JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post Overall Post 5132
There’s a certain beauty to be found in odd places in books and paintings.
This is not just looking at the reverse of a title page–this is about finding a little bit of 3-D relief on the back of a 2-D obverse. Perhaps the printer got a little overly excited or was just starting the day when he compressed the sheet of paper over the set type back there in the late Parisian spring of 1825.
Whatever the case was, it didn’t last long, and there were very few other cases of this except here and there, spread throughout the issue–no doubt because he was printing four or 16 or whatever-number of pages per sheet which were then folded and gathered into order before their edges were cut.
Source: Annales de Chimie et de Physique, edited by Arago and Gay-Lussac (volume XXIX, June 1825), published in Paris by Crochard.
