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The direction of spine titles was discussed on
the SHARP (Society for the History of Authorship, Reading &
Publishing)listserve back in 1997. It was observed that French and Italian
titles read bottom to top, most English book titles top to bottom. The
speculation was that, in medieval England, a book was shelved on its back; in
France, on its front. (Of course, a speculation is not an empirical finding.)
The question was then raised: did the direction of the title follow or precede
the shelving practice?
Harold Orlans
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