In yesterday's post, we discussed the exterior parts of a book and how books are made. Today, let's explore what's inside the covers.
There are two leaves inside the front and rear covers; they are called endpapers. The one pasted to the cover board is called the pasted front or rear endpaper. The leaf opposite the pasted endpaper is called the front free or back free endpaper. Owners often inscribe their names and inscriptions on the endpapers. This is also where bookplates or bookstore labels are affixed.
Bookplates are also known as ex libris plates, which is a Latin term meaning "from the books of." Bookplates generally include the owner's name or initials, and may also feature the ex libris phrase, as well as detailed artwork. if a book was previously owned by a library, it is called ex-library. Former library books
often contain library acquisition and ownership stamped markings on the endpapers.
The next few pages of the book are either blank, or are blank except for the book's title. The former is called a flyleaf and the latter is called a title-leaf. With regard to leaves, the right-hand page is called recto and always has an odd page number. The left-hand page is called verso and always has an even page number.
Following the flyleaves, there may be a frontispiece, which is an illustration facing the title page of a book. There may be a piece of tissue paper, called a tissue guard, that protects the illustration. Common during the 19th century, these tissue guards sometimes contained a caption of the underlying illustration.
The title page, which is one of the most important parts of the book, may include: the book's title, author(s), editor, illustrators(s), edition or volume number, publisher, place of publication, and date. Copyright dates are often found on the title page verso.
Depending upon the type of book, there may be some or all of the following sections: dedication page, preface (if a book has more than one edition, there may be prefaces to each subsequent edition), foreword, table of contents, and list of illustrations. Occasionally, older books will have advertisements in the front of the book, but this is rare.
All of the aforementioned sections make up the preliminary matter of a book. Following the front matter, is the main text, and the last sections of a book compose the end matter. Examples of end matter include index, appendix, glossary of terms, notes, and bibliography. 19th century books often had advertisements from the publisher following the main text.