Forms: 7 frontispice, -peece, (frontespice, frontice-piece, frontispeice), 6– frontispiece. [a. Fr. frontispice, ad. med.L. frontispicium lit. ‘looking at the forehead,’ metoposcopy, hence physiognomy, countenance, face or façade of a building, f. L. front(i)- (see FRONT sb.) + spicium, f. early Lat. specĕre to look. In English the spelling was very early assimilated to that of piece.]
1. The principal face or front of a building; ‘but the term is more usually applied to the decorated entrance of a building’ (Gwilt).
1597–8. Bp. Hall, Sat., V. ii. 62. But if thou chance cast vp thy wondring eyes. Thou shalt descerne vpon the Frontispice, ΟΥΔΕΙΣ ΕΙΣΙΤΩ grauen vp on hye.
1630. Brathwait, Eng. Gentlem. (1641), 8. An indiscreet builder, who preferreth the care of his frontispice before the maine foundation.
1689. Burnet, Tracts, I. 45. The French King gives 10000 Livres for the Frontis-peice.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. VII. xcv. 440. The ornaments of the architecture, and the relievo in the frontispiece, are after the Chinese and Japan manner.
1797. Holcroft, Stolberg’s Trav. (ed. 2), II. lvi. 302. The temple itself was of white marble. On the frontispiece was the golden chariot of the Sun.
1855. Fergusson, Handbk. Arch., II. 772. As a frontispiece … it [the three-gabled front of the Cathedral of Orvieto] is not without considerable appropriateness and even beauty.
1874. Symonds, Italy & Greece, 102. The façade [of the Cathedral of Orvieto] is a triumph of decorative art. It is strictly what Fergusson has styled a ‘frontispiece’; for it bears no relation whatever to the construction of the building.
transf. and fig. 1607. T. Walkington, The Optick Glasse of Humors, i. (1664), 3. He had his celestial sentence … which descended from the heavens, engraven on the frontispeece of his heart.
a. 1678. Marvell, Poems, Appleton House, 23. A stately frontispiece of poor Adorns without the open door.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., III. xi. § 20. Who is it has inform’d us, that a Rational Soul can inhabit no Tenement, unless it has just such a sort of Frontispiece.
1728. Glover, On Sir Isaac Newton, 207. The ev’ning on the frontispiece of heav’n His mantle spreads with many colours gay.
† b. The summit of a building. Obs. [So sometimes med. L. frontispicium.]
1600. Holland, Livy, X. xxiii. 368. The image of Jupiter … in the lanterne or frontispice [L. culmine] of the Capitoll.
2. The pediment over a door, gate, etc. Also, a sculptured or engraved panel.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 580. The very frontispiece and maine lintle-tree which lay ouer the jambes or cheekes of the great dore of the said temple.
1637. Heywood, Royal Ship, 41. Upon the upright of the Upper Counter, standeth Victory, in the middle of a Frontispiece.
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 506. A Kingly Palace Gate, With Frontispice of Diamond and Gold Embellisht.
1686. Burnet, Trav., iii. (1750), 168. The great Dome is a magnificent building, but the Frontispiece to the great Gate is not yet made.
1819. Shelley, To Peacock, 25 Feb. Columns … supporting a perfect architrave, and two shattered frontispieces.
1850. Leitch, trans. Müller’s Anc. Art, § 109. 76. A grand gate, with four subordinate doors, an Ionic portico on the outside, and on each side a Doric frontispiece, the architecture of which was very skilfully combined with the Ionic in the interior.
fig. 1622. Misselden, Free Trade (ed. 2), 2. When God himselfe setteth these duties in the frontispice or top of both the Tables of the Decalogue.
† 3. The first page of a book or pamphlet, or what is printed on it; the title-page including illustrations and table of contents; hence, an introduction or preface. Obs.
1607. R. C[arew], trans. H. Estienne’s World of Wonders, Ep. Ded. I could see none more resplendent, and consequently fitter to be placed in the Frontispice of this worke (like two great lights to shine in the heauen of this new world) then your two Lordships.
1614. Selden, Titles of Honor, 226. In the Frontispice of Ina’s laws, he saith he made them with the assent and help of his Bishops.
1618. Bolton, Florus, To Rdr. Hee figures the whole people of Rome, in the person of a MAN (as the frontispice sheweth) is lost for the greater part, througout the translation.
1646. Burgess, in Presbyt. Rev. (1887), 317. This speech … a scoffing Remonstrant takes, and sets it forth odiously in the Frontispice of his Book.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., V. & 1. A Declaration (which he caused to be printed, and, in the Frontispiece, recommended to the consideration of all his loving Subjects).
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 296, ¶ 1. Your prefixing Greek Motto’s to the Frontispiece of your late Papers.
1721. Bailey, Frontispiece … the Title or first Page of a Book done in Picture.
fig. c. 1640. J. Smyth, Lives Berkeleys (1883), II. 409. His face was the frontispice of his mind, hee knew not how to dissemble a thought.
1651. Jer. Taylor, Serm. for Year, I. v. 57. Repentance is a great volume of duty; and Godly sorrow is but the frontispiece or title page: it is the harbinger or first introduction to it.
1673. Lady’s Call., I. ii. 12. Nature … never meant a serene and clear forehead should be the frontispiece to a cloudy tempestuous heart.
1704. S. Wesley, Def. Let. conc. Educ. Dissenters, 23. Stephen Marshall, the very Frontispiece of Smectimnuus.
4. An illustration facing the title-page of a book or division of a book. (The current sense.)
The ‘Frontis-piece’ of the first quot. faces the title-page.
1682. Lithgow’s Trav., III. 120. And lo in the Frontis-piece is my Effigies affixed with my Turkish habit … even as I travelled.
1748. Lady Luxborough, Lett. to Shenstone, 28 May. I grudge six shillings for Herveys Meditations … but I want to see the frontispieces.
1753. Gray, Let., Poems (1775), 225. If I had received such a book, with such a frontispiece, without any warning, I believe it would have given me a palsy.
1820. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., II. 368. The engraving which forms the frontispiece to this volume, executed from an original drawing by James Waddel, Esq., is illustrative of this accident.
1878. H. H. Gibbs, Ombre (2 ed.), 8. One of them [three-side tables] appears in the Frontispiece, which is taken from Seymour’s ‘Compleat Gamester,’ 1734.
fig. 1691. J. Wilson, Belphegor, I. ii. In a word, a thing made up of so many several parishes, that you’d have taken him at first sight for a frontispiece of the resurrection.
5. The front piece or forepart of anything.
a. The face or forehead. Chiefly jocular.
a. 1625. Grobian’s Nuptialls, MS. Bodl., 30, lf. 17 a. That fayre frontispeece of yours.
1754. Hume, Hist. Eng. (1761), I. i. 26. It were a pity that … so beautiful a frontispiece should cover a mind destitute of internal grace.
1771. Nugent, trans. Hist. Fr. Gerund, I. iv. 120. A smart little father, with a bit of toupet on his frontispiece.
1821. Sporting Mag., VIII. 233. Hammering his frontispiece to the appearance of a pudding-stone.
1871. Browning, Fifine, xcv. No face-shape, beast or bird … but some one had preferred From out its frontispiece … To make the vizard whence himself should view the world.
† b. In a theatre: The front scenery; also, the forepart of the stage. Obs.
1651. J. Wilson, Astræa, A viij. The Shepherdess avanceth to the Frontispiece of the Scene.
1667. Davenant & Dryden, Tempest, I. i. The curtain rises, and discovers a new frontispiece, joined to the great pilasters.
