Manuscripts Imitating Printed Books: Bibliographic Codes and Peritexts in Finnish Juvenalia from the Turn of the 20th Century

The present article examines the imitation of the bibliographic codes and peritexts of printed books in numerous Finnish juvenilia manuscript books from the late nineteenth century to the 1920s. These meticulously crafted books by Helka Hiisku (1912–1962), Elina Vaara (1903–1980), Katri Vala (1901–1944) and Yrjö Koskelainen (1885–1951) were probably not intended to be printed or published in the traditional sense but have most likely circulated among an extremely limited readership of friends and family. An investigation of the imitation of printed books in relation to content, pseudonyms and the publisher’s peritext, such as illustration, book covers, title pages and typography, shows how thoroughly the concept of the book determined writing in the first half of the 20th century. Handmade books might have been a hobby activity but they also demonstrate how aware budding writers were of the bibliographical code and peritexts of the printed book.