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Glossary

Glossary (Oxford English Dictionary)

Artist Book
- A work of art in the form of a book.

Binding
- A strong covering holding the pages of a book together.

Colophon
- A publisher's emblem or imprint, usually on the title page of a book.

Endpaper
- A leaf of paper at the beginning or end of a book, especially one fixed to the inside of the cover.

Facsimile
- An exact copy, especially of written or printed material.

Incunabula
- Books produced in the infancy of the art of printing; specifically those printed before 1500.

Illumination
- The art of illuminating a manuscript.
- An illuminated design in a manuscript.
- Illuminate: to decorate (a page or initial letter in a manuscript) with gold, silver, or colored designs.

Long s
- a lower-case form of the letter s, printed ſ, and formerly used at the beginning or in the middle of a word. This letter form fell out of general use in printed works in English at the beginning of the 19th cent., though it survived longer in handwriting and fine printing.

Manuscript
- A book, document, or piece of music written by hand rather than typed or printed.
- An author's handwritten or typed text that has not yet been published.

 

Rubricate
- Add elaborate, typically red, capital letters or other decorations to (a manuscript).

Signature
- A printed sheet after being folded to form a group of pages.

Special Collections
- A collection of materials, especially valuable books or manuscripts, which is kept separate from other materials in a library and usually has stricter access rights; (also in plural) the department of a library that maintains such a collection.

Vellum
- Fine parchment made originally from the skin of a calf.

University Libraries

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