With the advent of printed books, the question immediately arose about their preservation in personal collections and libraries. And the next logical step was the invention of the bookplate - a special sign that is pasted or printed by the owner on the inside of the book binding.
Bookplate emerged in Germany in the 16th century, almost immediately after the invention of printing. In Russia, these "book signs" appeared only under Peter 1. However, rare manuscripts of the Solovetsky Monastery dated to the end of the 15th century were discovered in the last century. They depicted hand-drawn bookplates.
Such different bookplates
The bookplate can either be glued to the inside of the book's binding, or printed using special printing - they were made to a large number of individual orders. There were even varieties of personalized bookmarks, such as a super ex libris, where a print was made on the spine of a book.
The bookplate often contained the name of the owner and was often supplemented by his occupation and interests. If such an analogy can be drawn, then the bookplate was the predecessor of the electronic tag, which is put in a virtual library, or a watermark.
Bookplates could be simple and unpretentious or very sophisticated and complex in composition. Sometimes they were just a label with the name of the owner, his signature, a simple icon invented by the owner of the publication. In some cases, it was supplemented by a personal motto or marked with an emblem.
There were also artful works of bookplate. They were created using high (for that time) technologies and were small print-engravings on copper or wood. A lithographic or zincographic method was used in their manufacture. Among the authors of complex bookplates, it is worth mentioning Albrecht Durer and Tabor.
