Behn, Widdow Ranter, 1690 (A1r)

In a style more typical of the late 17th century than earlier playbooks, this title page provides only a relatively short title and the barest of acting company and authorial information along with the imprint.

Behn, Widdow Ranter, 1690 (A4r)

This list of actors and roles uses a range of typographical techniques, including columns and typefaces, to present different categories of information.

Behn, Widdow Ranter, 1690 (A4v)

This list of items also sold by this playbook's publisher include other plays as well as novels, with some including the format and the price of the work.

Bible, English, 1611 (A1r)

The King James Bible uses a complex typography to signal which words or phrases are not from the source material but have been added in translation (those in roman type), printed notes in roman type for cross referencing between different books, printed notes in italic for translation notes, and headnotes for each chapter providing summaries to help with quick navigation.

Bible, English, 1611 (πA1r)

The title page for the Authorized version of the Bible is completely engraved, including the title and imprint information, by Cornelius Boel, whose name appears in the bottom left of the image. (This version is more commonly known as the King James Bible, since James authorized it to be translated and placed in all churches.)

Cato, Moral distichs, 1735 (A1r)

Although it's placed where one might expect a printer's device, the design on this title page is a combination of printer's flowers, rather than a device intended to identify the printer.

Cato, Moral distichs, 1735 (A1v-A2r)

On the blank page shown here, you can see the raised letters from the impression of the type used for the title page.

Keimer, Elegy, 1723 (1r)

Because broadsides weren't typically bound into books but rather distributed as single sheets, they often have very high loss rates. This is the only known copy of Keimer's Elegy, which Benjamin Franklin describes in his Autobiography as having unusually been composed as Keimer set the type. This was the first work that Keimer published in America, and Franklin's first known printing job in Philadelphia.

Keimer, Elegy, 1723 (1v)

The back of this broadsheet shows the ink bleeding through from the front, as well as the small patches that have been made to repair the damage from being folded.

Morley, Introduction to practicall musicke, 1608 (B4r)

Letterpress music was printed using metal pieces of type, so that music was easily able to be set and printed on the same press and at the same time as text. The downside, however, was that the lines of the staves were uneven, since separate pieces of type were needed to make a single line.