Comparative study of existing epopees' colophons in Iran

Colophon is referred to the final phrase of a manuscript that is written after finishing the main text of book by writer. Since the 11th century onwards, gradually numbering and mentioning calligrapher and date of writing manuscript were commenced. Writers were allocating the final phrase to themselves after manuscript transcription. Colophon is the only place that writer introduces himself. In colophon, the information such as writing time, book name and in some manuscripts the place of writing were mentioned. This research has been performed by comparative, descriptive, analytic methods based on library resources. Statistical society of this research includes 38 colophons of available epopees in Iran which four aspects have been comparatively studied including: colophon appearance, arrays and decorations around colophon in page, line and its language. It seems that for the colophons of studied epopees, there is a unit model that consists triangle and rectangle compositions. In most colophons of the studied epopees, creativity can be seen in decorations of this page; such as using "shorfeh" and "tasheir" in border and gold between rows and decoration and flower. In multiple colophons, artist creativity in these pages has resulted to appearing new line drawing which is interesting and unique. Writers were usually writing colophon with handwriting or a pen distinct from the pen and handwriting of the book text like: Kufic, Maghribi, Toghie, Naskh, Solth, Regha, Diwani, Nastaligh, Shekasteh. 27 colophons are written in Persian and 11 colophons are written in Arabic. The results of this research show that however there is a unit pattern for studied epopees' colophons, but artists have decorated this page based on their own taste and creativity

Keywords: epopee, Safavi schoo, colophon, book layout