A Fore-Edge Life

Some medieval books have works of art hidden on the page edges — art that is visible only when the pages are ruffled and disturbed.

Now you see it; now you don't.

We're not talking about a magic trick, but rather a form of artwork called fore-edge painting. It's a scene painted on the edges of the pages of a book that can be seen only when the pages are fanned.

The art is applied to the edge of the margin of the individual pages and not to the actual fore-edge of the book itself (so named to differentiate it from the spine edge). When the book is closed, you don't see the image because it's hidden by the gold leaf on the actual page edges. But when the book is spread open, the surprisingly beautiful artwork appears.

Few people have ever actually seen these literary decorations. As Anne Bromer says in her introduction to the collection at the Boston Public Library, one of the best collections of fore-edge painting in the country, "They are an obscure art form, hidden beneath a surface of gold. When revealed, there is only wonderment! It is as if you discovered magic on a book before you even read its opening lines."