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Recto is the "right" or "front" side andverso is the "left" or "back" side when text is written or printed on aleaf of paper (folium) in a bound item such as acodex,book,broadsheet, orpamphlet.
Indouble-sided printing, each leaf has twopages – front and back. In modern books, the physicalsheets 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 afolio, 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.
The terms are shortened from Latin:rēctō foliō andversō foliō (which translate as "on the right side of the leaf" and "on the back side of the leaf"). The two oppositepages themselves are calledfolium rēctum andfolium versum in Latin,[1] and the ablativerēctō,versō already imply that the text on the page (and not the physical page itself) are referred to.
Incodicology, each physical sheet (folium, abbreviatedfol. orf.) of amanuscript is numbered, and the sides are referred to asfolium rēctum andfolium versum, abbreviated asr andv respectively. Editions of manuscripts will thus mark the position of text in the original manuscript in the formfol. 1r, sometimes with ther andv in superscript, as in1r, or with a superscripto indicating theablativerēctō foliō,versō, as in1ro.[2] This terminology has been standard since the beginnings of modern codicology in the 17th century.
In 2011, Martyn Lyons argued that the termrēctum "right, correct, proper" for the front side of the leaf derives from the use ofpapyrus inlate 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).[3]
The terms "recto" and "verso" are also used in the codicology of manuscripts written inright-to-left scripts, likeSyriac,Arabic andHebrew. 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 eachfolio remains first verso, then recto, regardless ofwriting direction.
The terms are carried over intoprinting;recto-verso[4] is the norm for printed books but was an important advantage of theprinting press over the much older Asianwoodblock 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 theannotation of scholarly books, particularly inbilingual edition translations.
The "recto" and "verso" terms can also be employed for the front and back of a one-sheet artwork, particularly indrawing. Arecto-verso drawing is a sheet with drawings on both sides, for example in asketchbook—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,[5] and hence all recto pages will have odd numbers and all verso pages will have even numbers.[6][7]
In many early printed books orincunables and still in some 16th-century books (e.g.João de Barros'sDécadas da Ásia), it is thefolia ("leaves") rather than the pages, that are numbered. Thus, eachfolium carries a consecutive number on its recto side, while on the verso side there is no number.[8] This was also very common ine.g. internal company reports in the 20th century, before double-sided printers became commonplace in offices.
InCyrillic script, the letters "лл" and "об." are abbreviations used in a similar way torecto andverso.
Therefore, when referring to the front and back of a page in Cyrillic documents, "лл." would correspond torecto (front), and "об." would correspond toverso (back, reverse). This applies topencil-marked folios of medieval and early modern manuscripts, such as theHypatian Codex, inOld East Slavic,OldChurch Slavonic,Ruthenian, or the (early) modernEast Slavic languages and someSouth Slavic languages. It may also be used in modern critical editions of those manuscripts, such as by theComplete Collection of Rus' Chronicles (PSRL), or its digitised editions on websites such asIzbornyk inUkraine, or theNational Library of Russia'sLaurentian Codex Project.[9] For example, when the Izbornyk edition of the Hypatian Codex reads "/л.3об./", that means "folio 3, reverse side" (об.;verso).[10] This is the exact spot where the text of the previous page, folio 3recto (/л.3/), ends and that of folio 3verso begins.
Early scholars of East Slavic manuscripts such as the Supraśl Manuscript usedink to mark page numbers, while later researchers preferred to usepencils.[11] 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 aneraser (rubber) without doing significant damage to the precious archival materials.
...имать же и ѡстровы . Вританию . Си/л.3об./келию . Євию . Родона....
Initially, the pages of the [Supraśl] manuscript were numbered in ink by I. N. Danilovich. Later, the pages were numbered in pencil in the upper right corner.
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