The title page for the first volume of the medieval romance Lancelot du Lac, printed shortly after 1500, reads: Le premier volume de lancelot du lac nouvellement imprime a Paris (“The first volume of Lancelot du Lac newly printed in Paris”). Early title pages were often quite spare: this one bears no author’s name, publisher, or date. The large, decorative initial L is meant to catch the eye of interested readers, just as illustrated book covers do today. Early English owners Edmond Harvye and Edmond Clerk wrote their names at the top of the page, and another reader added a four-line English poem about love below the title.
Lancelot du Lac, 3 volumes. Paris: Anthoine Vérard, after 1503. Purchased in 1929, PML 26582–84 (ChL 1549).