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Verso


The terms recto and verso refer to the text written on the "front" and "back" sides of a leaf of paper in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet. The terms are shortened from Latin rectō foliō and versō foliō, translating to "on the right side of the page" and "on the turned side of the page", respectively. The page faces themselves are called folium rectum and folium versum in Latin, and the ablative recto, verso already imply that the text on the page (and not the physical page itself) are referred to.

In codicology, each physical sheet (folium, abbreviated fol. or f.) of a manuscript is numbered and the sides are referred to as rectum and folium versum, 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 recto, verso, as in 1ro. This terminology has been standard since the beginnings of modern codicology in the 17th century.

Lyons (2011) argues that the term rectum "right, correct, proper" for the front side of the page 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 only in the most exceptional of cases would there be writing on the "turned" side of the page).

The use of 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 recto, then verso" regardless of writing direction.

The terms are carried over into printing; recto-verso 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.


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