Book Description
London: Printed for I. Tonson.. 1729. Lg. 4to. (18),450,xciipp. Illustrated with an engraved frontis. portrait and 3 plates. With numerous large engraved vignettes. Contemporary calf, gilt spine (extremities chipped); covers rehinged and reinforced. Some foxing.
Not sure what some of these terms mean? Look it up in our glossary.
spine : The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf. Also known as the back.
gilt : The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book. The edges of the text block, or an inlay in the front cover of the boards, for example.
calf : Leather binding made from calfskin. Most common form of leather binding.
plates : Full page illustrations or photographs. Plates are printed separately from the text of the book, and bound in at production. I.e., they are not sewn as parts of gatherings.
4to : Or quarto. A term used generally to describe the approximate size of a book, a book that is about 10" to 12" tall and roughly squarish in shape. The term is based on the size of paper traditionally used by book printers which has been folded and cut into 16 pages.
