Also written 4to, 4o. [L. (in) quarto, (in) the fourth (of a sheet), abl. sing. of quartus fourth.]
1. The size of paper obtained by folding a whole sheet twice, so as to form four leaves, in which as a rule the height is not markedly in excess of the breadth. Orig. and chiefly in phr. in quarto.
Quarto-sizes range from 15 × 11 inches (imperial quarto) to 76/8 × 63/8 (pot quarto), according to the size of the original sheet.
1589. Pappe w. Hatchet, B iij. All his works bound close, are at least sixe sheetes in quarto.
1633. Prynne, Histrio-m., To Chr. Rdr. Some Play-books … are growne from Quarto into Folio.
1679. [see FOLIO 5].
1720. Lond. Gaz., No. 5851/4. Sets of his Homer in … large or small Paper, or Quarto Royal may be had.
1793. Boswell, Johnson, Pref. 2nd ed. These I have ordered to be printed separately in quarto.
1837–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit., I. I. iii. § 148. 250. The Psalter of 1457, and the Donatus of the same year, are in quarto.
1898. S. Lee, Life Shaks., xix. (ed. 3), 299. In 1616 there had been printed in quarto seven editions of his ‘Venus and Adonis.’
attrib. 1858. Browning, Ring & Bk., I. 85. Small-quarto size, part print part manuscript.
fig. 1640. Glapthorne, Wit in Constable, II. Wks. 1874, I. 195. The rest were made But fooles in Quarto, but I finde myselfe An asse in Folio.
2. A book composed of paper in this form; a quarto-volume.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., III. xxv. 228. Those which they bought in Folio shrink quickly into Quarto’s.
1728. Pope, Dunc., I. 141. Quarto’s, octavo’s, shape the less’ning pyre.
1769. Junius Lett., xx. 90. The form and magnitude of a quarto imposes upon the mind.
1839. Yeowell, Anc. Brit. Ch., Pref. (1847), 7. His writings … contain more matter than would be comprised in twenty modern quartos.
1898. S. Lee, Life Shaks., xix. (ed. 3), 301. These sixteen quartos were publishers’ ventures.
Comb. 1814. Coleridge, Lett. (1895), II. 638. Of all scribblers these agricultural quarto-mongers are the vilest.
3. attrib. or as adj. Of paper: Folded so as to form four leaves out of the original sheet; having the size or shape of a quarter-sheet. Of books: Printed on paper thus folded or having this form. Of works: Published in quarto.
1633. Prynne, Histrio-m., To Chr. Rdr. 1 b. Farre better paper than most Octavo or Quarto Bibles.
a. 1658. Cleveland, Wks. (1687), 248. Where others go before In … Quarto Pages.
1711. Hearne, Collect. (O.H.S.), III. 131. These verses I have transcrib’d in a Qto. paper…. He has also lent me a Quarto Vol.
1789. Dk. Leeds, Polit. Mem. (1884), 137. It consisted of three sheets of Quarto Paper.
1807. Life Fielding, in Tom Jones. Every thing … in the London quarto edition … is included in this new edition.
1821. Byron, Juan, III. lxxxvi. He would write … a six canto quarto tale.
