Schauplatz der fünf Theile der Welt nach und zu Anton Friedrich Büschings grosser Erdbeschreibung in drey Theilen herausgegeben von..

Title

Schauplatz der fünf Theile der Welt nach und zu Anton Friedrich Büschings grosser Erdbeschreibung in drey Theilen herausgegeben von..

Description

Title page of "Schauplatz der fünf Theile der Welt nach und zu Anton Friedrich Büschings grosser Erdbeschreibung in drey Theilen herausgegeben von Franz Johan Joseph von Reilly. Title page with allegorical depictions, a cannon and a globe showing Europe and Asia.

ca. 1791

Artist

Reilly (1766-1820)

Franz Johann Joseph von Reilly (1766 - 1820) Vienna. Franz Johann Joseph von Reilly was an Austrian publisher, cartographer and writer. He was born the son of the court master Johann Reilly. He initially worked in the civil service, but then devoted himself exclusively to geography. From 1789 to 1806, he produced the atlas Schauplatz der fünf Theile der Welt, which only covers Europe on its 830 sheets. After the Schul Atlas (1791-92) and the Allgemeine Erdbeschreibung (3 volumes, 1792-93), he published the first (complete) Austrian world atlas entitled Grosser deutscher Atlas from 1794 to 1796. In 1796, he produced the series Geschichtliche und bildliche Vorstellung der Regimenter des Erzhauses Oesterreich (Historical and Pictorial Presentation of the Regiments of the Archduke of Austria), and in 1799 the Allgemeine Post Atlas von der ganzen Welt (General Postal Atlas of the Whole World) - the first atlas of its kind in the world.

Historical Description

The title page is one of the most important parts of the "front matter" or "preliminaries" of a book, as the data on it and its verso (together known as the "title leaf") are used to establish the "title proper and usually, though not necessarily, the statement of responsibility and the data relating to publication".This determines the way the book is cited in library catalogs and academic references. The title page often shows the title of the work, the person or body responsible for its intellectual content, and the imprint, which contains the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication. Particularly in paperback editions it may contain a shorter title than the cover or lack a descriptive subtitle. Further information about the publication of the book, including its copyright information, is frequently printed on the verso of the title page. The first printed books, or incunabula, did not have title pages: the text simply begins on the first page, and the book is often identified by the initial words—the incipit—of the text proper. Maps were usually published in atlases. And atlases were books with titles. And, again, titles were individual pieces of art. A publisher emphazised the importance of a book he published with a spectacular entrée. Usually the pictures of an atlas title page pertained in general to the subject matter: Measuring instruments, mythologigal, astronomical, religious, scientific, allegorical hints and facts were united in a composition which depicted the pride of progress in knowledge. An atlas title page often is just one superb artistic and jubilant cartouche.