https://wiktenauer.com/index.php?title=Recto_and_verso&feed=atom&action=historyRecto and verso - Revision history2024-03-28T10:07:35ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.34.2https://wiktenauer.com/index.php?title=Recto_and_verso&diff=11619&oldid=prevMichael Chidester: 2 revisions2012-09-21T17:00:09Z<p>2 revisions</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>[[Image:Recto_and_verso.svg|thumb]]The '''verso''' is the "back" side and the ''recto'' the "front" side of a leaf of paper in a bound item such as a [[book]], [[broadsheet]], or [[pamphlet]]. Thus in languages written from left to right (like English), the ''recto'' is the [[Relative direction|right-hand]] [[page (paper)|page]] and the '''verso''' the left-hand page. These are terms of art in the binding, printing, and publishing industries, and can be applied more broadly to any field where physical documents are exchanged.<br />
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The term '''recto-verso''' describes two-sided text. The terms are important in the field of [[codicology]], where each physical sheet of a manuscript is numbered and the sides are referred to as ''recto'' and ''verso''. Critical editions of manuscripts will often mark the position of text in the original manuscript, or manuscripts, in the style '42r.' or '673vº'.<br />
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The terms are carried over into printing, ''recto-verso'' is the norm for printed books, but was an important advantage of the [[printing-press]] over the much older Asian [[woodblock printing]] method, which printed by rubbing from behind the page being printed, and so could only print on one side of a piece of paper.<br />
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The distinction between recto and verso can be convenient in the [[annotation]] of scholarly books, particularly in [[bilingual edition]] translations.<br />
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The "recto" and "verso" terms can also be employed for the front and back of a one-sheet artwork, particularly in [[drawing]]. A recto-verso drawing is a sheet with drawings on both sides, for example in a sketchbook—although usually in these cases there is no obvious primary side. Some works are planned to exploit being on two sides of the same piece of paper, but usually the works are not intended to be considered together. Paper was relatively expensive in the past; indeed good drawing paper still is much more expensive than normal paper.<br />
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By book publishing convention, the first page of a book, and of sometimes of each section and chapter of a book, is a recto page,<ref>{{cite book|title=You Ought to Write All That Down|author=Paul Drake|chapter=The Basic Elements and Order of a Book|date=2007|publisher=Heritage Books|isbn=9780788409899|pages=1}}</ref> and hence all recto pages will have odd numbers and all verso pages will have even numbers.<ref>{{cite book|title=Copyediting &amp; Proofreading For Dummies|author=Suzanne Gilad|pages=209|publisher=For Dummies|date=2007|isbn=0470121718|isbn13=9780470121719}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Merriam-Webster's Manual for Writers and Editors|author=Merriam-Webster, Inc.|publisher=Merriam-Webster|date=1998|isbn=087779622X|isbn13=9780877796220|pages=337}}</ref><br />
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{{reflist}}</div>Michael Chidester