Page layout

Margin rules;

Header and footer rules;

Use of white space (eg. crowded pages);

Pagination (by the compiler, not future cataloguers). 

Manuscript Note
Beinecke Osborn c110

Lefthand margins ruled in pencil up to p. 41.

Beinecke Osborn c111

Paginated.

Beinecke Osborn c116

Paginated (majority of the book is blank, and pages are numbered only as far as they are filled).

Beinecke Osborn c130

Generous white space.

Paginated (in original hand pp. 1-103; then p. 104 by another hand).

Beinecke Osborn c135

Generous use of page.

Paginated (retrospective; up to p. 43).

Beinecke Osborn c139–142

Wide margins and fairly generous use of white space.

Paginated (vols. 2–3 only).

Beinecke Osborn c143

Unpaginated (pencilled-in folios likely by a cataloguer).

Beinecke Osborn c147

Generous white space.

Paginated.

Beinecke Osborn c149

Paginated.

Beinecke Osborn c152

Dry-ruling of margins adjusted to item; however, there are cases of corrections (e.g. omitted line).

Beinecke Osborn c154

Pagination (retrospective).

Beinecke Osborn c156

Fairly generous use of white space.

Paginated (probably in the second hand, Hillhouse).

Beinecke Osborn c157

In part one, ruled lines down left-hand margins.

Rules can be very close to margin when lines are long.

Paginated (up to p. 228, then the next page is numbered 230, no pagination after this).

Beinecke Osborn c162

Double red-ruled margins.

Beinecke Osborn c163

Not much white space.

Beinecke Osborn c167

Paginated (except for three blank pages at the end of the manuscript).

Beinecke Osborn c169

Pencilled rules to keep lines of poetry straight.

Beinecke Osborn c172

Paginated.

No blank space between poems. 

Beinecke Osborn c175

Paginated (except for one blank leaf at the beginning and two at the end).

Beinecke Osborn c176

Book quite tightly written.

Paginated.

Beinecke Osborn c179

Paginated (retrospective; sideways item that is now p. 41 is numbered “45” in original hand).

Beinecke Osborn c180

Paginated (pagination ends at p. 76, with p. 87 marked later, but in fact it is p. 86).

Items are numbered.

Beinecke Osborn c187

Pages filled completely, even when only the title can fit at the bottom of the page.

Paginated.

Beinecke Osborn c189

Very crowded pages.

Paginated (220 pages originally paginated, then 3 additional pages paginated later by the same hand).

Beinecke Osborn c193

Unpaginated.

Beinecke Osborn c241

Paginated.

Beinecke Osborn c258

Poems generally entered continuously, but when very close to the bottom of the page, may use multiple horizontal lines to fill it in. 

Unpaginated.

Beinecke Osborn c265

Ruled margins around each filled page and a few blank ones after the first filled section.

Unpaginated.

Beinecke Osborn c341

Paginated.

8 pages containing 5 poems before page 1 unpaginated. 

A graceful arabesque divides items occurring on same page.

Conservative use of space (all pages fully filled). 

Beinecke Osborn c351

Pencil margins on the left-hand side.

Comfortable use of space (no cramming).

Paginated by the compiler.

Beinecke Osborn c360 (1/3)

Unpaginated, but numbered items—frequent skips ie. 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13… unexplained.

Beinecke Osborn c360 (2/3)

Unpaginated.

Items are but numbered, with frequent skips ie. begins with 13 (glued to last page of ToC), skips from 26 to 34 with pages cut out between; sometimes partial page cut out, as items 42 & 43 at top of page

Beinecke Osborn c360 (3/3)

Items numbered.

Beinecke Osborn c382

Makes ostentatious use of white space, with every item occupying a column on the left-hand side of the page and a wide red-ruled margin on the right-hand side (about 6.5 cm wide) – which is used for annotations at various points. 

Paginated.

Beinecke Osborn c391

The first verse miscellany section is paginated 1–81, which is not the complete section.

Beinecke Osborn c481

Paginated. 

Not overcrowded, but most pages are full.

Beinecke Osborn c548

Hand-drawn horizontal lines between items.

Writing is quite crowded.

Beinecke Osborn c570

Paginated. 

Size of the writing and the margins differ greatly; varying use of white space.

Beinecke Osborn c591

Most items have some sort of header. 

Beinecke Osborn c595

Lots of white space.

Beinecke Osborn c662

Generous use of white space enhances readability. 

Small page marks. 

Some double ruled lines at ends of items, particularly in the middle section.

Beinecke Osborn c688

Very neat.

Many pages divided into ruled segments depending on length of items and of lines.

Most pages oriented with binding on left, but some, especially lengthy ones, are oriented to have the lines run along the binding.

Most items have a double ruled line at end; ruled lines also divide items on the page, so most items are contained within their own textbox.

Beinecke Osborn c82

Very little blank space; poems are back-to-back and the pages are dense.

Beinecke Osborn c83

Unpaginated.

Items are numbered, seemingly after the poems were copied (the ink is darker, and they are seemingly inserted into blank spaces).

Beinecke Osborn c90

In general, quite a lot of white space on pages.

Poems often continue onto the next page.

Beinecke Osborn c91

Paginated.

Beinecke Osborn d226

Paginated.

Fairly generous use of space including some blank pages between items.

Beinecke Osborn d232

No pagination. 

Beinecke Osborn d233

Very plain. No header or footer rules; pages are filled but not crowded.

No pagination.

Beinecke Osborn d267

Paginated throughout, even through large middle section left otherwise blank.

Beinecke Osborn d49

Width of margins varies (e.g., p. 188 compared to 189).

Fairly liberal use of white space.

Paginated (1–342, 351, 356, 337–339, 360–367).

Beinecke Osborn d492

Some traces left of erased pencil lines. Perhaps the compiler wanted or needed a guide for his writing.

Paginated up to 139 by folio (recto side only).

Beinecke Osborn d494

Paginated.

Beinecke Osborn d512

Unpaginated.

Beinecke Osborn d69

Paginated.

Generous use of space; new items begun on new pages.

Beinecke Osborn d93

Paginated 9–99.

Beinecke Osborn fc124

No rules, very crowded pages. Items are often on-top of each other.

Paginated, but only up to about p. 126, and up to p. 126 the pagination is irregular and often inconsistent, perhaps because of excisions.

Beinecke Osborn fc130

Paginated 45–80 (but pages 59–80 are blank).

Beinecke Osborn fc132

Paginated 1–223, [5].

Rare footnotes.

Beinecke Osborn fc135

Margin, header, and footer rules.

Generous with space (if divided into vertical columns, the text would only take up the middle third of the page). 

Beinecke Osborn fc183

Full but not crowded pages.

Paginated by the compiler—"Page —".

Beinecke Osborn fc185

Paginated.

Beinecke Osborn fc51

Paginated.

Generous use of space, very wide margins.

Pencil margins, increasingly clear towards the middle and end of the manuscript.

Beinecke Osborn fc58

Paginated except for the final two pages.

Red ruled margins up to p. 105.

The first hand is more generous with space than the second, occasionally skipping entire pages between poems.

Beinecke Osborn fd32

Filled pages lightly ruled to guide writing.

Bodleian MS Eng. poet. c. 9

Paginated (by the compiler, though not continuous now given excisions).

Bodleian MS Eng. poet. d. 189

Paginated (retrospective by the compiler).

Paper has ruled outside margins.

Bodleian MS Eng. poet. d. 47

Paginated (by the compiler, in folios, beginning with the first poetry item).

Bodleian MS Eng. poet. e. 109

Paginated (ninety-nine pages paginated by the compiler beginning after the Table of Contents up to end of the filled portion of the book).

Bodleian MS Eng. poet. e. 111

A lot of white space, given the blank verso sides as well.

Bodleian MS Eng. poet. e. 18

Paginated, though only the pages paginated 5–30 (by the compiler) remain. 

Bodleian MS Eng. poet. e. 28

Paginated (up to p. 312).

Bodleian MS Eng. poet. e. 39

Paginated.

Bodleian MS Eng. poet. e. 47

Paginated (pagination skips from p. 50 to p. 60).

Bodleian MS Harding b. 41

Pages quite crowded.

Bodleian MS Mont. e. 13

Every page has red or brown-red ruled margins in the form of a box within which the poetry is entered.

Paginated (begins anew at the start of each volume).

British Library Add. MS 28102

Paginated (in folios, including blanks).

British Library Add. MS 29981

Clear margin rules on every page.

Paginated by the compiler.

British Library Add. MS 37684

Most pages are completely full; poems are almost always copied back-to-back.

Paginated by the compiler, corrected to folios by a later cataloguer.

British Library Add. MS 59656

Paginated (by the compiler ff. 1-77 beginning with first page of poetry – these numbers correspond with Table of Contents; cataloguer has renumbered folios 1-64 beginning with Table of Contents; both include the final 2 endpapers, which have poetry written on them).

British Library Add. MS 70494

Yes (fifty-four pages beginning with the title page). 

Very generous use of white space.

Chawton House 2622, MAN LOF

Paginated.

Chawton House 4946, MAN WIL

Notebooks 1–2 paginated in folios, notebook 3 unpaginated. 

Notebook 1: Generous use of space, plenty of half-pages left blank.

Notebook 2: All of each page used, never a blank half-page.

Notebook 3: More closely written. 

Clark MS 1948.003

Paginated (pp. 1-140 paginated, p. 141 and 2 pp of index not paginated).

Poems begun immediately one after another even if only space enough for one line.

Clark MS 1950.025

Paginated by one of the compilers up to p. 93, then no pagination. Index also ends with this item.

Clark MS 1956.002

Paginated.

Clark MS 1968.002

Endings of poems in the first few pages sometimes written sideways onto the page.

Clark MS 1976.014

Paginated (up to p.130).

Double rules after headers.

Clark MS 1982.001

Poetry end paginated (up to p. 48, but p. 21 skipped); commonplace end unpaginated.

Clark MS 1982.002

Paginated.

Clark MS 1983.001

Paginated (pp. 1 and 3 numbered, but poetry begins on p. 5; paginated up to p. 159, entries continue up to p. 167, including on what seem to be two endpapers).

Every page divided into two columns. No items go beyond the end of a column or page – carefully fitted to the available space.

Clark MS 1984.001

Paginated (by the compiler, but in multiple paginations, suggesting poems were perhaps written into different gatherings, then bound together. Begins with pp. 42-173 [interrupted by pp. 1-[8] – wove paper insertion]; then continues with 2 unnumbered pages + 8 pages of unnumbered index + 10 pages unnumbered; then shifts to reverse orientation; no consistent numbering for this ambigraph section).

Clark MS 1984.004

Paginated (by the compiler beginning after the index).

Clark MS 1986.003

Paginated (by the compiler; pagination skips from p. 90 to p. 100 with no sign of pages removed, unless it was an entire gathering).

Clark MS 1994.001

Paginated (by the compiler up to p. 101; ambigraph end unpaginated). 

Clark MS 2000.005

Paginated (by the compiler). 

Clark MS 2008.023

Vol. 1: Paginated (by the compiler).

Vol. 2: Paginated (by the compiler, but only up to p. 7).

Vol. 3: Paginated (by the compiler, up to p. 160).

Vol. 4: Unpaginated (only pp. 1–2 paginated by the compiler).

Clark MS 2010.030

Paginated (by the compiler, up to p. 346).

Clark MS 2019.001

Paginated up to p. 155.

Clark MS 2019.032

Paginated (by the compiler; no unpaginated pages though many are blank). 

Pencilled lines to guide writing.

Clark MS 2019.038

Ruled in red on lefthand margins throughout.

Folger MS M.a.104

Poems fill entire pages, leaving very little white space.

Folger MS M.a.110

Paginated (some errors, though there must also be some cutouts, given the number of leaves are an odd number. Pagination begins on the verso of f. 20).

Folger MS M.a.116

Ruled left-hand margins that seem to be a feature of the book.

Folger MS M.a.142

Paginated up to 162 with some errors (148 filled pages). 

Folger MS M.a.15

Paginated (in extreme outer edges of pages, at least in the first half of book, but some numbers seem to have been trimmed off in binding).

Margins ruled-in in pencil.

Generous use of white space.

Folger MS M.a.163

Unpaginated (except for pencil pagination pp. 1–20).

Lots of white space.

Folger MS M.a.164

Red-ruled vertical line marking the inside margin of each page at the Chesterfield/poetry end of the manuscript, and the outside margin for entries from the other end of the manuscript. This line is consistent throughout, even on blank pages, so the book must have been purchased with these margins. 

Folger MS M.a.179

Paginated except for six unnumbered pages at the beginning of the book.

Folger MS M.a.182

Paginated. 

Folger MS M.a.186

Paginated.

Hand-ruled left-hand margins.

Folger MS M.a.187

At the beginning of the book, two-column leaves show marks of folding down the middle to divide page.

Paginated (up to f. 230 in the compiler’s hand; leaves 225-30 are blank).

Folger MS M.a.231

Left hand margins ruled, including some leaves beyond where entries end.

Folger MS M.a.53–58

Paginated.

Impressions of six points on every recto page and outer margin rulings, possibly from a device for guiding lines. These guidemarks disappear after vol. 3.

Folger MS M.b.13

Earliest pages of book more spacious; otherwise crowded, no margins, looks more like a commonplace book than a usual poetry miscellany.

Folger MS M.b.21

Paginated.

Triple-ruled margins (seem to be hand-drawn, since slight variations in line joins).

Lots of white space.

Folger MS N.b.3

Paginated (by the compiler, in the margins).

Margin rules in ink.

Folger MS W.a.103

Paginated.

Ruled margins in red, some margin glosses - these rulings continue throughout the book, after entries and pagination stop (perhaps part of the book when bought, if designed for the recording of satirical poetry).

Another red line added in on pp. 24-7 for French Version of Prince of Wales’s letter to father. 

Houghton MS Am 1369

Frequent ruled lines (though not perfectly straight), seemingly added by the compiler. 

Regular margin rule on the left side of the page (for both the recto and verso), seemingly added by the compiler. 

First page and last page are crowded, all other pages are more comfortably full. 

Houghton MS Am 1894

Paginated.

Pages are filled; new items are started on the same page as the previous item when there is space enough for at least a few lines.

Houghton MS Am 1894.1(1)

Paginated (beginning with the Introduction).

New items frequently begun at the very bottom of pages ie. rarely begin on a new page all of their own.

Irregular, curved lines (decorative?) between the end of a line of text and the edge of the page.

Houghton MS Am 1919

Paginated (in the top left-hand corner, and in the format "P.[#]."

Houghton MS Eng 1280

Paginated. 

Poems and annotations sometimes written sideways in order to fit them on the page.

Houghton MS Eng 1323

Paginated.

Guiding pencil lines drawn on pp. 98, 100, 102, 104, 106, 108, 110.

Houghton MS Eng 569.63

Pages sometimes completely full with text, but increasingly (as the poetry section goes on) liberal with blank space, occasionally leaving half a blank page after the end of an item.

Houghton MS Eng 584

Paginated up to the final item. 

Houghton MS Eng 606

Paginated (both sections, pp. 1–167 and 1–30 with one overlapping page paginated as both p. 167 and p. 30). 

Houghton MS Eng 611

Paginated (both volumes and both sections of vol. 2. Seemingly paginated as the manuscripts were filled in because pp. 82–83 which are written in another hand are paginated in that hand as well).

Houghton MS Eng 614

Paginated. 

Houghton MS Eng 680

Paginated. 

Houghton MS Eng 768

Volume 1 is paginated (on every verso page); volume 2 in unpaginated.

Houghton MS Eng 926

Paginated (top-center of each page). 

The writing in the manuscript gets less condensed and straight-lined as the book progresses. 

Huntington MS 106

Paginated.

Left-hand margins in red ink.

Huntington MS 82623

Paginated (but in segments that do not accord).

Huntington Stowe Vol. III

Liberal use of paper/ space eg. p. 36: where another stanza could easily fit at the bottom of the page, the compiler chose to continue the poem on the proceeding page instead. 

Leeds Brotherton Lt 100

Paginated (in folios; from f. 48v, pagination is written from the back of the book inwards and upside down; f. 1v is also upside down).

Some pages are filled to the edges, eg. f. 71, and some have plenty of leftover space, eg. f. 63. The use of space is inconsistent.

Leeds Brotherton Lt 103

Paginated (in folios).

Leeds Brotherton Lt 104

Mostly unpaginated (ff. 1–9 paginated in ink [possibly by the compiler; this is the entirety of the first item], but the rest is paginated in pencil, probably by an archivist).

Leeds Brotherton Lt 106

Paginated (by the compiler, in the first section of the book).

Leeds Brotherton Lt 11

Paginated (both sides of the page).

Heavy line ruled across the top and down the left margin of each page.

Carefully compiled; writing is spacious.

Leeds Brotherton Lt 110

Paginated (by the compiler, in folios, beginning after the title page. 69 paginated folios, followed by 4 unpaginated folios. The versos of ff. 1–31 are paginated incorrectly, to create a sequential pagination that matches the opposite page in the same opening; for example, 1v is paginated 2, 2v paginated 3, and so on. The other versos, ff. 32–69, are unpaginated).

Leeds Brotherton Lt 119

Paginated (in folios by Capell). 

Leeds Brotherton Lt 12

Paginated (by the compilers, seemingly as they went along because the handwriting of the pagination switches at the same time as the text’s handwriting does).

If over half the page is full, the first hand begins the new item on the following page. The second hand begins most items one after another, not on a new page.

Ruled left-hand margins (throughout the manuscript, though likely all done at once because they are indistinguishable in the two sections).

Leeds Brotherton Lt 123

Paginated.

Bordered pages, with pagination and catchwords outside the borderlines.

Neatly numbered stanzas.

Leeds Brotherton Lt 125

Paginated (in pages at the top-outside corner).

Leeds Brotherton Lt 15

Paginated (by the compiler; the first 7 and last 3 filled pages are unpaginated).

Leeds Brotherton Lt 20

Paginated (pagination begun anew for each Virgil section of the manuscript: so five paginated pages after the title page, followed by the Explanation of Names [unpaginated], then Virgil’s pastorals are paginated 1–40, Virgil’s georgics and the miscellaneous section are paginated 1–140).

In the Virgirl sections, new items always begin on new pages. In the Miscellany section, new items continue on the same page when space allows.

Leeds Brotherton Lt 24

Paginated (by Coles: pp. 3–208 + pp. 105–118 + [10 pages] + TofC + [13 pages] + pp. 4–104 + pp. 209–212 + p. 118).

Leeds Brotherton Lt 35

Paginated.

When the lines of an item are short enough, a vertical line divides the page in two and the stanzas are copied on both the left and right side, eg. pp. 54, 119, perhaps as a way of making the most of the space?

Items frequently begun back-to-back; occasionally new items begin on a new page, but this compiler really utilized the space they had.

Leeds Brotherton Lt 36

Very little white space and pages are filled entirely.

New items typically begun on a new page if half or more of the last page is full.

Paginated (in folios on the top right of every verso, and in pages from pp. 1–77, but pagination missing from what would be pp. 78–118. pp. 9–10 are absent, though no sign of tear-out. Numbering begins again with second mid-century hand).

Leeds Brotherton Lt 45

Paginated.

Ruled margins.

Pages neatly but closely written.

Omitted lines sometimes written vertically in margins – eg pp. 14-15.

Leeds Brotherton Lt 53

Paginated (pp. 1–82, then pagination begins again for the biographical section, pp. 1–47, and continues past that section, pp. 48–70, to the end of the manuscript, excluding the flyleaf). (Pages 51–52 of the second section are missing, likely torn out, not a pagination error, because p. 53 continues an item not on p. 50).

Thick, decorative striped borders on pp. 57–58b.

Leeds Brotherton Lt 61

Paginated (in the upper corner; pagination is not always visible because it was written in such a small font and the edges of the pages are worn; someone else has added pagination by folio below the compiler’s pagination).

Items begun one after another, even if there’s only room for a couple of lines at the bottom of the page eg. book 2 p. 33.

Comfortable, relaxed use of space, ie. not jamming anything to try and fit on a particular page, which suggests the book was copied one page after another, rather than out of order.

Leeds Brotherton Lt 93

Paginated (all in the same hand, possibly by the first/ primary compiler, but after ff. 32v and 33 were cut out).

Leeds Brotherton Lt 99

Paginated (by the compiler on the verso side, but numbered in folios by a cataloguer on the rectos. Compiler’s pagination jumps from 197 to 200).

Plenty of white space.

Leeds Brotherton Ltq 51

Pencilled margins throughout, eg. p. 83, though sometimes ignored, eg. p. 107. In the first section (Edward the Second), margins are generously large, and occupy about ¼ of the page, leaving lots of empty space. They are thinner in the other sections, leaving more room for text and less blank space on the pages, eg. p. 131.

Frequently numbered stanzas.

Paginated (by the compiler. p. 158 is paginated 190, which is to say there’s a jump from p. 157 to p. 190, and pagination continues from 190 to the end of the manuscript, with what would otherwise be the correct pagination noted in pencil below the compiler’s pagination).

Princeton Taylor no. 87

Paginated by the compiler as folios. 

UChicago Library Codex Ms. 522

Pagination by original compiler. 

Items occasionally separated by a rough horizontal line. 

New poems often indicated by date of entry. 

UChicago Library Codex Ms. 549

Generous use of space.

No margins or header/footer rules.

Paginated (though the last four pages of volume two are unpaginated, likely because they were a later addition by another hand).

UChicago Library Codex Ms. 551

Paginated up to p. 69 of 73.

UChicago Library Codex Ms. 553

Very wide margins (though unruled). Generous use of white space though no blank pages.

Paginated by the compiler (top centre of each page).

UChicago Library Codex Ms. 556

Pagination by compiler. 

UChicago Library Codex Ms. 557

Pagination by compiler up to p. 255, then discontinued until p. 264. 

UChicago Library Codex Ms. 558

Paginated by folio.

Evidence of pencil margins.

UChicago Library Codex Ms. 581

Paginated by the compiler.

UChicago Library Codex Ms. 636

Unpaginated.

Not a decorative book; the filled pages are comfortably so with no margins or embellishments.

UChicago Library Codex Ms. 639

First section paginated by the compiler; second section irregularly paginated.

p. 15 is quartered, with one poem transcribed across the top half of the page and one across the bottom; pages more frequently divided into columns and quartered in the second section.

UChicago Library Codex Ms. 739

At least half of items are copied only on the recto sides of the leaves.

New items generally begin on new pages

UChicago Library Codex Ms. 757

Partially paginated by Church (up to p. 28 of 105).