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quarto

quarto

1 9.9
A medium book you make by folding each piece of paper twice to make eight pages
  • noun
  • /ˈkwɔrtoʊ/
  • Archaic
translation icon : cuarto
  • Books were arranged by size and subject: quarto with quarto, folio with folio, mechanical opuscule with mechanical opuscule.
  • quarto edition
  • quarto pages

Examples

  • She preferred to read classical literature in quarto format for its convenient size and layout.

  • The majority of Morris's books were printed in quarto and octavo volumes, and even the number of sextodecimo books (six) far surpasses the number of completed folios.

    Academic text (2017)
  • The First Quarto, however, provides a somewhat different reading of these lines:

    Academic text (2005)
  • "In the First Quarto version, 'What' functions exclusively as an interrogative to which 'Michael Cassio' is the response.

    Academic text (2005)
  • A modest quarto edition, published simultaneously with the folio one, had no photographs and contained instead wood engravings done from the photographs.

    Academic text (2006)
  • The only copy of this poem known to the literary world is a parchment in quarto format containing sixty-nine leaves in the Cottonian library of the British Museum, marked Vitellius A. IX.

    Academic text (1996)
  • The library had a collection of early printed books, including several beautifully illustrated quarto volumes.

  • The rare quarto edition of the play contained annotations that provided valuable insights into the author's intentions.

Synonyms

4to
vsquarto
  • Specialized
1 9.9

A book size you make by folding a sheet of paper twice so it has four leaves or eight pages

means the same but is the traditional abbreviated form

How Small

sextodecimo
  • Archaic
9.9
duodecimo
  • Specialized
9.9
octavo
  • Specialized
1 9.9
quarto
  • Archaic
1 9.9
folio
  • Specialized
3 9.5

Surface Forms

quarto singular
quartos plural

Etymology

The word quarto comes from the Latin quartus, meaning 'fourth', and from Italian quarto. Early printers folded each sheet twice to make four leaves, so a quarto is a book made in 'fours', like the English word quarter which also means 'one of four'.