Allegorical title pages of the Baroque period

Abstract

The fully-developed title page of the seventeenth century typically visualises the book’s contents with a display of emblematic scenes and figures, mottoes and quotations from the Bible and the classics, disciplined by their arrangement in a strictly symmetrical architectural frame.The whole panoply of polyantheas and similar reference books is laid under contribution. Some of the most distinguished artists and engravers contributed to such work and scholarship on book illustration in Spain (e.g. Gallego and García Vega) or on individual artists has made use of these title pages as examples.English studies have made it clear that the title page was commonly the brainchild of the author himself. In Spain, however, it seems that little work has been done to date on the relation of word and image in a culture that valued the interaction of the Sister Arts