Basic Structure of the Encoding of Introductory Book Parts

The introductory parts of a book (front matter with half-title, frontispiece, title page, imprint, etc., table of contents, foreword, dedications) are enclosed with the <front> element. The following elements can be contained in the <front> element:

<div> (text passage of a specific text type): within <front> with the possible @type values
- dedication,
- frontispiece,
- copyright,
- contents (table of contents),
- imprimatur,
- imprint (information on the publication),
- preface (foreword, preface, introduction)
<titlePage>
<epigraph> (quotation): also possible in other contexts; see chap. Quotations and Epigraphs
<figure> also possible in other contexts; see chap. Figures
<advertisement> also possible in other contexts; see chap. Appendix

Note: For the foreword as well as for the preface and the introduction of a book, @type="preface" is set as specification of the <div> element. Thus, there is no distinction between these text types or the (possibly different) authors of these in tagging.

Exemplary structuring of the introductory parts of a book:

<front>
  <figure/>
  <titlePage type="halftitle">[contents half-title]</titlePage>
  <titlePage type="main">[contents title page]</titlePage>
  <div type="imprimatur">[imprimatur]</div>
  <div type="contents">[table of contents]</div>
  <div type="dedication">[dedication]</div>
  <div type="preface">[introduction]</div>
</front>