Half-title on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The half-title or bastard title is a page carrying nothing but the
title
A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify their generation, official position, military rank, professional or academic qualification, or nobility. In some languages, titles may be ins ...
of a book
A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...
—as opposed to the title page
The title page of a book, thesis or other written work is the page at or near the front which displays its title (publishing), title, subtitle, author, publisher, and edition, often artistically decorated. (A half title, by contrast, displays onl ...
, which also lists subtitle
Subtitles are texts representing the contents of the audio in a film, television show, opera or other audiovisual media. Subtitles might provide a transcription or translation of spoken dialogue. Although naming conventions can vary, caption ...
, author, publisher and edition. The half-title is usually counted as the first page (p. i) in a printed book. The half-title can have some ornamentation of the book's title, or it can be plain text.
The purpose of the half-title page is to protect the full title page and its traditional counterpart, the frontispiece, during the bookbinding
Bookbinding is the process of building a book, usually in codex format, from an ordered stack of paper sheets with one's hands and tools, or in modern publishing, by a series of automated processes. Firstly, one binds the sheets of papers alon ...
process. When the completed interior pages of the book are bound together to form the book block
A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, mo ...
, the half-title page serves as the outermost layer of paper at the front of the book. Several hundreds or thousands of book blocks may need to be moved or stored for a period of time before they are bound into their covers, during which the half-title page protects the more intricately designed pages that follow from rubbing and dust.
Archaic uses of the terms half-title and bastard title may refer to two separate pages on both sides of the full title page that have been conflated in modern usage. Theodore Low De Vinne
Theodore Low De Vinne (December 25, 1828 – February 16, 1914) was an American printer and scholarly author on typography. Considered "the leading commercial printer of his day," De Vinne began the professionalization of American printing, ...
distinguished between half-title (by his definition, a "caption title") and bastard title in his series ''The Practice of Typography'', saying:
The half-title should not be confounded with the bastard title. The half-title follows the title and begins the first page of text; the bastard title, usually a single line in capital letters, precedes the full title, and takes a separate leaf with blankverso ''Recto'' is the "right" or "front" side and ''verso'' is the "left" or "back" side when text is written or printed on a leaf of paper () in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet. In double-sided printing, each leaf h ....
See also
*Book design
Book design is the graphic art of determining the visual and physical characteristics of a book. The design process begins after an author and editor finalize the manuscript, at which point it is passed to the production stage. During productio ...
References