Margaret McFadden Smith
Published: 2000
Total Pages: 168
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The late medieval manuscript's opening page was often ornamentally magnificent; however, this approach of announcing a text was not to be the title-page model for the printed book. The introduction of the printing press created the opportunity for a new way to open a book - a page devoted to its title and its producer. Several stages of the title-page's development are described in detail here, with illustrations from The British Library: the blank page, the label-title, the label-title-plus-woodcut and/or printer's mark, and the decorative border. This is the first book dealing with the early development of the title-page since A.W. Pollard's Last Words on the subject, published in 1891. Co-published with The British Library.