A technical dictionary of printmaking, André Béguin.

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frontispiece
  1. Originally the frontispiece was the title page of an ornamented book (from the latin frontispicium meaning 'show the front"). Frontispieces reached their finest expression when Balthasar Moretus, successor of the great Antwerp printer Plantin, was able to convince his friend P.P.Rubens to draw some frontispieces which were then engraved on copper plates by professional engravers and printed.
  2. More recently the frontispiece has come to be an illustration on the half title page facing the title page or then on the recto of a page preceding the title page.
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