Why do we start chapters on the right-hand page?

December 2, 2011 5:31 AM

For languages that read left-to-right, what is the history of starting chapters on the right-hand (recto) page? What was the original reason for doing this, and when did we start doing it?
posted by Houstonian to Writing & Language (10 answers total)

I'd guess something to do with the fact that you're now starting on the front of a page, instead of a back.
posted by Brian Puccio at 5:44 AM on December 2, 2011

yes this is more about the process of paginating pages for the printing press than anything else. some more info here
posted by h0p3y at 5:48 AM on December 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

Well, when you open a book, the first paper page is going to be on the right. Back when books were something rare and special, and paper was something you did not waste, everything would start on that first (right hand) page.

Everything just carried-over from there, I suppose.

Plus, there's a sort of "tension" created when a chapter opens on that right-hand page. It focus your attention to the opening paragraphs and encourages you to turn the page and continue.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:16 AM on December 2, 2011

I don't know the precise history but I have handled very old books: in the binding process, there is always a sheet of thick paper (generally colored) following the cover. So the printed content always start on the right-hand page.
posted by bru at 6:24 AM on December 2, 2011

What h0p3y said, it's a carry over from printing on an old printing press.
bru, the page you're talking about is part of what is called an endsheet structure. There are hundreds of different endsheet structures, all of which have different advantages, disadvantages and functions when it comes to a book.
posted by clockbound at 7:52 AM on December 2, 2011

Thinking a little more about it, I'm not sure if it started at the dawn of the printing press, but it may have become standardized during it. Prior to printed books, everything was a hand written manuscript. This meant that books were less numerous, but also that each book could differ wildly from another. I'm not aware of any scholarly work on this specific topic, since I'm more on the structure end of the discipline than the content end, but for the field of gothic manuscript binding, Szirmai's book is the go to text. Sadly, it's very expensive.

You have a very good question on your hands in when it started, one which I'm not sure has actually been answered. If you want to look through some old manuscripts yourself, there's always the Catalog of Digitized Medieval Manuscripts!
posted by clockbound at 8:07 AM on December 2, 2011

Response by poster: I read the article h0p3y linked to, but I still don't understand why the ways the paper was folded or cut and bound required that chapter began on the right-hand page? I can understand for the first chapter, but not subsequent chapters.
posted by Houstonian at 8:13 AM on December 2, 2011

Thanks for the clarification.

I have looked into the etymology of "chapters". It comes from the French "chapitre", from the latin word "caput": head, top or chief.

So I am just guessing, but it is possible that, originally, a "chapter" would have been the top page of a folded sheet (as explained in the link given by h0p3y). A book would have had as many "chapters" as folded sheets. An the top of a folded sheet is always a right-hand page.
posted by bru at 9:12 AM on December 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

See also quarto.
posted by bru at 9:20 AM on December 2, 2011

More and more design fiction: originally, the book pages were not individually numbered. But if you follow the binding process, the top page of each folded sheet had to be numbered, otherwise you were risking to mix-up the folded sheets.

Note that I have seen books with uncut folded sheets (you have to use a knife or a letter opener to be able to read the pages); and I have occasionally seen old books where folded sheets were mixed-up. So from a numbered top page of each sheet to right-hand chapters...
posted by bru at 9:40 AM on December 2, 2011