it has come our attention that some of our newer followers are struggling to understand the words we use to describe our rare books, and you are in for a treat with this simple guide to "Words That Don't Mean Anything What It Seems Like They Mean"
[thread 1/?]

FINE: the book was crapped out by an angel
VERY GOOD: no-one can prove anything
GOOD: lets just be grateful it has covers, shall we
FAIR: the book is on fire, guarded by a hydra
POOR: no book, only despair
so its not really very helpful. 5 tweets in and we have learned nothing. you are welcome.
I am going to cover some of the things you'll see most often, and you are going to hate me for it

12mo, 8vo, 4to
This used to have a precise meaning to do with page folding, but booksellers got lazy and now it means 'we eyeballed the size of the book'
smaller number usually means a larger book
because of course
we'll say faded, or 'lightly browned' or 'a little tired' when what we mean is 'this book has grazed the abyss'
'sophisticated' literally means 'the book is a fake'
'extra-illustrated' means 'someone cut up and pasted a bunch of images inside the book like the love child of picasso and edward scissorhands'
personally i rather like the fun inscriptions, like the 18th century kid who drew rude pictures all over the inside his latin primer, but 🤷♀️
https://t.co/cGcFh4ZRgm
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