An octavo was made by folding the paper or vellum four
times into eight leaves or sixteen pages.
It would have been about half the size of a quarto and one quarter the
size of a folio. This was the most
common size for novels once they became popular, because they could easily be
carried. A smaller size, the duodecimo, also called a twelvemo (12mo), was folded to make twelve leaves or twenty-four
pages. This was a popular size, as it
was even easier to conceal or carry on your person than an octavo. It would have been roughly the same size as a
paperback book today, where an octavo would be about the size of a hardback
book.
Image of Octavo version of Milton--http://www.cems.ox.ac.uk/citizenmilton/iv_paradise.shtml
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