Recto and verso
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Recto is the "right" or "front" side and verso is the "left" or "back" side when text is written or printed on a leaf of paper (Template:Lang) in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet.
In double-sided printing, each leaf has two pages – front and back. In modern books, the physical sheets of paper are stacked and folded in half, producing two leaves and four pages for each sheet. For example, the outer sheet in a 16-page book will have one leaf with pages 1 (recto) and 2 (verso), and another leaf with pages 15 (recto) and 16 (verso). Pages 1 and 16, for example, are printed on the same side of the physical sheet of paper, combining recto and verso sides of different leaves. The number of pages in a book using this binding technique must thus be a multiple of four, and the number of leaves must be a multiple of two, but unused pages are typically left unnumbered and uncounted. A sheet folded in this manner is known as a folio, a word also used for a book or pamphlet made with this technique.
Looseleaf paper consists of unbound leaves. Sometimes single-sided or blank leaves are used for numbering or counting and abbreviated "l." instead of "p." for the number of pages.
Etymology
The terms are shortened from Latin: Template:Lang and Template:Lang (which translate as "on the right side of the leaf" and "on the back side of the leaf"). The two opposite pages themselves are called Template:Lang and Template:Lang in Latin,<ref> e.g. Quibus carminibus finitur totum primum folium versum (rectum vacat) voluminis "These poems finish the full back page (the front is blank) of the first leaf of the volume" [Giovanni Battista Audiffredi], Catalogus historico-criticus Romanarum editionum saeculi XV (1783), p. 225. </ref> and the ablative Template:Lang, Template:Lang already imply that the text on the page (and not the physical page itself) are referred to.
Usage
Latin script
In codicology, each physical sheet (Template:Lang, abbreviated fol. or f.) of a manuscript is numbered, and the sides are referred to as Template:Lang and Template:Lang, abbreviated as r and v respectively. Editions of manuscripts will thus mark the position of text in the original manuscript in the form fol. 1r, sometimes with the r and v in superscript, as in 1r, or with a superscript o indicating the ablative Template:Lang, Template:Lang, as in 1ro.<ref> e.g. Roberts, Longinus on the Sublime: The Greek Text Edited After the Paris Manuscript (2011), 170; Wijngaards, The Ordained Women Deacons of the Church's First Millennium (2012), 232; etc. Tylus, Manuscrits français de la collection berlinoise disponibles à la Bibliothèque Jagellonne de Cracovie (XVIe-XIXe siècles) (2010)[1]</ref> This terminology has been standard since the beginnings of modern codicology in the 17th century.
In 2011, Martyn Lyons argued that the term Template:Lang "right, correct, proper" for the front side of the leaf derives from the use of papyrus in late antiquity, as a different grain ran across each side, and only one side was suitable to be written on, so that usually papyrus would carry writing only on the "correct", smooth side (and just in exceptional cases would there be writing on the reverse side of the leaf).<ref>Martyn Lyons (2011). Books: A Living History. Getty Publications. p. 21. Template:ISBN.</ref>
The terms "recto" and "verso" are also used in the codicology of manuscripts written in right-to-left scripts, like Syriac, Arabic and Hebrew. However, as these scripts are written in the other direction to the scripts witnessed in European codices, the recto page is to the left while the verso is to the right. The reading order of each folio remains first verso, then recto, regardless of writing direction.
The terms are carried over into printing; Template:Lang<ref>Recto verso is an expression in French that means "two sides of a sheet or page". In Flanders the term recto verso is also used to indicate two-sided printing. Duplex printers are referred to as recto verso printers.</ref> is the norm for printed books but was an important advantage of the printing press over the much older Asian woodblock printing method, which printed by rubbing from behind the page being printed, and so could only print on one side of a piece of paper. The distinction between recto and verso can be convenient in the annotation of scholarly books, particularly in bilingual edition translations.
The "recto" and "verso" terms can also be employed for the front and back of a one-sheet artwork, particularly in drawing. A Template:Lang drawing is a sheet with drawings on both sides, for example in a sketchbook—although usually in these cases there is no obvious primary side. Some works are planned to exploit being on two sides of the same piece of paper, but usually the works are not intended to be considered together. Paper was relatively expensive in the past; good drawing paper still is much more expensive than normal paper.
By book publishing convention, the first page of a book, and sometimes of each section and chapter of a book, is a recto page,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and hence all recto pages will have odd numbers and all verso pages will have even numbers.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In many early printed books or incunables and still in some 16th-century books (e.g. Template:Lang's Template:Lang), it is the Template:Lang ("leaves") rather than the pages, that are numbered. Thus, each Template:Lang carries a consecutive number on its recto side, while on the verso side there is no number.<ref>See e.g. a modern reprint of the 3rd Década (1563): Ásia de João de Barros: Dos feitos que os Portugueses fizeram no descobrimento e conquista dos mares e terras do Oriente. Tercera Década. Imprensa Nacional – Casa da Moeda, 1992.</ref> This was also very common in e.g. internal company reports in the 20th century, before double-sided printers became commonplace in offices.
Cyrillic script
In Cyrillic script, the letters "лл" and "об." are abbreviations used in a similar way to recto and verso.
- recto is "лл.", the abbreviation for "лицевая сторона" litsevaja storona (Russian) or "лицьова сторона" lytsjova storona (Ukrainian), meaning "front side" or "face side".
- verso is, "об.", the abbreviation for "оборотная сторона" oborotnaja storona (Russian) or "обернена сторона" obernena storona (Ukrainian), meaning "reverse side" or "back side".
Therefore, when referring to the front and back of a page in Cyrillic documents, "лл." would correspond to recto (front), and "об." would correspond to verso (back, reverse). This applies to pencil-marked folios of medieval and early modern manuscripts, such as the Hypatian Codex, in Old East Slavic, Old Church Slavonic, Ruthenian, or the (early) modern East Slavic languages and some South Slavic languages. It may also be used in modern critical editions of those manuscripts, such as by the Complete Collection of Rus' Chronicles (PSRL), or its digitised editions on websites such as Izbornyk in Ukraine, or the National Library of Russia's Laurentian Codex Project.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> For example, when the Izbornyk edition of the Hypatian Codex reads "/л.3об./", that means "folio 3, reverse side" (об.; verso).<ref name="Izbornyk">Template:Cite web</ref> This is the exact spot where the text of the previous page, folio 3 recto (/л.3/), ends and that of folio 3 verso begins.
Early scholars of East Slavic manuscripts such as the Supraśl Manuscript used ink to mark page numbers, while later researchers preferred to use pencils.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The page numbers would be helpful for themselves or colleagues to keep track of the manuscript's structure, and to make notes referring to specific places in the text. A major issue with using ink, however, was that the numbering could be wrong, and thus a scholar could accidentally permanently damage a highly valuable manuscript by adding incorrect markings in unerasable ink. For this reason, later researchers preferred to mark page numbers with pencils, which could be easily corrected with an eraser (rubber) without doing significant damage to the precious archival materials.