The Book of Mormon. An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi.
Comments.
The title of The Book of Mormon consists of a title and a subtitle. They were written on the same line in the printer’s manuscript, but the compositor set them separately. It is possible that the compositor set them separately because he was used to the common style of titles, which consisted of a title and a longer explanatory subtitle.
As with the rest of the text of the Book of Mormon, there is very little punctuation on the printer’s manuscript for the title page. In particular, there is no spacing, no line difference, and no separating line between “taken from the plates of Nephi” and what was set as the first line of the text itself. Although the compositor often typeset phrases with “wherefore” as the beginning of sentences, the structural function of such phrases was to come as an explanation. Therefore, it is most probable that Moroni’s intent was to have the subtitle as the first line of the text.
That would make the beginning of the text: “An account written by the hand of Mormon upon plates taken from the plates of Nephi—wherefore, it is an abridgment of the record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites.” Although this might have been typeset as a longer subtitle, it makes more sense as the beginning of the text proper. In the naming of books from the large plates, the name rarely has a subtitle.