What it means
Front matter (or preliminaries, "prelims") is the set of pages that precede the first chapter. In conventional order: the half title (title alone), an optional frontispiece or "also by" list, the title page, the copyright page on its verso, the dedication, an epigraph, the table of contents, then any foreword (written by someone else), preface (by the author) and acknowledgements.
Front matter is numbered in lowercase roman numerals (i, ii, iii …) so that the main text can begin at page 1 — and so the prelims can grow or shrink at the last minute without repaginating the book. Folios are usually blind (counted but not printed) on the display pages.
Most of these pages open on a recto; the blanks that result are normal. A short novel might carry six pages of front matter; an academic book can run to thirty.
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