Io. Gower De confessione amantis

Gower, John, 1325?-1408, Berthelet, Thomas, printer, Heber, Richard, 1773-1833, former owner, Wayland, H., former owner, Northmore, Thomas, 1766-1851, former owner, Griswold, Almon Whiting, former owner, Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897, autographer, Barton, Thomas Pennant, 1803-1869, former owner, Bedford, Francis, 1799-1883, binder · 1554 · Imprinted at London in Flete-Strete : By Thomas Berthelette · 1 picture

A 1554 edition of John Gower's Confessio Amantis, printed in London on Fleet Street by Thomas Berthelet for a general English readership, with its title page set inside a dense black woodblock border. The picture is a typographic title page: a rectangular frame of repeating geometric and foliate ornament enclosing a centred Gothic-style title, smaller black-letter lines, and a printer's imprint, with a small handwritten ownership signature at the foot. A designer could take from it the structure of a framed, centred Renaissance title page and the contrast of heavy ornamental borders against open type blocks.

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