Gateways to the book: Early Modern Frontispieces. Introduction

Although all title pages and frontispieces have in common that they introduce a codex, the works they introduce and the circumstances in which they were produced vary so widely that a singular theory of these paratextual elements seems is impossible. Some influential works that concern the development of title pages, in general, will be introduced in the following pages, but too many papers have been written on single title pages, artists, or publishers for us to take into account. Another problem is that because of their interdisciplinary nature, title pages are studied in many different contexts and viewed from many different perspectives. A book historian asks different questions than a music historian, a typographer looks more at the aspect of type and layout rather than the images as such, as might interest an art historian. There are also so many varieties of title pages and books yet unstudied that we will refrain from trying to write a single history of the title page. This book will thus not provide a full history of the title page or the frontispiece. It will, however, provide a sketch and be another piece of the puzzle for those to follow. It aims, furthermore, to provide an in-depth bibliography for those willing to deal with the gateways to books.