I love old books. There's a smell to old books and the worn in, well read feel that you just can't get from a modern book. Great care used to go into making books, many were even hand bound, today machines manufacture the whole books.
Many of us have old books but have no idea what year they
are from. Many 18th and 19th century books have no
publication date and leave us to research for ourselves to determine their origins.

Also, look to see if there is a forward in the book.
Sometimes forwards include the date of publication so it is unnecessary to
include it in the publishers notes. Another thing to look at is if there are any
advertisements in the book. These are more common in older books than you would think. Try to research a little on any advertisements in
the book as other books advertised are likely to have been published in the
same year.

If an illustrator created images especially for the book, try researching the illustrator as well as some of the artwork. Woodcut illustrations (usually only one) were used in books in the 18th century. Woodcut designs are normally thicker and less detailed than "etchings" which were used from the 1800s to the early 1900s.
The date may also be included with the publisher’s
information as Roman numerals. Roman numerals are one of those things that many people half-learned. Most of us learned enough to read a clock, but nothing else. Roman numerals take a bit of work to figure out
but it is well worth it to learn how just to know if your copy of Walden
is from 1854 or 1910. The practice of using roman numerals was more prevalent
in Britain but
can still be found in a lot of old American books.
- Roman numerals are written with the largest numerically equivalent letter to the left and the smallest numerically equivalent letters to the right in largest to smallest order.
Ex.
MDCLX = 1660
- Each letter’s value is added together.
Ex.
MMC = 1,000 + 1,000 + 100 = 2,100
- Each letter is normally only used three times in each number (this is sometimes four but it is rare.)
Ex.
VIII
- To make sure that each letter is only used three times, there is a “subtraction rule” which is if a numerically smaller letter is before a larger one, it is subtracted from the larger letter’s numeric value.
Ex.
MCMXLII = 1,000 + (1,000-100) + (50-10) + 2 =1942
Some Roman Numeral Dates to try:
Answers: 1. 1854, 2. 1862, 3. 1861, 4. 1843
I hope this helped and that many of you can now date your antique books. This is eventually leading up to a post on how to care and preserve your old books.
*Note: The woodcut design was drawn by Paul Revere in the 1770s, the etching is from Godey's Lady's Book 1860.
I hope this helped and that many of you can now date your antique books. This is eventually leading up to a post on how to care and preserve your old books.
*Note: The woodcut design was drawn by Paul Revere in the 1770s, the etching is from Godey's Lady's Book 1860.
I love this post. I can never remember Roman Numerals.
ReplyDeleteMichelle, Thanks for commenting.
ReplyDeletehello this is all confusing. thanks for insight. I have a book that is MCMLVI and is made out of cloth(I believe). very old
ReplyDeletei just looked up a book from 1924 with: mdccccxxiv
ReplyDelete4 c's is a no-no. any change that makes this book rare? or is it just common to break the rule of 3 in publishing.
FYI - book is Southern Baroque Art - Sacheverell Sitwell (Grant Richards Ltd.)
Do you know when Roman numerals stopped being used in publisher’s notes?
ReplyDelete