quarto

Before then, only 18 had been printed, in small paperback editions known as quartos.

During his lifetime, quartos, small hand-held books sold on the street like paperbacks, were published, without his permission or approval, in pirated editions.

Or the notion that McCartney might very well have gleaned the phrase "let it be" from Shakespeare's "Hamlet" — but mercifully, not from the bad quarto, it turns out.

However, demand was fully re-established in the decade 1600-1609, and not just for the new more complex commentaries such as that of Clavius, published in fat quartos, but also for cheap octavo editions.

While sifting through details of how in the course of history someone passed on an obscure quarto edition to someone else, it is hard not to think that the curse is on the reader.