Ornaments and woodcuts

In the near future, this page will provide access to a searchable index of typographic ornaments and woodcuts present in comedias sueltas included in this database. It will be searchable by category and function, and records for specific ornaments will be linked to related printers and sueltas. Its aim is to provide a means of studying with precision the design and typographic practices of specific printers and general practices as they evolved over time. Perhaps more importantly, it can be a tool based on easily recognizable typographic features for grouping together related sueltas that lack imprints in order to possibly identify anonymous printers or to assign approximate dates of publication.

The examples of ornaments below have been taken from the title pages and last pages of plays by Pedro Calderón de la Barca from among the collection of sueltas in the Hispanic Society of America Library, records for which will soon be added to the database.

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