EX LIBRIS

ExLibris or Bookplates are almost as old as printed books. Their origins are closely related, since the exlibris were born out of the need to identify the book's ownership. As a mark of possession, it begun to be manuscript or the owner's hand painted armorial.But after the invention of the printing press they became a small printed label, pasted into the volume, bearing its owner's name and a sign of personal identification, usually the person's Coat-of-Arms.

Apart from the exlibris, printed on paper and pasted on the inside cover of the books, there were also the super libris, usually of heraldic motive, stamped on the cover binding of the book and serving the same purpose.

In its beginnings, accompanying the newly born printing methods invented by Guttenberg (in the first half of the XV th century), the bookplate was usually printed out of a wood engraving or a woodcut.

The first known bookplates printed in this fashion are believed to have appeared in Germany. Some authors, stated, with some doubts, that the oldest, dated circa 1450, was the simple woodcut made on behalf of Johannes Hans Knabensperg - nicknamed "Igler"- who was the chaplain to the Schönstett family, bearing the legend "Hans Igler, das ein Igel kuss".

However, more certain as to its authenticity as a bookplate, following Warnecke, is the one that belonged to a cistercian Monk named Hilpbrand of Biberach with the Coat of Arms of the Bradenburg Family, dated at 1470-80.

Notwithstanding, Gustav Amweg, in his study of the bookplates of the old bishopry of Bâle, defends that the first exlibris in the modern sense of the word was the one used (as from 1464) by Guillame Grimaitre - a chaplain from Neuveville, Lausanne, then beloging to the bishopry of Bâle, which in turn was a part of the Holy German Empire.

In the late 1970's two more exlibris dated from the XVth and early XVIth centuries were found: those of the bishop Telamonius of Limberger (Switzerland) dated at 1498 and that of the Polish bishop Mathiedrevici Wladislaw, dated at 1516.

Amongst German painters who did not hesitate in drawing exlibris was H. Holbein and Albrecht Durer, who is known to have made at least five bookplates. The best known are those of Hieronimus Ebner (circa 1516) and of Bilibaldi Pirckheimer.

In Italy, for instance bookplates appeared only one century later, around 1548, with the exlibris of Cesare dei Conti Gambara, bishop of Tortona, followed by that of Nicolò Pelli a woodcut made in 1559 [3]. In Spain, the oldest bookplate is generally considered to be the woodcut made for Fracisco de Tarafa, in 1553.

In France, the oldest bookplate is the one made in 1529 for Jean Bertaud de La Tourblanche representing the Apostle St. John, followed by that of the bishop of Autun, Charles d'Alboise , dated at 1574.

In England, the earliest bookplates date from the XVIth century also, the oldest being the gift plate of Sir Nicholas Bacon to the Cambridge University Library [4].

CFM Gallery is presenting a collection of exlibris by the German artist, The Marquis Franz von BAYROS who was born in Zagabria in 1866 and died in Vienna in 1924.

He first worked as an illustrator of predominantly erotic books. He became famous with the illustrations for "Stories from the Table to the Toilette," which was published in 1907.

Later he made his living designing exlibris for wealthy patrons as well as a magnificent three volume edition of "The Divine Comedy" by Dante. Classics of erotic literature including "The Decameron of Boccaccio" and "The Thousand and One Nights" followed.

His work was influenced by Beardsley, Klimt and Mucha among others.