The Online Books Page

Initials

See also what's at Wikipedia, your library, or elsewhere.

• Printers' ornaments
• Type ornaments

• Alphabets
• Lettering
• Monograms
• Illumination of books and manuscripts

• Der St. Galler Folchart-Psalter: Eine Initialenstudie (in German; St. Gallen, Fehr, 1912), by Franz Landsberger
  • multiple formats at Google; US access only
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust; US access only

Items below (if any) are from related and broader terms.

• Ancient Alphabets and Hieroglyphic Characters Explained; With an Account of the Egyptian Priests, Their Classes, Initiation, and Sacrifices (in Arabic and English; London: Printed by W. Bulmer and Co., 1806), by Aḥmad ibn ʻAlī Ibn Waḥshīyah, trans. by Joseph Hammer-Purgstall
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust
• Book of Alphabets, For Use in Schools (Boston: Ginn and Co., c1908), by H. W. Shaylor (page images at HathiTrust)
• The Invited Alphabet: or, Address of A To B Containing His Friendly Proposal for the Amusement and Instruction of Good Children (London: B. Tabart and Co., 1809), by R. R., illust. by Charles Knight (page images at Princeton)
• The New Zanerian Alphabets: An Instructor in Roundhand, Engrossing, Designing, Etc. (Columbus: Zaner and Bloser, c1900), by C. P. Zaner (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Prang's Standard Alphabets (revised edition; Boston: L. Prang and Co., c1886) (page images at HathiTrust)
• Applied Lettering and Design (New York: Watson-Guptill, c1949), by Rand Holub (page images at HathiTrust)
• Collection of Penmanship (Columbus: Zaner-Bloser Co., 1921), by C. C. Canan (multiple formats at archive.org)
• La Operina (in Italian, with English translation and commentary), by Ludovico degli Arrighi, ed. by Gunnlaugur S. E. Briem (zipped PDF at operina.com)
• Studies in Pen Art (1914), by William Edward Dennis (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Ames' Guide to Self Instruction in Practical and Artistic Penmanship (1894), by Daniel T. Ames (multiple formats at archive.org)

• Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes (ca. 1879), by Ella Cheever Thayer (Gutenberg text)

• Applied Lettering and Design (New York: Watson-Guptill, c1949), by Rand Holub (page images at HathiTrust)
• Art Monograms and Lettering (revised 5th edition, 3 volumes in 1; 1912), by J. M. Bergling (page images at HathiTrust)
• Lettering for Commercial Purposes (Cincinnati: Signs of the Times Pub. Co., c1918), by William Hugh Gordon (page images at HathiTrust)
• Handwriting for the Broad-Edge Pen: A Teachers' Manual (Boston et al.: Ginn and Co., c1926), by Frances M. Moore (page images at HathiTrust)
• Book of Alphabets, For Use in Schools (Boston: Ginn and Co., c1908), by H. W. Shaylor (page images at HathiTrust)
• The New Zanerian Alphabets: An Instructor in Roundhand, Engrossing, Designing, Etc. (Columbus: Zaner and Bloser, c1900), by C. P. Zaner (multiple formats at archive.org)
• La Operina (in Italian, with English translation and commentary), by Ludovico degli Arrighi, ed. by Gunnlaugur S. E. Briem (zipped PDF at operina.com)
• Studies in Pen Art (1914), by William Edward Dennis (multiple formats at archive.org)

• Medieval Graffiti, Especially in The Eastern Counties (reprinted from Cambridge Antiquarian Society's Publications; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co., 1915), by G. G. Coulton
  • page images at HathiTrust
  • as printed earlier in Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society; multiple formats at archive.org

• On These Walls: Inscriptions and Quotations in the Buildings of the Library of Congress, by John Young Cole (illustrated HTML at loc.gov)

• How to Design Monograms (second edition; Pelham, NY: Bridgman Publishers, 1930), by Elizabeth Sprague and Curtiss Sprague (page images at HathiTrust)
• Art Monograms and Lettering (revised 5th edition, 3 volumes in 1; 1912), by J. M. Bergling (page images at HathiTrust)

• Illuminated Manuscripts, by J. A. Herbert (page images at CMU)
• A Manual of Illumination on Paper and Vellum (eighth edition; London: Winsor and Newton, ca. 1861), by John W. Bradley, T. G. Goodwin, and J. J. Laing (page images at HathiTrust)
• Of the Decorative Illustration of Books Old and New (third edition; London and New York: G. Bell and Sons, 1905), by Walter Crane (Gutenberg text and illustrated HTML)

• Illuminations in The Robert Lehman Collection (Robert Lehman Collection series v4; New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997), by Sandra Hindman, Mirella Levi D'Ancona, Pia Palladino, and Maria Saffiotti Dale (page images and PDF with commentary at metmuseum.org and Google)

• Illuminations in The Robert Lehman Collection (Robert Lehman Collection series v4; New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997), by Sandra Hindman, Mirella Levi D'Ancona, Pia Palladino, and Maria Saffiotti Dale (page images and PDF with commentary at metmuseum.org and Google)

• Illuminations in The Robert Lehman Collection (Robert Lehman Collection series v4; New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997), by Sandra Hindman, Mirella Levi D'Ancona, Pia Palladino, and Maria Saffiotti Dale (page images and PDF with commentary at metmuseum.org and Google)

• Illuminations in The Robert Lehman Collection (Robert Lehman Collection series v4; New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997), by Sandra Hindman, Mirella Levi D'Ancona, Pia Palladino, and Maria Saffiotti Dale (page images and PDF with commentary at metmuseum.org and Google)

• Illuminations in The Robert Lehman Collection (Robert Lehman Collection series v4; New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997), by Sandra Hindman, Mirella Levi D'Ancona, Pia Palladino, and Maria Saffiotti Dale (page images and PDF with commentary at metmuseum.org and Google)

• Illuminations in The Robert Lehman Collection (Robert Lehman Collection series v4; New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997), by Sandra Hindman, Mirella Levi D'Ancona, Pia Palladino, and Maria Saffiotti Dale (page images and PDF with commentary at metmuseum.org and Google)

• The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, c2008), by Timothy Husband, contrib. by Margaret Lawson (page images and PDF with commentary at metmuseum.org and Google)

• Illustrated Poetry and Epic Images: Persian Painting of the 1330s and 1340s (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994), by Marie Lukens Swietochowski and Stefano Carboni, contrib. by A. H. Morton and Tomoko Masuya (page images and PDF with commentary at Metropolitan Museum of Art and Google)

• Book Arts of Isfahan: Diversity and Identity in Seventeenth-Century Persia (Malibu, CA: J. Paul Getty Museum, c1995), by Alice Taylor (multiple formats via The Getty)

• La Peinture Médiévale à Paris, 1300-1500 (2 volumes in French; Paris: Bibliothèque des Arts, c1987-1990), by Charles Sterling (page images at wpi.art)

• The Royal Image: Illustrations of the Grandes Chroniques de France, 1274-1422 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), by Anne D. Hedeman (HTML at UC Press)

• The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, c2008), by Timothy Husband, contrib. by Margaret Lawson (page images and PDF with commentary at metmuseum.org and Google)

• La Peinture Médiévale à Paris, 1300-1500 (2 volumes in French; Paris: Bibliothèque des Arts, c1987-1990), by Charles Sterling (page images at wpi.art)

• The Royal Image: Illustrations of the Grandes Chroniques de France, 1274-1422 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), by Anne D. Hedeman (HTML at UC Press)

• Persian Miniatures: A Picture Book (1940), by M. S. Dimand (page images and PDF with commentary at Metropolitan Museum of Art and Google)

• The Book of Kells (second edition; London et al.: The Studio, 1920), by Edward Sullivan (illustrated HTML with commentary at sacred-texts.com)

• The Caedmon Poems, Translated Into English Prose (London: G. Routledge and Sons; New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1916), trans. by Charles W. Kennedy (multiple formats at archive.org)

• The Book of Thel (multiple copies), by William Blake (page images with commentary at blakearchive.org)

• The Royal Image: Illustrations of the Grandes Chroniques de France, 1274-1422 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), by Anne D. Hedeman (HTML at UC Press)

• A King's Book of Kings: The Shah-nameh of Shah Tahmasp (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1976), by Stuart Cary Welch (page images and PDF at Metropolitan Museum of Art and Google)
• Mirror of the Invisible World: Tales from the Khamseh of Nizami (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975), ed. by Peter J. Chelkowski, contrib. by Priscilla Parsons Soucek and Richard Ettinghausen (page images and PDF at Metropolitan Museum of Art and Google)

• The Cloisters Apocalypse: An Early Fourteenth-Century Manuscript in Facsimile (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1971), contrib. by Florens Deuchler, Jeffrey Hoffeld, and Helmut Nickel (PDF at Metropolitan Museum of Art and Google)
• Image, Knife, and Gluepot: Early Assemblage in Manuscript and Print (Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, c2019), by Kathryn M. Rudy (multiple formats with commentary at Open Book Publishers)

• Anvari's Divan: A Pocket Book for Akbar (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, c1983), by Annemarie Schimmel and Stuart Cary Welch (page images and PDF with commentary at metmuseum.org and Google)

More items available under broader and related terms at left.