Afrontispiece in books is a decorative or informative illustration facing a book'stitle page, usually on the left-hand, orverso, page opposite the right-hand, orrecto page of a book.[1] In some ancient editions or in modern luxury editions the frontispiece features thematic orallegorical elements, in others is the author's portrait that appears as the frontispiece. In medievalilluminated manuscripts, apresentation miniature showing the book or text being presented (by whom and to whom varies) was often used as a frontispiece.
The word comes from theFrenchfrontispice, which derives from thelate Latinfrontispicium,[2] composed of theLatinfrons ('forehead') andspecere ('to look at'). It wassynonymous with 'metoposcopy'. In English, it was originally used as anarchitectural term, referring to the decorativefacade of a building. In the 17th century, in other languages as inItalian,[3] the term came to refer to the title page of a book, which at the time was often decorated with intricateengravings that borrowed stylistic elements from architecture, such ascolumns andpediments.
Over the course of the 17th century, the title page of a book came to be accompanied by an illustration on the facing page (known in Italian asantiporta), so that in English the term took on the meaning it retains today as early as 1682. By then, the English spelling had also morphed, by way offolk etymology, from 'frontispice' to 'frontispiece' ('front' + 'piece').[4]
| Page layout and typography |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Front and back covers | ||
| Endpapers | ||
| Front matter | ||
| Body matter | ||
| Back matter | ||
| Other elements | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
