printer's device / printer's mark ☜☞ marca tipográfica
Francisco Vindel's brief introduction gives a cursory overview of the history of printers' marks and devices. As an early form of “branding,” printers added a distinctive design, often incorporating their initials into a monographic cypher, to show ownership of their imprints. Only sueltas with a full title page have a printer’s mark and they are all characterized by calligraphic initials sometimes with an additional crown or coronet. "En el siglo XVIII es cuando de una manera fina se establece el frecuente uso de las marcas caligráficas, que consisten en la iniciales o en bonitos monogramas de los impresores o libreros, entrelazados en curiosos e ingeniosos rasgos caligráficos, como puede verse ojeando simplemente las marcas pertenecientes a los siglos XVIII y XIX." p. XXI
Other printers chose to place a modest vignette in the center of the title page. These metal or wood engraved vignettes depicted a great variety of subjects and trace if these vignettes were not associated with any one printer.
Francisco Vindel Escudos y marcas de impresores y libreros en España durante los siglos XV a XIX (1485-1850) (listed in our Bibliography).
For further discussion see Miscellanies.
Other printers chose to place a modest vignette in the center of the title page. These metal or wood engraved vignettes depicted a great variety of subjects and trace if these vignettes were not associated with any one printer.
Francisco Vindel Escudos y marcas de impresores y libreros en España durante los siglos XV a XIX (1485-1850) (listed in our Bibliography).
For further discussion see Miscellanies.