When picking up a book, try to refrain from turning to the first chapter immediately. When doing a bibliological analysis, there is useful evidence available even prior to reading the main text of the book. Pay attention to the general appearance of the book, including the cover or boards, the spine, and how the text block is situated in the binding. Is the book tightly or loosely bound? Does the spine have information printed on it? Is the cover itself considered part of the binding, or is it a removable dust jacket? All these observations are not going to tell you the history of the book, but they will give you a concrete place to begin.
Open the book gently, then go through any front matter without worrying about the content. You might see endpapers, a half title, a title page, and/or a copyright page. Note which are present rather than which you expect to be. On the title page, pay attention to the title, author, publisher, and place of publication (if available). Next, cross-reference this information with the copyright page or colophon. There may be information about the edition, information about printing, the date of publication, the publisher’s address, and more, which will allow you to better characterize the specific book you are looking at.
Next, look at the general formatting of the pages. Note the pagination, running heads, chapter headings, margins, illustrations, and font changes. If there are Roman numeral pages in the front matter and Arabic numeral pages in the main text, note that fact. Are the illustrations part of the text block, printed on their own pages, or located in a special section of the book? These things can be overlooked when focusing on the words on the page, but they say something about the book and its design.
Another useful exercise is to create a brief description of the book, using only things that are visible. Don’t say the book is “very old” or “probably rare.” Describe the actual characteristics, such as: the book has cloth-covered boards, a printed spine, illustrated endpapers, a title page with a certain publisher, and a text block with numbered pages. If you aren’t sure about something, note that you will have to check back on it later. By doing this, you keep your interpretations separate from your observations. Do not allow your impressions to become conclusions without further investigation.
Using the right terminology can also help you make a better description. A cover isn’t necessarily the same thing as a binding, and an edition isn’t necessarily the same thing as a printing. Similarly, an author’s work isn’t necessarily the same thing as the copy in your hands. Two copies of the same book can have different bindings, different paper stocks, different typography, different illustrations, and different publication information. Being able to distinguish these differences will make your analysis much more helpful.
Finally, take one last look at the book before you start to read the text. See if you can recognize the spine, the text block, the endpapers, the title page, the copyright page, the pagination, and one element of typography or layout. It doesn’t need to be very detailed. The purpose is to pay closer attention to what you can see, to record what is actually there, and to save your conclusions until you have done more research. The story of a book starts well before the text begins.
