Ames, Typographical antiquities, 1749 ([A]1r)

This title page carefully uses a combination of gothic, roman, black, and red letters to evoke the earlier printing that is its subject while still looking enticingly contemporary.

Ames, Typographical antiquities, 1749 (4I3v)

Ames's history of English printing includes an alphabetical index of printers and other persons, followed by this single-page index of subjects. To our eye, this is curiously arranged---why is it not alphabetical? Perhaps because this organization allows the blocks of numbers for each subject heading to remain intact instead of being split over columns.

Ames, Typographical antiquities, 1749 (4I4r)

Since intaglio plates were printed separately from letterpress sheets, books often included notes to the binder describing where the illustrations should go. As is typical, these instructions appear on the very last printed page of the book, here facing the subject index; you can see the ink from the index text off-set in the blank areas of this page.

Ames, Typographical antiquities, 1749 (a1r)

Appropriately for a book about the history of printing, this list of subscribers marks out the two Caslons as letter-founders.

Banckes, Herball, 1552 (A1r)

The bulk of this title page is taken up with a long, descriptive title for the work that today we often refer to simply as "Banckes's Herbal."

Banckes, Herball, 1552 (C7r)

This page uses a variety of typographical signals to set off the titles and accounts of the different herbs. From top to bottom you can see a fist, capitulum, fleuron, another fist and capitulum, and an initial letter.

Beaumont and Fletcher, Scornfull Lady, 1651 (B1r)

In the upper right corner of this page is an odd blank space that cuts off some words---probably the result of a misplaced frisket or a stray piece of paper that got between the blank sheet of paper and the inked type.

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.