Kats, Ma’aseh Toviyah, 1708 (8.4r)

This decorative chapter title showcases several sizes and weights of Hebrew type. The use of both elongated and regular forms of several letters, including ה (he), ת (tav), and ם (final mem), is particularly visible in the triangle of text at the top of the page. Stretching letters with horizontal lines was a common convention in Hebrew printing used to justify lines.

Kats, Ma’aseh Toviyah, 1708 (π1r)

This title page combines both Hebrew and roman type, indicating its origin at a Hebrew print studio in Venice. The main part of the title reads, "Part one of the book of worlds or Ma'aseh Toviyah containing the four worlds. And it is divided into five parts. The first part describes the world above, that is the spiritual world. The second the world of the middle, that is the world of the planets. The third is the lower world that is our world. The fourth is the small world, that is The Man. The fifth in the foundations of the world."

Patousas, Aesop, 1644 (sig. L4v)

A woodcut illustrating Aesop's fable of the fox and the crow, which in this book is printed to face the illustration (you can see the text here).

Patousas, Aesop, 1644 (sig. L5r)

A modern Greek translation of Aesop's fable of the fox and the crow; there is an accompanying illustration on the facing page

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.

Soldini, Anima brutorum, 1776 (a8r; Getty)

The opening of each chapter in this book features intaglio initial letters, the colors of which vary from copy to copy. In this copy from the Getty, a blue ink is used, but in the Smithsonian's copy, the initial letter is printed in sienna. (The plates facing this page also differ in the two copies; search "Soldini" to compare.)

Soldini, Anima brutorum, 1776 (a8r; Smithsonian)

The opening of each chapter in this book features intaglio initial letters, the colors of which vary from copy to copy. In this copy from the Smithsonian, an ochre ink is used, but in the Getty's copy, the initial letter is printed in blue.

Soldini, Anima brutorum, 1776 (pl. facing a8r; Getty)

Because plates are printed in a separate process from letterpress text, and because the images in Soldini's work are not closely related to the text, different copies of the book have the plates inserted and bound in different locations. In this copy from the Smithsonian, this is the illustration facing the first chapter, but compare this to the Getty's copy of the book.