As a rule these manuscript signatures in printed books were written close to the edge of the page, and so have been cut off by the binder; in some tall copies, however, they still exist.
The next stage was the numbering of each folio or leaf, and the last system was to number each page. Folios appear to have been first numbered in books printed at Cologne about the year 1470. A further modification has recently been introduced, namely, in two column pages, to number each column separately.
The Lectionary mentioned on p. [120] was written and signed by a monastic scribe called Sifer Was.
Some fine examples of magnificently bound manuscripts are illustrated by Libri, Monumens inédits; Hist. Ornam. Paris, 1862-1864.
In Geyler's Fatuorum Navicula, of which many editions, copiously illustrated with woodcuts, were published shortly before and after the year 1500, the cut showing the first fool of the series, the Bibliomaniac, represents him surrounded with books, all of which are bound after this design.