I. MODERN BOOKS.

The normal “make-up” of a present-day printed book, according to Simon is (a) Half-title, Title-page (recto and verso), Dedication, Acknowledgments, Contents, List of illustrations, etc., List of abbreviations, Preface, Introduction, Corrigend(a)um or Errat(a)um, constituting the Preliminaries or “Prelims”; (b) The Text, or Body of the Book; (c) Subsidiaries: Appendixes, Author's notes, Glossary, Bibliography, Index(es).

Esdaile varies the order and adds the following to (a) Imprimatur, Number of copies printed; to (c) Imprint or Colophon, “Finis”, Blank leaves, Plates, End-papers, Dust-jacket.

Actually the inside of the book may have, in addition to all the above (a) On the verso of the half-title, also called bastard-, false-, or fly-title: Publisher's advertisement, “By the same author”, Series note (which sometimes appears at the top of the title-page, or may even have a title-page of its own, facing the title-page of the specific volume in the series); and Frontispiece; Foreword (before contents only if short), Addenda slip, or Postscript, a half-, or caption-title repeated between the “Prelims”, and (b) the Text; the illustrations often appear amid (b); (c) Sometimes a duplicate, printed title-label is pasted in between the last page and the end-paper1. Advertisements (especially…19th century).

Then outside the book proper as part of the binding, we have the fly-leaves (back and front), trimmed, stained, sprinkled, marbled, or gilded edges, the covers (casing) and finally the lettering.

Some of the “Parts” call for further comment. The titlepage proper (recto) may carry a printer’s, or a publisher's device and, of course, the latter's Imprint. The verso may state the edition and year of publication (which we prefer to find on the recto, or title-page proper). On this verso we often find a bibliographical “history” of the book, i.e. a note on reprintings, revised editions, etc., and a copyright date (always in U.S.A. titles) and frequently the printer's imprint, which may, however, occur at the end.