Percier Charles is a great French artist, architect and educator. He was thought to be one of the founders of the Empire style. He participated in the construction of the Arc de Triomphe on the Place du Carrousel in Paris and made drawings for some paper currency like Germinal.

Duparc Marie-Alexandre is a French engraver and illustrator. He participated in publishing of itineraries and gallery albums.

Malbeste George is a French engraver and draftsman. He studied the art of engraving at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris. He was an apprentice of Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas, who created engravings on genre and historical subjects.

The stele, depicted on the Frontispiece, is not a real architectural construction. This is a symbolic image conveying the essence of a book by Count Alexandre de Laborde, a French politician, traveler, and artist, called “Voyage pittoresque et historique de l’Espagne”. There he narrates the history of the State of Spain from ancient times till the latest events. The figures depicted on the stele are Ferdinand and Isabella, the legendary “Catholic Kings” who united the country and created the base of the state which is famous around the world even now. Numerous tiniest details of the frontispiece speak of the history of the country of the Roman and then following the Arabic reign and also about Columbus’ voyage and discovery of new lands.