The blog post focuses on typography, that is typefaces, specifically those designed and created by Erhard Ratdolt (1442–1528), a Renaissance Typographer. He flourished in Venice where printing was an active and lucrative trade. The Heilbrunn Timeline of Art has an article about Ratdolt's printed work http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/17.45
And you can find an example here http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/h2/h2_17.45.jpg
Careful examination of layout and design provide clues for how the page was composed and illustrations added. In Ratdolt's work, illustrations were either printed at the same type as the page using woodcuts that were colored later, or painted by hand afterward.
Ratdolt is most famous for printed work of Euclid http://www.sunsite.ubc.ca/DigitalMathArchive/Ratdolt/page1min.html There are not only beautiful borders framing three sides of the text, but also mathematical diagrams in the fore-edge margin, all printed at the same time.
Here's an example of his printing where the illustrations have been colored in by hand. The caption from http://www.sunsite.ubc.ca/DigitalMathArchive/Ratdolt/ratvii.html reads "Schema zur Mondfinsternis. Holzschnitt, in drei Farben gedruckt, aus: Johannes de Sacro Bosco, Sphaericum opusculum, gedruckt von Erhard Ratdolt, Venedig 1485. Diagram, showing eclipse of the moon; woodcut, printed in three colours, from Sphaericum opusculum by Johannes de Sacro Bosco, printed by Erhard Ratdolt, Venice 1485." [To see a full size image of the page go to http://www.sunsite.ubc.ca/DigitalMathArchive/Ratdolt/ratvii.html ]For more information on Renaissance printers, check out "Typography & Graphic Design — Renaissance to Rococo Era" (History of Graphic Arts by Paula DiMarco, Ph.D., California State U Northridge course on typography) : http://www.csun.edu/~pjd77408/DrD/Art461/LecturesAll/Lectures/lecture03a.html
(Los Angeles: The J.Paul Getty Museum, 2011) is an illustrated overview of the history of books from the earliest written texts (about 2000 BCE) to the present. Although he says he's covering the world, most of his examples are from the Western World. There are some examples from Asia and Arab countries which provide context for developments of movable type in Europe and for woodblock prints that prevalent in Asia. The photographs are lovely and set the book in context.
(London & New Castle, DE: British Library & Oak Knoll Press, 2008, 2012) discusses how books fit in our lives and in the lives of our ancestors. Pearson takes readers beyond the text to consider why books are important.
(NY: Oxford University Press, 1998). Kilgour, of OCLC fame, describes how books evolve from the prehistoric period to the electronic book. Lacking color illustration, and indeed almost all illustration, this text focuses on the physical construction of books, their content, and markets.
(London & New Castle, DE: British Library & Oak Knoll Press, 1955, 1996). Steinberg's expertise is printing, so he focuses on changes in type faces, layout, and design.
(Oxford University Press, 2014). This work is a series of essays by scholars of the book covering every imaginable topic. Arranged chronologically and geographically, this book is perfect for the student and scholar who wants a thorough overview of scholarship of the field in the early 21st century.
who studied most copies of Copernicus' work, examining marginalia. In the case of this Galileo forgery, they looked at library property marks, bibliographies, and other textual clues.