format: quarto

When one sheet has been folded into 4 leaves; may be written as 4º or 4to

Rowe, Laura, 1775 (A1v)

This ad selling letterpress printing to the public appears on the back of a title page; the book lacks an imprint statement, and the shop location given here allows researchers to suggest a time-frame for the book's publication.

Sacrobosco, Noviciis adolescentibus, 1485 ([1]1r)

As title pages developed in form sometimes blank leaves or pages preceded them. In this case, as you can see from the bleed-through, a woodcut on the verso of the first leaf faces the inicipt and text on the second leaf.

Sacrobosco, Noviciis adolescentibus, 1485 ([1]1v)

This woodcut---one of the standard ones accompanying Sacrobosco's astronomical textbook---is in this edition facing the beginning of the text and the incipit.

Sacrobosco, Noviciis adolescentibus, 1485 ([1]2r)

Sacrobosco's works were some of the most influential astronomical texts of the middle ages. It was frequently collected with works from Regiomantus and Peurbach as a textbook on the subject. The incipit (even though it's not preceded by the phrase) provides the title under which this collection is cataloged, rather than the more commonly used De sphaera mundi.

Santo Officio da Inquisição de Coimbra, Relacion del auto de fee, 1723 (A1r)

This account of people tried as heretics includes, in place of a printer's device, the device of the Inquisition.

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.

Shakespeare, Lear, 1608 (A2r)

The play which we now call King Lear was not first published with a much longer title, it also differs in its emphasis on Edgar as the lead of the subplot.

The Moderate, 1648 (recto)

This issue of an English newsbook has remained uncut and so shows us its quarto imposition as the pages would have been laid out when printed.

The Moderate, 1648 (verso)

In this unopened sheet, you can see not only the quarto imposition but, if you look closely, one of the pinholes that would have been used to place and hold the blank sheet of paper on the press.

Thomson, Discourse, 1750 (A1r)

The title page to this pamphlet emphasizes not only the title of the work but that it was delivered to the Academy of Physicians, signalling its authority to potential buyers.