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In publishing, a colophon is a brief statement containing information about the publication of a book such as the place of publication, the publisher, and the date of publication. A colophon may also be emblematic or pictorial in nature. Colophons were formerly printed at the ends of books, but in modern works they are usually located at the verso of the title-leaf. ==History== The term ''colophon'' derives from the Late Latin ''colophōn'', from the Greek κολοφών (meaning "summit" or "finishing touch"). It should not be confused with Colophon, an ancient city in Asia Minor, after which "colophony", or rosin (ronnel), is named. The term is also applied to clay tablet inscriptions appended by a scribe to the end of an Ancient Near East (''e.g.'', Early/Middle/Late Babylonian, Assyrian, Canaanite) text such as a chapter, book, manuscript, or record. The colophon usually contained facts relative to the text such as associated person(s) (''e.g.'', the scribe, owner, or commissioner of the tablet), literary contents (''e.g.'', a title, "catch phrases" (repeated phrases), or number of lines), and occasion or purpose of writing. Colophons and catch phrases helped the reader organize and identify various tablets, and keep related tablets together. Positionally, colophons on ancient tablets are comparable to a signature line in modern times. Bibliographically, however, they more closely resemble the imprint page in a modern book. Examples of colophons in ancient literature may be found in the compilation ''The Ancient Near East: Supplementary Texts and Pictures Relating to the Old Testament'' (2nd ed., 1969). Colophons are also found in the Pentateuch, where an understanding of this ancient literary convention illuminates passages that are otherwise unclear or incoherent. Examples are Numbers 3:1, where a later (and incorrect) chapter division makes this verse a heading for the following chapter instead of interpreting it properly as a colophon or summary for the preceding two chapters, and Genesis 37:2a, a colophon that concludes the histories (''toledot'') of Jacob. An extensive study of the eleven colophons found in the book of Genesis was done by Percy John Wiseman.〔 The book was originally published as 〕 Wiseman's study of the Genesis colophons, sometimes described as the Wiseman hypothesis, has a detailed examination of the catch phrases mentioned above that were used in literature of the second millennium B.C. and earlier in tying together the various accounts in a series of tablets. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Colophon (publishing)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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