“Stainforthisms”: Common Abbreviations in the Library Catalog
- “4to.”: quarto
- “8o.”: octavo
- “12o.”: duodecimo
- “+c.”: etcetera. We include this here because Stainforth’s “+c” can look like “+s” in the manuscript. His “+” also occasionally resembles “&”.
- “✓”: Used in the shelfmark column.
- “=”: Stainforth sometimes uses the equals sign to tell the reader a second name for an author. For example, in the entry “A8 Moodie (Mrs = Strickland) Enthusiasm 1831”, “Moodie (Mrs = Strickland)” tells us that Moodie is the maiden name for Mrs Strickland.
- “Com.”: Comedy
- “Do.”: “Ditto,” which Stainforth often uses to indicate that an author, title, or other content is the same as that specified in the line above in the manuscript.
- “ : Stainforth also uses double quotation marks to mean “ditto.”
- “______ ____ ___”: Stainforth also occasionally uses a series of underscored lines as another way to indicate “ditto.”
- Fol.: folio
- “Mifs”: Stainforth often uses the long “s” when writing two s’s in a row.
- “Pl” or “Pls” at end of entry: This abbreviation denotes “plate” or “plates” and indicates that this volume has illustrated plates, sometimes with color.
- “Port” at end of an entry: This abbreviation denotes “portrait” and tells the reader that this volume has an author portrait or multiple portraits inside.
- “Pr. Pr.”: Privately Printed
- “Tr”: This usually indicates that a work is a tragedy. However, Stainforth also sometimes uses it to mean “translated.”
- “Xtn”: Christian, e.g., page 302, “Montgomery (J) Xtn Psalmist”