12. Venice: Alessandro
  Vincenti, 1633.

  RISM D3400. Copy at Milan, Capitolo Metropolitano.

  Quarto: [C:] A26 (A1 +1); [T:] B26 (B1 +1); [A:] C26 Cc2; [B:] D24; [5:]
  E12; [BC:] F20.

  Note. The inserted folios after the first in the Cantus and Tenor carry
  the list of names of all the dedicatees. It is not clear whether the
  other partbooks also originally contained this tipped-in leaf.

There is another possible solution, especially during the seventeenth
century. When the unsigned, extra sheet is a title-page or a half-title, one
should suspect the loss of a blank first leaf: the original may have followed
the pattern of Example 33, above.

More extreme is the practice of publishing a title without any signatures
at all. For books like this, Bowers[33] argues for the use of a greek pi or chi
for all unsigned gatherings: and I have used pi regularly in earlier examples.
Normally, of course, he is assuming that the unsigned gatherings are part of
a book which also contains signatures. There are cases, however, such as
the following, where each partbook is completely unsigned. It seems more
sensible to assign editorial collational signatures, using either letters or
roman numerals within brackets:

• 66. Capello: Lamentationi, Benedictus . . . Op. 3. Verona: Angelo Tamo,
  1612.

  RISM C903. Copy at Bologna, Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale.

  Quarto: Choir I: C, [I]6; T, [II]6; A, [III]6; B, [IV]6. Choir II: Violetta,
  [V]4; Viola, [VI]4; Viola [2], [VII]4; Violone, [VIII]4. Choir III:
  Chitaroni, [IX]4.

  Folio: Partitura: [X]6 [XI]8.

This also avoids a further complication in formulation if Bowers' formulae
were followed: the Continuo part would have been described as π6 π8.
While Bowers suggests the use of arabic numerals for sequential unsigned
gatherings, this seems unsatisfactory for music editions, where arabic numerals
are on occasion used for the signatures themselves.

Finally, all printers may at times make errors or produce structures and
signing patterns which are certainly erroneous. In some cases, the signatures
are clearly correctable, and probably indicate something of the procedures
in the printing shop.

The book of Messa e Salmi, Corr. Op. 1 by Cozzi published in 1649
(Example 54) has a clear indication that the Tenor book was prepared after
the Altus: two folios in the Tenor book, C5 and C13 (that is, at the beginning
of the 2nd and 4th gatherings) are actually signed B5 and B13. In the

case of Has quatuor missas (Example 8), there are three wrong signings in
gathering B, the Altus book: the three folios B3-5 are all signed with the
letter A, and corrected in manuscript (in the same hand) in both the Bologna
and Lucca copies. This must surely imply that these two sheets were prepared
after those of the Cantus part, and presumably placed in the same
formes. In the same way, the first three folios of the Bassus of the Quatto
Libri delle Villotte (Example 26) are signed with the signature from the
Tenor book. There is a surprisingly large number of such errors, many of
which are most easily explained as representing the retention of a signature
in a forme during the insertion of material from a different gathering.

However, we can not make this assumption as a matter of course. There
are occasions when it raises impossible solutions:

• 67. Bianchi: Motetti e Messe à 8. Venice: Ricciardo Amadino, 1611.

  RISM B2497. Copy at Lucca, Seminario Arcivescovile.

  Quarto: Choir I: [C:] A12; [T:] B12; [A:] C12; [B:] D12;
  Choir II: [C:] E12; [T:] F12; [A:] G12; [B:] H12; [Basso Continuo:]
  I12.

  Signing errors: C5 signed E5 (corrected in ms.), C6 signed E5; D6 signed
  G6; E5 and 6 signed B5 and B6; F5 and 6 signed D5 and D6; G5 and
  6 signed F5 and F6.

It is wishful thinking to propose a sequence of preparing the partbooks
on the assumption that so many signatures were erroneously retained in the
forme. Such an interpretation suggests that gathering B was prepared before
E, and that before C; also that gathering D was earlier than F, itself earlier
than G. But then G appears to be earlier than D, and both propositions are
clearly not tenable.

• 68. Bernardi: II Madrigaletti à 2-3, Op. 12. Venice: Alessandro Vincenti,
  1621.

  RISM B2069. Copy at Vienna: Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek.

  Quarto: [C1:] A18; [C2:] B18; [B:] C4; [Basso Continuo:] D16.

  Note. The signatures on A9 and B9 are exchanged, though the music
  continues correctly.

This seems a relatively simple error: the most likely explanation is that
the two half-sheets (A9-10 and B9-10) were set up in the same forme. Indeed
most signing errors seem to be explicable through an understanding of
printing-house procedures. But there are some printers, among them Soldi,
who seem more prone to nonsensical patterns:

• 69. Tarditi: Psalmi Magnificat à 8, Lib. II. Rome: Luc' Antonio Soldi, 1620.

  RISM T225. Copy at Piacenza, Biblioteca e Archivio Capitolare.

  ---

  230

  
  
  
                 

  Choir I:	Choir II:
  [C:] A-E4	[C:] H-I4 L-M4 N2
  [A not extant]	[A:] O4R4
  [T:] H-L4 M2 O2	[T:] S-V4 R4
  [B:] O-R4 S2	[B:] Aa-Cc4 D4
  [Violino:] Ff6	[Cornetto:] Ee6
  [Liuto:] Gg6	[Tiorba 1:] Ll6
  	[Bassus ad Organum:] MM-Qq4.

  Note. There are numerous signing problems:

  • I, Violino: signed] Ee, Ff, Ff2, [3 unsigned]

  • II, C: I2 is signed K2

  • II, T: S2 is signed O2

  • II, B: D1 is unsigned

  • II, Cornetto:] Ll, [2 unsigned], Ee, Ee2, [1 unsigned].