Boethius, Consolatione, 1497 (d1r)

Boethius's De consolatione philosophiae, a popular medieval text, was often circulated with commentary. Here, Boethius's text is printed in a larger size, with the commentary surrounding it.

Colloques ou dialogues, 1616 (A1r)

The title page for this multi-lingual phrasebook repeats the title three times, once in each of the languages predominant in Antwerp.

Colloques ou dialogues, 1616 (A4v-A5r)

The odd shape of this book (little and oblong) comes from its contents (seven columns of dialogues in different languages) and its use (a pocket-sized volume for travelers).

Comenius, Orbis, 1685 (O1v-O2r)

This opening from a popular Latin textbook uses different typefaces to set apart the English and Latin phrases and to call attention to the vocabulary words that are illustrated on the facing page.

Dodoens, Florum, 1568 (A1r)

Christopher Plantin's printer's device illustrates his motto, "Constantia et Labore" ("Perseverance and Work") with a compass, the fixed point of which represents the constancy of perseverance and the outer point representing labor.

Erasmus, Novum Instrumentum, 1516 (3a1r)

The lengthy title provides the primary decorative element of this page. It's also notable that Froben's printer's device is used in place of his name in the imprint, rather than in addition to it.

Erasmus, Novum Instrumentum, 1516 (A1r)

Erasmus's translation of the Bible from Greek into Latin is appropriately presented in two parallel columns. Here, the initial page of his New Testament is set off with woodcut borders; the following pages are plain columns of text.

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.)

Guyot, Type specimen, 1565

Specimen sheets are used by type-casters to show examples of the fonts they have for sale. This one shows work from François Guyot, a type-caster in Antwerp, and was used to sell his wares in England, as evidenced by the manuscript notes in English secretary hand. Careful sleuthing comparing these typefaces to those used in dated texts and to surviving records from the Plantin printing shop identified Guyot and the likely date of 1565. For more on those details, see this post from the Folger's