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Quarto (abbreviated 4to or 4°) is a book or pamphlet produced from full 'blanksheets', each of which is printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves (that is, eight book pages). Each printed page now presents as one-fourth size of the full blanksheet. The earliest known European printed book is a quarto, the Sibyllenbuch, believed to have been printed by Gutenberg in 1452–53, before the Gutenberg Bible, surviving only as a fragment. Quarto is also used as a general description of size of books that are about 12 inches tall, and as such does not necessarily indicate the actual printing format of the books, which may even be unknown as is the case for many modern books. These terms are discussed in greater detail in Book sizes. ==Quarto as format== A quarto (from Latin ''quartō'', ablative form of ''quartus'', fourth 〔Oxford English Dictionary, 2d ed, (1989), on line access.〕) is a book or pamphlet made up of one or more full sheets of paper on which 8 pages of text were printed, which were then folded two times to produce four leaves. Each leaf of a quarto book thus represents one fourth the size of the original sheet. Each group of 4 leaves (called a "gathering" or "quire") could be sewn through the central fold to attach it to the other gatherings to form a book. Sometimes, additional leaves would be inserted within another group to form, for example gatherings of 8 leaves, which similarly would be sewn through the central fold. Generally, quartos have more squarish proportions than folios or octavos.〔Ronald B. McKerrow, ''An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students'', Oxford 1927 and later eds., p. 164.〕 There are variations in how quartos were produced. For example, bibliographers call a book printed as a quarto (four leaves per full sheet), but bound in gatherings of 8 leaves each, a "quarto in 8s."〔Ronald B. McKerrow, ''An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students'', Oxford 1927 and later eds., p. 28.〕 The actual size of a quarto book depends on the size of the full sheet of paper on which it was printed. A demy quarto (abbreviated demy 4to) is a chiefly British term, referring to a book size of about , a medium quarto , a royal quarto , and a small quarto equalled a square octavo, all untrimmed.〔Chambers English Dictionary〕 The earliest surviving books printed by movable type by Gutenberg are quartos which were printed before the Gutenberg Bible. The earliest known one is a fragment of a medieval poem called the Sibyllenbuch, believed to have been printed by Gutenberg in 1452–53.〔(British Library, Incunabula Short Title Catalogue, entry for the Sybyllenbuch ).〕〔Margaret Bingham Stillwell, ''The Beginning of the World of Books, 1450–1470'', Bibliographical Society of America, New York, 1972, pp. 3–4, described as a medieval poem printed in about 1451–52, but not identifying the format.〕 Quartos were the most common format of books printed in the incunabula period (books printed before 1501).〔(British Library, Incunabula Short Title Catalogue, search for format as "4to", sorted by year )〕 The British Library Incunabula Short Title Catalogue currently lists about 28,100 different editions of surviving books, pamphlets and broadsides (some fragmentary only) printed before 1501,〔(Search of Incunabula Short Title Catalog for imprints before 1501, sorted by date. Search done July 12, 2009. )〕 of which about 14,360 are quartos,〔(British Library, Incunabula Short Title Catalogue, search for imprints before 1501 and format as "4to", sorted by year. Search done July 12, 2009. )〕 representing just over half of all works in the catalogue. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「quarto」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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