The term ‘format’ refers to the physical size of a book. In the case of old books, it indicates how often the parchment or sheet of paper was folded into the desired size; once for the folio format (2°) and twice for the quarto format (4°). The octavo format (8°) is considered the standard format. As animal skin and sheets of paper were not standardized, the format specification says little about the actual size of an old book. The appearance of a book can change over the centuries due to the binding and due to the fact that codices would have been trimmed at least once, if not several times. In the beginning books were relatively large, but smaller book formats made their way onto the market in later centuries. The size of a book and therefore the amount of material that has to be used is a decisive factor for the production costs and therefore also for the price. Storage and transport costs are also significantly higher for large-format books – while at the same time there is less demand for expensive luxury volumes.

The portability and transportability of a book is primarily determined by its size. A book in quarto or octavo format is easy to transport, whereas a tome is unwieldy and requires a sufficiently large table as a base for reading. The purpose and function of the text printed in the book therefore had a considerable influence on the format from the very beginning. Liturgical books such as antiphonaries and missals had to be readable from a distance, whereas books of hours for private devotion were portable and compact. In a specialised art-historical library such as ours, there are collections of very large format engravings, which allow subjects to be depicted in minute detail, as well as photo-books whose design through particular formats becomes the basic narrative device that orients the user's perception.

Even a very small format does not necessarily indicate the function and type of use of the book, but can instead serve an aesthetic purpose. Small books in particular, so-called miniature books, can serve purely representative and decorative purposes and are not primarily intended for reading.

In addition to particularly small or particularly large books, there are numerous books in the library collection that are unusual for other reasons: books with fold-out folding boards and maps, leporellos, flip-books, books with metal clasps, books in boxes or tin cans, with music cassettes, postcards or original photographs.

Under the influence of Futurism in the 1920s, there was a conscious break with the conventional formats and materials of book production. Several of these unusual books can be found in the Futurism collection of the Kunsthistorisches Institut library.

Photos: Bärbel Reinhard (Fondazione Studio Marangoni)
Concept and coordination: Library