Half-title - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from Half title) Page carrying nothing but the title of a book

The half-title or bastard title is a page carrying nothing but the title of a book—as opposed to the title page, which also lists subtitle, 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 process. When the completed interior pages of the book are bound together to form the book block, 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 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 blank verso.

References

Chicago, University of (2010). "Title Pages §1.16". The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-226-10420-1.
De Vinne, Theodore Low (1904). Modern Methods of Book Composition. The Practice of Typography. The Century Co. p. 130, note 1.

v t e Book design
Page layout and typography	Annotation Footnote Gloss Marginal note Scholia Canons of page construction Catchword Column Footer Header Headpiece Illumination Initial Historiated Inhabited Margin Miniature Ornament Page numbering Pull quote Recto and verso Rubric Rubrication Typeface Font
Front and back covers	Anthropodermic bibliopegy Bookbinding Buckram Dust jacket Hardcover Leather Paperback Picture cover Treasure binding
Endpapers	Marbled
Front matter	Half-title bastard title Frontispiece Title page Edition notice Imprimi potest Nihil obstat Imprimatur Dedication Epigraph Table of contents Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Prologue Printer's mark
Body matter	Body text Chapters Illustrations Parts Sections Tipped-in pages
Back matter	Afterword Conclusion Epilogue Outro Postscript Addendum/Appendix Endnotes Glossary Bibliography Index Errata Colophon Postface Author page
Other elements	Book curse Bookplate ex-librīs Book rhyme Die-cutting Endband Extra-illustration Fore-edge painting Intentionally blank page Pop-ups Slipcase Thumb index

This publishing-related article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

This article about making art out of books, the arts related to bookbinding, or the design of mass-produced books is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories:

See also

References