“Title page” o frontespizio? Storia e funzioni della prima pagina del libro

[Autom. eng. transl.] Far from falling into the misunderstanding of translating the English title page, the French page du titre, the German titelblatt into the Italian transposition "page of the title", the title page is much more than a simple notational indication. It is the face of the book, its gateway. The essay therefore proposes a journey through its history: from the primordial distinctive function of the little eye, when the book was still sold as a set of loose sheets; passing through the informative one, with all the coordinates necessary for its recognition; up to the decorative function, which, in some historical moments, transfers to the anti-door, and to the promotional function, which identifies the book as a commercial product.