System of Geography, by M. Malte Brun. With Engravings. Vol. III.

Title

System of Geography, by M. Malte Brun. With Engravings. Vol. III.

Description

Title page from "A system of universal geography, or A description of all the parts of the world, on a new plan, according to the great natural divisions of the globe " . Published by Samuel Walker, Boston. Engraved by W. L. Ormsby, drawn by D. C. Johnston.

ca. 1834

Artist

Malte-Brun (1775-1826)

Conrad Malte-Brun was a Danish-French geographer. He was born in Thisted, Denmark and died in Paris in 1826.

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.