#colophons

...I realized I never really said this 😅, and just assumed folks would see it in the pdfs, but it might be helpful to let people know I include colophons at the end of almost all [edit: uh, actually, just most of my recent files have the colophons. Something for me to add in the futre lol] the books I post on here. By definition, a colophon is 'an inscription at the end of a book or manuscript usually with facts about its production' (Merriam-Webster).

My colophons list the details of that typeset, such as what page size/dimensions it was made for and what fonts were used. Below is the one in the back of Ivanhoe:

Zhao Meng Fu, statement on lifestyle and experience of the boat prompt in the Fourth colophon to the Orchid Pavilion (not by him, it's more of a collective participative work across time from 353 CE, Jin dynasty, all the way to today. I think it's beautiful.)

Last week we posted on our beautiful copy of Firmicus’ De natiuitatibus, published by Aldus Manutius in Venice in 1499. But Aldus wasn’t only interested in making beautiful books, he was also a businessman and as such was very concerned with protecting his product. One way Aldus tried to achieve this was by applying to the Venetian government to grant him ‘privileges’ - effectively monopolies that gave Aldus the sole rights to produce certain books. But such monopolies were hard to enforce, and so Aldus took to adding threatening colophons to the books he published.

This post features a selection of such colophons from the collection of Aldines here at Mizzou. Early examples are comparatively bland: in the first colophon reproduced above, which dates from 1499, Aldus says that it has been granted to him “that it should be permitted to no other to print these books without punishment“. The second example, which is from 1503, is more pressing: “We have been on guard, and if any greedy person should not believe us, the profit he sought will fall into our snares“. Eventually Aldus even sought protection from the Pope, which allowed him to resort to name-dropping: the third example, which is printed on the title page rather than as a colophon, states that his books are protected “by decrees of the Popes Alexander, Julius, and Leo“ and dates from 1515.

Not all of Aldus’ attacks on piracy were successful. In 1503 he issued a broadsheet in which he attacked the printers of Lyons, who were producing counterfeit Aldines on a large scale, and identified the deficiencies of their pirated editions. This proved a disastrous miscalculation - the printers of Lyons used his broadsheet to improve the quality of their counterfeits and bring them even closer to Aldus’ originals!

- Tim

Firmicus, De natiuitatibus, Aldus Manutius, 1499. MU Ellis Special Collections Rare Vault QB41 .F5 1499

Ovid, Publii Ovidii Nasonis quae hoc in libello continentur: Fastorum libri VI; De tristibus libri V; De ponto libri IIII. Aldus Manutius, 1503. MU Ellis Special Collections Rare Vault PA6519 .A6 1502

rgyal po bag ldan - in the manner of a modest king [who rules the kingdom and dearly protects his retinue rather than himself, the yogin performs acts of pure delightful discipline, protects living beings by realising all things on behalf not of himself but of others, and overpowers the kingdom by the discipline whicht enumerated and are only known from a few colophons Such treasures are similar to the life-supporting talismans {bla gnas} described in history, ch five note 10 [gk- [IW]

rgyal po'i bla gter brgya - 100 treasures to support the king's life [not enumerated, only known from a few colophons. similar to the life-supporting talismans {bla gnas} described in history, ch five note 10 [gk- [IW]

I thought of Great Colophons of Publishing. Which are the coolest? Which could you see tattooed on your skin? Two Dollar Radio is a favourite with many (they even have a Two Dollar Radio tattoo club - who else can boast that?). I have a lot of love for Penguin - particularly the one where he's taking a little scrunchy step (or the monocled version, not shown here). The slightly off kilter loominess of Tin House, the elegance of Faber and Faber, the jaunty Viking spirit of Birlinn.