Wolfgang Undorf wrote:
>Is there anyone who has an idea of why the titles on the spines of books
>change orientation dependant on whether it is an English, German, or a
>French publication? Some books have to ly on their back cover, others to
>ly on the front cover so that the title on the spine can appear in
>uppright position.
>
>Is their a reason for this phenomenon other than tradition?
An idea, but just conjecture: The earliest original (not added later) title
I recall seeing on a spine was 16th century. Perhaps someone did it earlier,
but most earrly spines were tooled with a decorative pattern between all the
bands, if at all. A few deluxe books may have been done with titles or
abbreviations tooled in gold on the cover. Most covers also were all-over
pattern, if tooled, and may have incorporated the arms, initials or name of
the owner, like Io Grolierii et Amicorum. But he was at the end of that era
and into the new bookbinding vision.
Most titles I have seen on early books, if one was there at all, was written
in ink on the edge of the book. Now that you bring it up, I am wondering if
there are any books out (or websites) with photos of early book edges with
titles.
I have seen them written in ink on head, foredge, and tail page edges, in up
and down orientation. Sorry now that I didn't keep track of that
information. The earliest I have seen are in the orientation of the book
closed, back cover up, as one might leave a heavy book when finished reading
it. I have seen books in chain bindings in this orientation, and also books
with chain holes but missing hardware that had this orientatioin.
Titles did not start going on the spine until spine-out became a convention.
With the advent of movable type, libraries grew and books went vertical to
conserve space. Titles were run across the width of the book parallel to and
between the raised bands, and were often shortened or abbreviated. Early
vellum and papercovered books have titles on the spines in ink. Perhaps
because of edge yaps or ties it was impractical to have their titles on the
edges of the pages, and such books were light weight and easy to manipulate.
I find it hard to date handwritten titles, but I am sure there are people
who know enough about the evolution of calligraphic forms. Again I would
love a reference to photos of these with accurate information.
My surmise is that different countries had differing traditions of how to
leave a closed book-- cover up or down, and that filtered down to today,
because at any time people had older books on the shelf, and once they went
vertical it was too confusing to run "horizontal" (when the book is flat)
titles in opposite directions.
Richard
http://www.minsky.com