Illustration and Ornamentation in the Iberian Book World, 1450-1800

In the early modern Iberian book world, as in the European book world more broadly, most works issuing from the presses contained some form of ornamentation. The nineteen contributions presented here cast light on these visual elements--on the production and ownership of printers’ materials, and on the frequency with which these materials were exchanged and shared. A third of all items printed in the early modern Iberian world carried no imprint at all; for these items, woodblocks and engravings can assist scholars seeking to identify their place of origin or their date of publication. As importantly, decoration and illustration in early print can also reveal much about the history of the graphic arts and evolving forms of cultural representation.

Alexander S. Wilkinson, Ph.D. (2002), St Andrews, is a Professor of Early Modern History at University College Dublin. He has published widely on the history of the European book, and directed the bibliographical project Iberian Books (Brill, 2010 & 2015).