pamphlet (n.)
The word comes from Pamphilus, seu de Amore, a popular Latin poem about love written in the twelfth century. Copies circulated as small booklets, and a form of the title gradually became a name for short works of this kind. Pamphilus was the central character’s name.12
The word was already in use for handwritten works before printing reached England. Printed pamphlets later carried political arguments and news, often cheaply enough to reach readers who could afford few books.2
The format also served fiction. Dickens’s David Copperfield appeared in monthly parts bound in paper wrappers. Those installments belong to the history of pamphlet binding too. A small folded publication could carry a public dispute or another portion of a novel whose readers were still waiting to learn what happened next.3
Someone had left a pamphlet on every seat.