Misplaced Pages

A catchword is a word placed at the foot of a handwritten or printed page that is meant to be bound along with other pages in a book. The word anticipates the first word of the following page. It was meant to help the bookbinder or printer make sure that the leaves were bound in the right order or that the pages were set up in the press in the right order. Catchwords appear in some medieval manuscripts, and appear again in printed books late in the fifteenth century. The practice became widespread in the mid sixteenth century, and prevailed until the arrival of industrial printing techniques late in the eighteenth century.

Theodore Low Devinne's 1901 guide on Correct Composition had this to say:

For more than three centuries printers of books appended at the foot of every page the first word or syllable of the next page. This catchword was supposed to be needed by the reader to make clear the connection between the two pages; but the catchword is now out of use, and it is not missed.

See also

• Reclamans
• Page numbering, a more modern system with a similar function

Notes

1. De Vinne, Theodore Low (1901). The Practice of Typography; correct composition; a treatise on spelling, abbreviations, the compounding and division of words, the proper use of figures and numerals . The Century Company. p. 142–143 – via Wikisource. 

References

• De Hamel, Christopher. Scribes and Illuminators. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992. 41.
• Gaskell, Philip. A New Introduction to Bibliography. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972. 52–53.
• McKerrow, Ronald B. An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964. 82.
• Roberts, Matt T., and Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of books: A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology

v t e Book design
Page layout and typography	Annotation Footnote Gloss Marginal note Scholia Canons of page construction Catchword Column Footer Header Headpiece Illumination Initial Historiated Inhabited Margin Miniature Ornament Page numbering Pull quote Recto and verso Rubric Rubrication Typeface Font
Front and back covers	Anthropodermic bibliopegy Bookbinding Buckram Dust jacket Hardcover Leather Paperback Picture cover Treasure binding
Endpapers	Marbled
Front matter	Half-title bastard title Frontispiece Title page Edition notice Imprimi potest Nihil obstat Imprimatur Dedication Epigraph Table of contents Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Prologue Printer's mark
Body matter	Body text Chapters Illustrations Parts Sections Tipped-in pages
Back matter	Afterword Conclusion Epilogue Outro Postscript Addendum/Appendix Endnotes Glossary Bibliography Index Errata Colophon Postface Author page
Other elements	Book curse Bookplate ex-librīs Book rhyme Die-cutting Endband Extra-illustration Fore-edge painting Intentionally blank page Pop-ups Slipcase Thumb index

• Printing terminology
• Bookbinding
• Book terminology