The collection as it lies open

The Folio

הדף כמו שנפתח

When the custom is kept with a physical volume, you do not open to a letter — you open to a folio, and what you read is whatever lies on the two facing pages. Often that includes the end of a letter that began before it, and the beginning of one that runs on past it. This page puts a volume in front of you the same way.

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How this folio is put together. Every record here carries the volume and the printed page on which its letter begins — that much is data, taken from the printed edition ( ). Where a letter ends is not recorded anywhere, so it is estimated: a printed page of these volumes holds about 938 characters (the median of 5,898 letters that demonstrably occupy exactly one page), and a letter is taken to run on for as many pages as its length needs. Letters marked estimated reach this folio by that reckoning rather than by record. A letter can therefore appear a page early or late — open the facsimile if it matters.