TITLE-PAGE

BY A. GARTH JONES

## THE TITLE-PAGES OF A. GARTH JONES. BY OCTAVE UZANNE

I DO NOT THINK THAT IN THE WHOLE field of the graphic arts as devoted to the production of a book that any portion requires more synthetic intelligence, architectural taste, and decorative art from the person who devotes himself to its production than the title-page.

Artists worthy of the name of title-page designers are scarce in all countries. One is not able to count more than ten in a century, or in a nation at the outside, who possess all those qualities of suppleness, invention, composition, and fine ornamental ordination, which are so necessary to produce a noble initial page in a book—the characteristic façade answering to the inner impression of the intellectual monu-

One must be endowed with a special genius to be able to enclose within the right-angles of an illuminated page a composition full of style, yet at the same time harmonious and elegant, where every proportion is happily understood, with each "cartouche" clearly ordered, and the symbolical motives plainly and vigorously indicated. A title-page must be inviting; it must be adorned with beauty and elegance; it must have proportion in the same way as the colonnade of a temple, the curtain of a theatre, or the peristyle of a sacred or profane building. Nothing can be more difficult. This is the reason why the names of those artists who, from the invention of printing, have distinguished themselves in the execution of beautiful title-pages, are not sufficient to form a nomenclature or dictionary to be compared with the long list of illustrators or engravers. A history of the most remarkable title-pages, whether engraved on wood, etched, or cut with the burin, should prove extremely curious and instructive, and would give a fresh element to all retrospective studies based on the art of book production.

The first title-page seen at the beginning of a book appeared in 1476 upon the initial leaf of the "Calendarium" of Ragiomontanus, printed in Venice in the shape of a medium octavo. It was a scroll, engraved on wood, which, in addition to the date of the printing and the names of the printers, contained twelve Latin verses, commencing "Aureus hic liber est." Underneath the following lines were printed in rubric: "1476. Bernardus pictor de Augusta. Petrus Loslem de Langenceu. Erhardus Ratdolt de Augusta." An edict of King Henry II. of France, made in 1547, ordered that the Christian name and surname of the writer of every book should be printed at its beginning, together with the name of the printer and his sign and domicile. This edict caused title-pages to take an entirely new shape.

In the Middle Ages manuscripts often represented on the opening page a picture of the author, kneeling and offering the book to the great lord and patron to whom it was dedicated. In the fifteenth century the portrait of the author appeared. It was surrounded by an allegorical design, including wreaths, architectural motives, astragals, and a general decoration of poetical inscriptions resuming the virtues of the writer. The compositions were in beautiful line and of fine style, cut sometimes on wood and

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Yale Center for British Art, 2013