“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”