Cover not available
Part of
Norms and Conventions in the History of English
Edited by Birte Bös and Claudia Claridge
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 347] 2019
► pp. 73–98

Promotional conventions on English title-pages up to 1550

Modifiers of time, scope, and quality

ORCID logo
ORCID logo

This study traces the development of promotional conventions on English title-pages up to 1550. The early development of title-pages was influenced by older paratextual elements such as prologues and colophons. However, in the context of print production, book producers soon began to use this prominent new space for advertising their skills and products. In terms of this marketing function, the early title-page can be compared to the publisher’s blurb. We examine how book producers promoted their work on title-pages and how the conventions related to this paratextual element developed in the early era of print. Our focus is on the modification of verbs and nouns describing books, texts, and the related production processes. Three main categories of modification emerge from our survey: time, scope, and quality. While the emerging conventions of title-page discourse share many features with modern advertising English, there are also features that seem surprising from the modern perspective.

Keywords: prescriptivism, advertising, book production, Early Modern English, paratext, promotional discourse, sixteenth century, title-page
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Promotional paratext and the early development of the title-page
  • 3.Advertising discourse
  • 4.The present study
  • 5.Modifiers of time, scope, and quality on early English title-pages
    • 5.1Modifiers of time
    • 5.2Modifiers of scope
    • 5.3Modifiers of quality
    • 5.4Overview of findings
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 May 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.347.05var
References

Primary sources (accessed via Early English Books Online <http://​eebo​.chadwyck​.com​/home>)

STC 389 = Almacke [sic] for .xv. yeres. London: Wynkyn de Worde 1522.Google Scholar
STC 390 = Almanacke for .xv. yeres. London: Richard Fawkes [1525].Google Scholar
STC 421.17 = A very true pronosticacio[n]. London: John Byddell [1536].Google Scholar
STC 1499 = The armyng of a Christen warrier readie to fyghte with the enemies of our captain and sauioure Iesus Christe. London: Thomas Berthelet 1549.Google Scholar
STC 2067 = The most sacred Bible, whiche is the Holy Scripture conteyning the Old and New Testament. London: John Byddell for Thomas Berthelet 1539.Google Scholar
STC 2351 = The firste boke of Moses called Genesis. [Antwerp: Martin de Kayser 1534].Google Scholar
STC 3021 = A compendious olde treatyse, shewynge howe that we oughte to haue ye scripture in Englysshe. [Antwerp: Johann Hoochstraten] 1530.Google Scholar
STC 3022 = A compendyous olde treatyse shewynge howe that we ought to have the Scripture in Englysshe. London: Richard Banks [1538?].Google Scholar
STC 4046 = The Christen state of matrimonye wherin housbandes and wyfes maye lerne to kepe house together with loue. [Antwerp: Widow of Christopher Ruremond? 1538?].Google Scholar
STC 4411 = A faythfvll and moost Godlye treatyse concernyng the most sacred Sacrament of the blessed body and bloude of our sauioure Chryst. [London: John Day for William Seres? 1548?].Google Scholar
STC 4412 = A Faythful and moost Godlye treatyse concernynge the most sacret Sacrament of the blessed body and bloude of oure sauioure Christe. London: John Day and William Seres [1548?].Google Scholar
STC 4591 = A passing gode lityll boke necessarye [and] behouefull a[g]enst the pestilence. [London: William de Machlinia, ca. 1485].Google Scholar
STC 4890 = If it plese ony man spirituel or temporel to bye ony pyes of two and thre comemoracio[n]s of saliburi vse. [Westminster: William Caxton 1477?].Google Scholar
STC 5083 = [Canterbury Tales. Westminster: William Caxton 1483].Google Scholar
STC 5096 = Here begynneth the boke of Troylus and Creseyde. London: Richard Pynson [1526?].Google Scholar
STC 6894 = The lyfe of prestes. London: Robert Redman [1533?].Google Scholar
STC 7269 = Here begynneth the table of the rubryshys of the boke of the fayt of armes and of Chyualrye. [Westminster: William Caxton 1489].Google Scholar
STC 9286 = The great boke of statutes. [London: Robert Redman 1533?].Google Scholar
STC 12887 = A godly newe short treatyse instructyng euery parson, howe they shulde trade theyr lyues in ye imytacyon of vertu. London: Robert Stoughton 1543.Google Scholar
STC 14828.5 = The refutation of the byshop of Winchesters derke declaratio[n] of his false articles. [London: John Herford] 1546.Google Scholar
STC 15723 = Leteltun teners newe correcte. London: Richard Pynson [1510?].Google Scholar
STC 15732 = Les tenures de Lyttelton novelment imprimes. London: Robert Redman [ca. 1540].Google Scholar
STC 18077 = The answere to the fyrst parte of the poysened booke, whych a namelesse heretyke hath named the souper of the lorde. London: William Rastell [1533?].Google Scholar
STC 23148 = Accidentia ex Stãbrigiana editione. London: Wynkyn de Worde [1520?].Google Scholar
STC 25491.7 = Grammatices primae partis liber primus Roberti vv. L. L. Southwark (London): Peter Treveris [1530?].Google Scholar
STC 25588 = The true copye of a prolog wrytten about two C. yeres paste by Iohn Wycklife. London: [Richard Grafton for] Robert Crowley 1550.Google Scholar
STC 25591a = Uvicklieffes Wicket. [London: John Day? 1548?].Google Scholar
STC 25591 = Uvicklieffes Wicket. [London: John Day? 1548?].Google Scholar

Secondary sources

Beard, Fred
(2010) Comparative Advertising Wars: An Historical Analysis of Their Causes and Consequences. Journal of Macromarketing, 30(3), 270–286. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bennett, Henry Stanley
(1952) English Books & Readers 1475 to 1557. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bhatia, Vijay K.
(1993) Analysing Genre: Language use in professional settings. London & New York: Longman.Google Scholar
(2004) Worlds of Written Discourse: A genre-based view. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
(2005) Generic Patterns in Promotional Discourse. In Helena Halmari & Tuija Virtanen (Eds.), Persuasion across Genres: A linguistic approach (213–225). (= Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 130.) Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blake, Norman Francis
(1976) Caxton: England’s first publisher. London: Osprey.Google Scholar
Curtius, Ernst Robert
(1990) [1953] European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
van Dam, Harm-Jan
(2008) ‘ Vobis pagina nostra dedicatur’: Dedication in Classical Antiquity. In Ignace Bossuyt, Nele Gabriëls, Dirk Sacré & Demmy Verbeke (Eds.), ‘Cui dono lepidum novum libellum?’: Dedicating Latin Works and Motets in the Sixteenth Century (13–33). (= Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia, 23). Leuven: Leuven University Press.Google Scholar
Driver, Martha W.
(1997) Ideas of Order: Wynkyn de Worde and the Title Page. In John Scattergood & Julia Boffey (Eds.), Texts and Their Contexts: Papers from the Early Book Society (87–149). Dublin: Four Courts Press.Google Scholar
Galloway, Andrew
(2005) Middle English Prologues. In David F. Johnson & Elaine Treharne (Eds.), Readings in Medieval Texts: Interpreting Old and Middle English literature (288–305). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Genette, Gérard
(1997) Paratexts: Thresholds of interpretation. Originally published in French in 1987. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gibbons, Victoria Louise
(2008) The Manuscript Titles of Truth: Titology and the Medieval Gap. Journal of the Early Book Society, 11, 197–206.Google Scholar
Gieszinger, Sabine
(2001) The History of Advertising Language: The advertisements in The Times from 1788–1996. (= Münchener Universitäts-Schriften, 23.) Frankfurt am Main etc.: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Görlach, Manfred
(2002) A Linguistic History of Advertising, 1700–1890. In Teresa Fanego, Belén Méndez-Naya & Elena Seoane (Eds.), Sounds, Words, Texts and Change: Selected papers from 11 ICEHL, Santiago de Compostela, 7–11 September 2000 (83–104). (= Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science, Series IV, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 224.) Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grafton, Anthony
(2011) The Culture of Correction in Renaissance Europe. London: The British Library.Google Scholar
Hellinga, Lotte
(2009) Sale Advertisements for Books Printed in the Fifteenth Century. In Robin Myers, Michael Harris & Giles Mandelbrote (Eds.), Books for Sale: The advertising and promotion of print since the fifteenth century (1–25). New Castle, Del., and London: Oak Knoll Press and The British Library.Google Scholar
(2010) William Caxton and Early Printing in England. London: The British Library.Google Scholar
Hellinga, Wytze Gs
(1962) Copy and Print in the Netherlands: An atlas of historical bibliography. Amsterdam: Federatie der Werkgeversorganisatiën in het Boekdukkersbedrijf; Vereniging van Nederlandse Chemigrafische Inrichtingen; North-Holland Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Hermerén, Lars
(1999) English for Sale: A study of the language of advertising. (= Lund Studies in English, 99.) Lund: Lund University Press.Google Scholar
Hirsch, Rudolf
(1967) Printing, Selling and Reading 1450–1550. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Hudson, Anne
(1985) Lollards and Their Books. London & Ronceverte: The Hambledon Press.Google Scholar
James, Karen E., & Hensel, Paul J.
(1991) Negative Advertising: The Malicious Strain of Comparative Advertising. Journal of Advertising, 20(2), 53–69. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Janson, Tore
(1964) Latin Prose Prefaces: Studies in literary conventions. (= Studia Latina Stockholmiensia, 13.) Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.Google Scholar
Johnson, A. F.
(1970) [1928] Title-pages: Their Forms and Development. In Percy H. Muir (Ed.), A. F. Johnson, Selected Essays on Books and Printing (288–297). Amsterdam; London; New York: Van Gendt; Routledge & Kegan Paul; Abner Schram.Google Scholar
Kuskin, William
(2007) Symbolic Caxton: Literary culture and print capitalism. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Leech, Geoffrey N.
(1966) English in Advertising: A linguistic study of advertising in Great Britain. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Litzler, Mary Frances
(2011) A Corpus of Middle English Medical Prologues in the Sloane Collection of the British Library: An introduction to the genre in prose. Ph.D. dissertation, University of las Palmas de Gran Canaria. [URL]
McKerrow, Ronald Brunlees, & Ferguson, Frederic Sutherland
(1932) Title-page Borders Used in England & Scotland 1485–1640. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McKitterick, David
(2003) Print, Manuscript and the Search for Order, 1450–1830. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Massai, Sonia
(2011) Editorial Pledges in Early Modern Dramatic Paratexts. In Helen Smith & Louise Wilson (Eds.), Renaissance Paratexts (91–106). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meenaghan, Tony
(1995) The Role of Advertising in Brand Image Development. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 4(4), 23–34. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Minnis, Alastair J.
(1984) Medieval Theory of Authorship: Scholastic literary attitudes in the later Middle Ages. London: Scolar Press.Google Scholar
OED Online
Retrieved from [URL]
Olson, Jonathan R.
(2016) ‘Newly Amended and Much Enlarged’: Claims of Novelty and Enlargement on the Title Pages of Reprints in the Early Modern English Book Trade. History of European Ideas, 42(5), 618–628. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pollard, Alfred W.
(1891) Last Words on the History of the Title-page with Notes on Some Colophons and Twenty-seven Fac-similes of Title-pages. London: John C. Nimmo.Google Scholar
Ratia, Maura
(2013) Investigating Genre through Title-pages: Plague Treatises of the Stuart Period in Focus. In Anneli Meurman-Solin & Jukka Tyrkkö (Eds.), Principles and Practices for the Digital Editing of Diachronic Data. (= Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English, 14). Helsinki: Varieng. [URL]
Reichhart, P. Gottfried, O. S. B.
(1895) Beiträge zur Inkunabelkunde 1 (= Beihefte zum Centralblatt für Bibliothekswesen, 14). Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Ruokkeinen, Sirkku
(2013) Tragicall Historie and Phantasticall Trifles: On evaluation of the book in sixteenth-century translators’ paratexts. MA thesis, University of Turku. [URL].
Saenger, Michael Baird
(2005) The Birth of Advertising. In Douglas A. Brooks (Ed.), Printing and Parenting in Early Modern England (197–219). Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Saenger, Michael
(2006) The Commodification of Textual Engagements in the English Renaissance. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Sharpe, Richard
(2003) Titulus. Identifying Medieval Latin Texts: An evidence-based approach. Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar
Shevlin, Eleanor F.
(1999) ‘To Reconcile Book and Title, and Make ‘Em Kin to One Another’: The Evolution of the Title’s Contractual Functions. Book History, 2, 42–77. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Silva, Andie
(2016) Mediated Technologies: Locating Non-authorial Agency in Printed and Digital Texts. History of European Ideas, 42(5), 607–617. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smith, Margaret M.
(2000) The Title-page: Its early development 1460–1510. London & New Castle, Del.: The British Library & Oak Knoll Press.Google Scholar
Suhr, Carla
(2011) Publishing for the Masses: Early Modern English witchcraft pamphlets. (= Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique, 83). Helsinki: Société néophilologique de Helsinki.Google Scholar
Toolan, Michael
(1988) The Language of Press Advertising. In Mohsen Ghadessy (Ed.), Registers of Written English: Situational factors and linguistic features (52–64). London & New York: Pinter.Google Scholar
Tyrkkö, Jukka, Marttila, Ville, & Suhr, Carla
(2013) The Culpeper Project: Digital Editing of Title-Pages. In Anneli Meurman-Solin & Jukka Tyrkkö (Eds.), Principles and Practices for the Digital Editing of Diachronic Data. (= Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English, 14). Helsinki: Varieng. [URL]
Varila, Mari-Liisa
(2016) In Search of Textual Boundaries: A case study on the transmission of scientific writing in 16th-century England. (= Anglicana Turkuensia, 31). Turku: University of Turku.Google Scholar
Wogan-Browne, Jocelyn, Watson, Nicholas, Taylor, Andrew, & Evans, Ruth
eds. (1999) The Idea of the Vernacular: An anthology of Middle English literary theory, 1280–1520. Exeter: University of Exeter Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Peikola, Matti
2020. Chapter 8. Patterns of reader involvement on sixteenth-century English title pages, with special reference to second-person pronouns. In Voices Past and Present - Studies of Involved, Speech-related and Spoken Texts [Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 97], ► pp. 114 ff. DOI logo
Salmi, Hanna
2020. Chapter 8. “I write not to expert practitioners, but to learners”. In The Dynamics of Text and Framing Phenomena [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 317], ► pp. 187 ff. DOI logo
Varila, Mari-Liisa
2020. Chapter 9. Book producers’ comments on text-organisation in early 16th-century English printed paratexts. In The Dynamics of Text and Framing Phenomena [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 317], ► pp. 209 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 17 september 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.