The beginner must labour hard to distinguish different kinds of
printing; he must be able to recognise at a glance even fragments
from the press of Caxton. His eye must be accustomed to all the
tricks of the trade and others, so that he may tell a facsimile in a
moment, or detect a forgery.

But now let us return to the distinctive marks of early printed
books. The first is, says M. Rouveyre, -

1. The absence of a separate title-page. It was not till 1476-1480
that the titles of books were printed on separate pages. The next
mark is -


2. The absence of capital letters at the beginnings of divisions.
For example, in an Aldine Iliad, the fifth book begins thus -


[Greek text]


It was intended that the open space, occupied by the small epsilon
([epsilon symbol]), should be filled up with a coloured and gilded
initial letter by the illuminator. Copies thus decorated are not
very common, but the Aldine "Homer" of Francis I., rescued by M.
Didot from a rubbish heap in an English cellar, had its due
illuminations. In the earliest books the guide to the illuminator,
the small printed letter, does not appear, and he often puts in the
wrong initial.