Customized Title Pages
Scholars have noted how the architectural borders used for early editions of
Chaucer's
Works bear a visual resemblance to a physical
memorial. The title page of Martin's copy of the
1542 edition, crafted by Reverend Mr. Nathaniel
Coddington (figure 3), is consistent
with this pattern. He carefully cuts and pastes a border identified by R. B. McKerrow and F. S.
Ferguson as being in use from 1551 through 1622 (no. 76).29 For Coddington, the most important
information clearly is the identity of the author: "CH|AVC|ER" fills the
entirety of the space available for a title, though information about the
imprint can be found in manuscript at the bottom of the page: "Printed in
1542. by John Reyne at the signe of the St George
| in Pauls Churchyarde." Another book owner, this
time of Cambridge University Library Syn.5.53.1, a copy of the 1532 edition,
combines a carefully trimmed border (McKerrow and
Ferguson no. 19) with a title ascribing the book to Caxton's Westminster press (figure
9). One can hazard a fairly good guess at the owner's motivation for
doing so since the cachet and resale value of a Caxton would be higher than that of the book with its original
1532 title page.
A provenance note by Samuel Sandars addresses the state of the title page:
These fragments are NOT printed by Caxton but
are portions of the First Edition of Chaucer's
entire works, printed in London by Thomas Godfray 1532 folio. The rich border
probably by Holbein pasted round the erroneous
reprinted title is the original border used for the titles in this
edition by Godfray.
A different principle seems to be at work in a copy of the 1542 edition at
the Harry Ransom Center, which makes use of a
printed border (McKerrow and Ferguson no. 20). A slip written by hand in a manner emulating
the black-letter typeface is pasted over the original printed title.
The title page for the Romaunt of the Rose,
meanwhile, keeps the printed text of the title, accented with fleurons, but
discards the rest of the original design (figure
10). Further examination of the book reveals that the owner covers
existing marginalia with slips of blank paper pasted in. Since title pages
tend to attract ownership inscriptions and pen trials, this particular owner
may have decided that the cleanest solution would be to start anew in the
case of the Works title page, and to paste the title
from the Romaunt of the Rose on a clean page.30
FIGURE 9. Title page advertising Thynne's 1532
edition as a Caxton. Reproduced by kind permission
of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library
(Syn. 5.53.1).
These self-fashioned title pages make use of printed elements, but an
artistic owner of Thynne's ca. 1550 edition at
Wesleyan University Library supplied his or
her copy with a title page by drawing a facsimile of the Speght title page
(figure 11). Was the 1598 title page used as
a model damaged as well? An irregular patch of text is missing, but with
penciled ruling to connect words that originally appeared on the same line,
on either side of the break. The same or another reader completes partially
formed words in pencil and supplies omitted text. It also serves to correct
the artist's textual errors, e.g., Figture should
read Portraiture in item one; AutPrs should read Authors in item five;
and London is instead Londini
on the Speght title page. Overall, however, the visual aspect of the page is
striking in its rendering of the architectural borders. Capturing the visual
grandeur of the page demonstrates the foremost importance to this artist of
design rather than words, which are dominant in the other examples. Owners
of the books at the British Library (figure 3), the Cambridge
University Library (figure 9), the Harry Ransom Center (figure
10), and the Wesleyan University Library
(figure 11) thus show a variety of inventive
strategies for supplying a title page that was wanting or restoring an
imperfect leaf to serve as a more suitable entryway for subsequent readers
of the text.
The architectural borders of the title page sometimes inspired book owners to
affix their own armorial bookplate at the foot of the title page. In a copy
at the Cambridge University Library, the bookplate
of the Peterborough Cathedral becomes an extension of the architectural
border, intentionally integrating it with the printed page (figure 12). Another example of this approach
appears in a copy of Thynne's ca. 1550 edition at
Trinity College Dublin (V dd 16). The armorial bookplate of Theophilus Butler, esq. which features his motto,
"Liberté tout entiere," does indeed take some liberties with the title page
design with the addition of his engraved plate. These two examples are
making additions not in order to supply wanting material but rather to
augment the title page with an ornate symbol of the owner's identity near
the marquee billing of Chaucer as author.
