An engraved title page of a baroque book usually came about as follows: The publisher made clear with a sketch how the order and the text should look something like. An artist turned the ideas into images (for example in an oil sketch) and an engraver made a copper print of it. This design by Rubens has a special value for the collective memory by referring to the worldfamous printing house of Balthasar I Moretus where the oil sketch was always preserved. The panel is also artistically special: it is a masterpiece by Rubens as a designer of engraved title pages.
Flemish art and heritage collections, in great detail