Banckes, Herball, 1552 (C7r)

This page uses a variety of typographical signals to set off the titles and accounts of the different herbs. From top to bottom you can see a fist, capitulum, fleuron, another fist and capitulum, and an initial letter.

Behn, Widdow Ranter, 1690 (A1r)

In a style more typical of the late 17th century than earlier playbooks, this title page provides only a relatively short title and the barest of acting company and authorial information along with the imprint.

Bible, English, 1611 (A1r)

The King James Bible uses a complex typography to signal which words or phrases are not from the source material but have been added in translation (those in roman type), printed notes in roman type for cross referencing between different books, printed notes in italic for translation notes, and headnotes for each chapter providing summaries to help with quick navigation.

Black Bird, 1790 (p8)

A line of printer's flowers is used to separate the end of one ballad from the start of the next in this 8-page chapbook; because this is the last page, the phrase finis is placed at the end.

Cato, Moral distichs, 1735 (A1r)

Although it's placed where one might expect a printer's device, the design on this title page is a combination of printer's flowers, rather than a device intended to identify the printer.

Cato, Moral distichs, 1735 (A1v-A2r)

On the blank page shown here, you can see the raised letters from the impression of the type used for the title page.

Dowland, Songes, 1597 (π2r)

The dedication begins with a large, historiated initial "T", a woodcut depicting a sailboat.

Guyot, Type specimen, 1565

Specimen sheets are used by type-casters to show examples of the fonts they have for sale. This one shows work from François Guyot, a type-caster in Antwerp, and was used to sell his wares in England, as evidenced by the manuscript notes in English secretary hand. Careful sleuthing comparing these typefaces to those used in dated texts and to surviving records from the Plantin printing shop identified Guyot and the likely date of 1565. For more on those details, see this post from the Folger's

James I, By the King, 1611

This broadside uses gothic type (or black letter as the English often called it) for the main text of its announcement, as is typical for official English documents, with roman type setting off the names of the escapees.

Rowe, Laura, 1775 (A1v)

This ad selling letterpress printing to the public appears on the back of a title page; the book lacks an imprint statement, and the shop location given here allows researchers to suggest a time-frame for the book's publication.