Lexicon Browse - F
Fantastic animals - see Grotesque, DrolleryFiligree initial (or Filigree decoration) - see Pen-flourished initialFinial - see SerifFlesh side - The side of a piece of parchment that originally faced inwards on the animal.Florilegium - A collection of excerpts from an author or several authors that represent the "flowers" or "best quotations" from those sources.Florilegy - see FlorilegiumFlourish Initial - see Pen-flourished initialFlyleaf (Endleaf) - The leaves added at the beginning or end of a book to protect the text in the event of worming or damage to the binding.Foliate decoration - A floral border containing plant, animal, human, and insect forms.Foliate initial - Any plant-like decoration surrounding an initial, such as leaves, flowers, vines, or fruits.Foliation - The numbering on the leaves or folios of a manuscript or printed book, usually on the recto of a leaf.Folio - One leaf of a codex (i.e. two pages, or half a bifolium). Abbreviated f. or fol.Fore Edge - The edge of a book, opposite the spine.Formata - Written with the highest degree of care and precision.Fragment - A portion of an object that is torn, broken off from, or dislocated from its original whole.Frame ruling - The ruling that provides a frame to contain the text block.Fretwork - An ornament featuring a repeated, openwork rectilinear geometric pattern.Front board - see BoardsFrontispiece - In modern book design, this is a page with an illustration that precedes the title page of a book.Fully painted - A fully painted illumination is one that has been rendered throughout in pigments rather than wholly or partly in tint or line alone (see outline drawing and tinted drawing).Furniture - The clasps, straps, bosses, and other (often metal) additions that protect the binding.Fusion - The joining of two letters in such a way that they share a stroke, or their strokes overlap, at the junction.