Thursday, January 2, 2014

The Ex-Libris collection, (19th Century)



b&w woodcut bookplate dominated by illustration of hanged man + flying bats
"Fert in omnia rutubam et tristitiam terribilis amor" (In all thing terrible love brings trouble and sadness")


Ex-libris [Latin, "from the books of..."], is usually a small print or decorative label pasted into a book, often on the inside front cover, to indicate its owner. (…continues on Wikipedia very complete article this time, link provided here…)

Also known as “bookplates”, the earliest known marks of ownership of books or documents date from the reign of Amenophis III in Egypt. I was always very curious about ex-libris and even have my own digital modest “webplate” or web-ex-libris (attached below on this post, last position).

But I finally discovered a couple of days ago a huge collection at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. There’re around 388 pages with at least 20 –or so- different bookplate in the John Starr Stewart Collection



bookplate - Prussian eagle, ribbon banner + table with microscope and books
Arthur Wellington Clarke ex-libris: "Who Borrow Books and Soon Restore May Come Again and Borrow More"
Art Nouveau ex libris illustration - theosophical imagery + 2 women in mu-mu style ritual dresses
(Theology and Science) shake hands under symbol of the Holy Spirit
fun, engraved bookplate scene - man running with book, hand reaching after him
Halt! Mein Buch!
Stop! My Book!
World of Books is the most remarkable creation of man... Found this nice motto at Bookplates - ex libris design & art

Other External references:





Last position for the facsimilium project ex-libris:::

Quantum est quod nescimus (How little we know) is the motto for facsimilium exlibris (Creative Commons Attribution)

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