which includes a deflection roller 10 the cable 5 extends along the stitching line through the inlet region 3 to a guide element 6 assigned to the stitching carriage 2 0037 fig3 is a diagrammatic side elevational view of the stitching region with a preferred embodiment of the stitching device according to the invention in a gathering stitching machine in the stitching region the transport device is formed by the rear gathering chain 1 which by entrainers or drivers 13 conveys a plurality of folded signatures 100 groupwise at an at least approximately constant transport speed v past a stitching station which has a stitching carriage 2 and a stitching head 21 a plurality of folded signatures frequently has a small printed product or an inserted card 101 in the device according to the invention the stitching is often performed during the entraining or following travel i e the synchronous travel at approximately the transport speed v for a stitching operation of a plurality of folded signatures 100 the stitching carriage 2 carries out an oscillating movement w in a region between a starting point first extreme point and an end point second extreme point when the stitching carriage 2 is moved in a direction opposite to the direction.