The Comely Frontispiece: The Emblematic Title-page in England, 1550-1660

Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979 8vo (24 cm), VIII, 248 pp. Publisher's cloth and dust jacket (dj clipped, blind collector's stamp on the half-title). The title-page of a book was once its most expensive and elaborate part. With advances in printing technology and changing reading practices, however, it became a space for new experiments in design, illustration and audience engagement. "The Comely Frontispiece" offers the first comprehensive study of the role of the title-page in the development of English Renaissance books. Karen L. Corbett and Stephen Lightbown draw on a wealth of evidence to uncover the purpose of these artefacts, and to challenge the conventional view that they simply served as a form of advertising. They show how title-pages were used to communicate ideas about the status and ambitions of authors and printers, and to manipulate readers' responses to a book. By placing title-pages at the centre of the literary culture of early modern England, this book reveals the crucial role they played in the development of the printed book.