EX LIBRIS. - A mark consisting of a small sheet generally applied to the pastedown of the front cover of a book, indicating its owner by means of a name or a symbolic figure.

Its use dates back already to codices, where the owner's name is found noted on the flyleaves, and it was passed down unchanged to incunabula. In its present form it appeared, it seems, as early as the 15th century, but the oldest dated ex libris is from 1516. The design was initially produced by the woodcut process; in the 17th and 18th centuries copperplate engraving prevailed, at the beginning of the 19th century lithography, then woodcut came back into vogue. In recent times the ex libris has become an object of scholarly study and collecting; the largest collection is that of the British Museum (100,000 specimens).

Superlibros differ from ex libris: they consist of the name or the device of the owner of a book stamped on the binding.

Bibliography

BIBL.: The studies on ex libris are very numerous: for all of them, reference is made to the specialized bibliographies of E. Budan (2nd ed., Leipzig 1908), A. A. Vorstermann v. Oyen (Arnhem 1910), G. W. Fuller (Spokane, Washington 1926) and to the essay that appeared in the Catalogo della mostra nazionale di e. l., Florence 1928, pp. 21-31. Add: C. Ratta, L'e. l. italiano contemporaneo, Bologna 1934.

Alessandro Fratesi

@incollection{ec5_ex_libris, author = {Pratesi, Alessandro}, title = {Ex Libris}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {V}, pages = {919}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ex-libris} }

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