When the 116 pages were lost, we lost the beginning of what Mormon intended to be his book. We also lost the beginning of the book of Mosiah. That means that the first time we see the way Mormon edits a whole book from the plates of Nephi is in the book of Alma. We will see that in this book, as well as all other books that he edits, Mormon provides a book header that will give us information about what comes in the book.
In the book of Mosiah, we also saw that Mormon will at times provide similar headers for chapters. We will see that again in the book of Alma. Those instances are times when Mormon is letting his readers know that what comes in that particular chapter has a different source than the plates of Nephi. Nephi and Jacob also provided book synopses, but the practice died out on the small plates. Mormon was consistent in everything we have from him; therefore, we expect that he was also consistent for what was lost on the 116 pages.
An interesting change occurred in this header that points out the nature of the task that John Gilbert, the compositor, had when he turned the printer’s manuscript into a published book. He had to create the sentences and paragraphs himself without guidance from the manuscript. Generally, he did an excellent job. The last sentence of this header is a place where he made a mistake. It was a reasonable mistake, but a mistake nonetheless.
The 1830 edition was punctuated as: “according to the record of Alma the first, and chief judge.” There were two Alma’s, and this Alma was going to be the ruler, so Gilbert set it similar to names of European royalty. He saw it as “Alma the first.” It has been corrected to “Alma, the first and chief judge.” A small thing, but it points out how important small points of punctuation can be.