main printed feature: colophon

In early printed books, following the manuscript tradition, imprint information often appeared in a colophon at the end of the text. This practice gradually declined and the information shifted to the bottom of the title page.

Bible, Church Slavic, 1581 (fol. 78v)

The colophon identifies Ivan Fedorov of Moscow as the printer (his device appears just above the colophon) and that it was completed in 1581 on August 12 in Ostroh. Like the text above it, the colophon is in parallel columns of Greek and Church Slavic.

Boethius, Arithmetica, 1492 (2l8r)

On this last leaf of text, the printer has included both a colophon identifying who printed the book and a register of the last words printed on the first four leaves in each gathering of the two-volume set.

Erasmus, Novum Instrumentum, 1516 (Ff8r)

The last leaf of this work includes a colophon and printer's device as well as a register for the order of the book's gatherings. You can see that the preliminaries were printed after the rest of the work by how they're signed (aaa, bbb); you can also note that there are two series of double letters and that AA is not the same as Aa.

Gower, Confessio Amatis, 1483 (CCxir)

In this colophon, Caxton identifies himself as the printer and states that it was finished on September 2 in the first year of King Richard III's reign, 1493. But the first year of Richard's reign was 1483, and so catalog records provide that as the correct date. (It's certainly much easier to accidentally slip in an extra "x" to the date than to confuse the first and tenth year of your monarch's rule.)

Molina, Vocabulario, 1571 (V10r)

The colophon being printed in both Spanish and Nahuatl suggests that the book was meant to be accessible equally to Spanish colonial and Indigenous audiences.

Psalterium, 1499 (o7r)

On the last page of this volume appears the colophon and Erhard Ratdolt's printer's device, here printed in red and black ink.

Santo Officio da Inquisição de Coimbra, Relacion del auto de fee, 1723 (A4v)

This 8-page octavo pamphlet ends with the colophon for the printer working for the Office of the Inquisition.

Zumárraga, Doctrina breve, 1544 (i4r)

The colophon is printed as a descending triangle as a way of decoratively ending the text, a shape also seen in tailpieces.