Are Foldouts Always Shorter to Left but Longer to Right?

[ChenZheChina]

Indeed and I had almost forgotten about that point.
Whoever wrote the gathering marks clearly intended the binding to be in the place that is now the fold
in the middle of folio 67.

This writing of the gathering marks must have taken place before the binding and was probably the first preparatory step for this binding. The very presence of gathering marks means that the sheets were intended to be bound into a codex, stacked into quires (one way or another).

There are still unanswered questions. The early mix-up between herbal A and herbal B folios happened before the gathering marks were added. This is because, for example, the 5th quire mark is on a B folio.
There are several different possible explanations for this.

Hi René,

Thanks for the information. It is the first time I heard that gathering marks were written before the binding.

Does it mean that the one who wrote gathering marks (9n9 aka nonus) and the one who wrote page numbers (67, 68) might be different persons?

It seems that the page number writer usually write page numbers on recto pages, while the gathering mark writer usually write gathering marks on verso side of the last page of each quire.

If they were the same person, I think such inconsistency might be avoided.