Recombinant papillomavirus capsid proteins that are capable of self assembly into capsomer structures and viral capsids that comprise conformational antigenic epitopes are provided. The capsomer structures and viral capsids, consisting of the capsid proteins that are expression products of a bovine, monkey or human papillomavirus L1 conformational coding sequence proteins, can be prepared as vaccines to induce a high titer neutralizing antibody response in vertebrate animals. The self assembling capsid proteins can also be used as elements of diagnostic immunoassay procedures for papillomavirus infection.