Ex Libris

A bookplate also known as ex-librīs is usually a small printed or decorative label pasted into a book, often on the front endpaper, to indicate ownership. Simple.
Table of contents

From then until the dawn of the French Revolution , English modes of decoration in bookplates, as in most other chattels, follow at some years' distance the ruling French taste. The main characteristics of the style which prevailed during the Queen Anne and early Georgian periods are: The introduction of the scallop-shell as an almost constant element of ornamentation gives already a foretaste of the Rocaille-Coquille, the so-called Chippendale fashions of the next reign.

During the middle third of the century this rococo style of which the Convers plate gives a typical sample affects the bookplate as universally as all other decorative objects. Its chief element is a fanciful arrangement of scroll and shell work with curveting acanthus-like sprays—an arrangement which in the examples of the best period is generally made asymmetrical in order to give freer scope for a variety of countercurves. Straight or concentric lines and all appearances of flat surface are studiously avoided; the helmet and its symmetrical mantling tends to disappear, and is replaced by the plain crest on a fillet.

The earlier examples of this manner are tolerably ponderous and simple. Later, however, the composition becomes exceedingly light and complicated; every conceivable and often incongruous element of decoration is introduced, from cupids to dragons, from flowerets to Chinese pagodas. During the early part of George III. Bookplates of this period have invariably a physiognomy which at once recalls the decorative manner made popular by architects and designers such as Chambers, the Adams, Josiah Wedgwood, Hepplewhite and Sheraton.

Restaurant Exlibris Madrid

The shield shows a plain spade-like outline, manifestly based upon that of the pseudo-classic urn then very alive. The ornamental accessories are symmetrical palms and sprays, wreaths and ribands. The architectural boss is also an important factor. In many plates, indeed, the shield of arms takes quite a subsidiary position by the side of the predominantly architectural urn.

Some bookplates were issued by institutions, often religious ones, awarding books to individuals to recognise academic performance, good behaviour and the like. These would be inscribed with the name of the individual by hand. Such plates could be very elaborate, or very simple in their design, reflecting the character of the awarding institution.

From the beginning of the 19th century, no special style of decoration seems to have established itself. The immense majority of examples display a plain shield of arms with motto on a scroll, and crest on a fillet. At the turn of the 20th century, however, a rapid impetus appears to have been given to the designing of ex-libris; a new era, in fact, had begun for the bookplate, one of great interest. The main styles of decoration and these, other data being absent, must always in the case of old examples remain the criteria to date have already been noticed.

It is, however, necessary to point out that certain styles of composition were also prevalent at certain periods. Of this kind the best-defined English genre may be recalled: Hewer, Samuel Pepys 's secretary. In most of these the armorial element plays but a secondary part. Bookplate of Sir Charles Philip Huntington , Until the advent of bookplate collectors and their frenzy for exchange, the devising of bookplates was almost invariably left to the routine skill of the heraldic-stationery salesman.

Near the turn of the 20th century, the composition of personal book tokens became recognized as a minor branch of a higher art, and there has come into fashion an entirely new class of designs which, for all their wonderful variety, bear as unmistakable a character as that of the most definite styles of bygone days. Broadly speaking, it may be said that the purely heraldic element tends to become subsidiary and the allegorical or symbolic to assert itself more strongly.

Among early 20th-century English artists who have more specially paid attention to the devising of bookplates, may be mentioned C. Eve, Robert Anning Bell , J. Batten, Erat Harrison, J. The development in various directions of process work, by facilitating and cheapening the reproduction of beautiful and elaborate designs, has no doubt helped much to popularize the bookplate—a thing which in older days was almost invariably restricted to ancestral libraries or to collections otherwise important. Thus the great majority of plates of the period — plates were reproduced by process.

Some artists continued to work with the graver. Some of the work they produce challenges comparison with the finest productions of bygone engravers. Of these the best-known are C. Sherborn see Plate and G. Eve in England, and in America J. Spenceley of Boston, Mass. Hopson of New Haven, Conn. French of New York City. Bookplates are very often of high interest and of a value often far greater than the odd volume in which they are found affixed , either as specimens of bygone decorative fashion or as personal relics of well-known people. However the value attached to book plates, otherwise than as an object of purely personal interest, is comparatively modern.

The study of and the taste for collecting bookplates hardly date farther back than the year This work, highly interesting from many points of view, established what is now accepted as the general classification of styles of British ex-libris: Since then the literature on the subject has grown considerably. Societies of collectors were founded, first in England in , then in Germany and France, and later in the United States, most of them issuing a journal or archives: In —, the British Museum published the catalog of the 35, bookplates collected by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks — Bookplates, of which there are probably far more than a million extant examples worldwide, have become objects of collection.

One of the first known English collectors was a Miss Maria Jenkins of Clifton, Bristol, who was active in the field during the second quarter of the 19th century. Her bookplates were later incorporated into the collection of Joseph Jackson Howard. Some collectors attempt to acquire plates of all kinds for example, the collection of Irene Dwen Andrews Pace, now at Yale University, comprising , items. Other collectors prefer to concentrate on bookplates in special fields—for example, coats of arms, pictures of ships, erotic plates, chess pieces, legal symbols, scientific instruments, signed plates, proof-plates, dated plates, plates of celebrities, or designs by certain artists.

If you haven't read Jon's review yet, check it out: Thanks to a bout of insomnia last night, I finished this and loved it. I feel like shoving this book onto some family and friends who think I'm much too obsessed with all things book. All of these essays show Just a couple weeks ago, a great review of this book popped up on my update feed, Ah, the magic of Goodreads so when I spotted it at a booksale I went to last week for a dollar, I grabbed it quick. All of these essays show why bibliophiles love their book collection so passionately; our books become a part of who we are.

There are funny parts all throughout the book, and the end of the last essay nearly brought tears to my eyes. I've always loved books, and admit that since joining Goodreads my obsession has increased a thousand fold. My GR addiction has reached the point where if this site was suddenly not available, I don't know what I would do. Not having a whole lot of friends in "real-life" who are book-lovers like myself, makes this website and books like this almost a necessity.

They give you the sense that it's okay to constantly be re-organizing your bookshelf, kind of panicking inside when someone asks to borrow a book, or even spotting annoying grammar and spelling mistakes everywhere you go. This was a very entertaining read and a must-have for the crazily obsessed bookworm.

View all 3 comments. May 14, Diane rated it really liked it Shelves: I loved this collection of bookish essays. One of my favorite pieces was "Marrying Libraries," which was when Anne and her husband, George, decided to combine their book collections: My defense went like this: Our English collection spanned six centuries, and to shelve it chronologically would allow us to watch the broad sweep of literature unfold before ou I loved this collection of bookish essays.

Our English collection spanned six centuries, and to shelve it chronologically would allow us to watch the broad sweep of literature unfold before our very eyes. The Victorians belonged together; separating them would be like breaking up a family. Besides, Susan Sontag arranged her books chronologically. Our American collection, on the other hand, was mostly twentieth-century, much of it so recent that chronological distinctions would require Talmudic hairsplitting.

George eventually caved in, but more for the sake of marital harmony than because of a true conversion. A particularly bad moment occurred while he was in the process of transferring my Shakespeare collection from one bookcase to another and I called out, 'Be sure to keep the plays in chronological order! I'd like to see that reflected on our shelves.

View all 9 comments. Recommended to Ruby by: In the spirit of full disclosure, this book was selected for me as part of a Bossy Book Challenge. A book of essays about reading is certainly something I would never have chosen for myself, but I did try to keep an open mind.. I understand why people like this book.

The writer obviously truly loves books to the point of obsession, and anyone with a love of books will find something to relate to here. Unfortunately, that thing is unlikely to be the writer herself. The book's subtitle is, "Confess In the spirit of full disclosure, this book was selected for me as part of a Bossy Book Challenge. The book's subtitle is, "Confessions of a Common Reader", but the word "common" is apparently intended to mean "wealthy and privileged", "having a classical literature degree" and "being part of an elite literary circle".

This woman actually seems to believe that all teenagers go through a sonnet-writing phase. Fadiman describes herself in the book as, "an unregenerate goody-goody, a priggish little pedant who would no more have permitted a rogue trochee to sneak among her perfect iambs than show up in Miss Farrar's class with a smudge on her monogrammed school uniform. Not a sonnet between us. This is a woman who reads old books, makes a list of the words she doesn't understand and then quizzes her family and friends on them. Her mother keeps hundreds of newspaper clippings of grammatical errors, intending to mail them in to the paper one day.

Fadiman went through the clippings and catalogued them. She made meticulous corrections on a paperback edition of Speak, Memory and sent them to Nabokov himself. She grew up watching college quiz shows with her family, playing as a team against the teams on tv, using the chair arms as buzzers. As an adult, she remembers their high scores, and which colleges her family "beat". She says in the book, I know what you may be thinking.

What a bunch of captious, carping, pettifogging little busybodies! That was not at all what I was thinking. It's not what anybody in the world was thinking. What I was thinking was, Fuck you, lady, and the iambic pentameter you rode in on. The final straw was this phrase the author uses when discussing her father's library, which apparently, spanned the globe and three millennia, although it was particularly strong in English poetry and fiction of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The only junk, relatively speaking, was science fiction.. You're above science fiction too? You've spent an entire chapter boring me stupid with anecdotes about your reading of European mail order catalogues and now you're dismissing science fiction as "junk"? I'd like to reiterate my earlier point and say, Fuck. If you're wondering what there is to like about this book, it's this: Anyone who loves books will see something in here to remind them of their own reading foibles.

The discussion on how people treat their paper books is one I often see on GoodReads ie Are you a "courtly" or a "carnal" reader? There are lots of examples in this book of other people with book obsessions just like our own. Just no examples of people just like us. Prigs, pedants and pretentious elitists excluded, of course. View all 10 comments. Oct 12, Jacob rated it it was amazing Shelves: October I don't always read books about books, but when I do, my to-read list suddenly grows.

Still, it's nice to read someone who understands me so well: And if I resist that one, there will October I don't always read books about books, but when I do, my to-read list suddenly grows. And if I resist that one, there will be another day, another duck. In a secondhand bookstore, each volume is one-of-a-kind, neither replaceable from a publisher's warehouse nor visually identical to its original siblings, which have accreted individuality with every ownership.

If I don't buy the book now, I may never have another chance. And therefore, like Beecher, who believed the temptations of drink were paltry compared with the temptations of books, I am weak. In these essays, originally published in Civilization magazine, Fadiman shares her love and life of books and the written word. In charming tales about vocabulary and grammar and the obsessive need to fix errors of both , "Odd Shelves" and the odd titles found on them in her case, a vast collection of books on polar exploration, and it's a good thing she didn't offer any titles because I would've had to add them all , challenges of combining one's library with a loved one's own, the many proper ways of handling a book including using them as building blocks , as well as joys of reading aloud, reading about food, and reading books in the place they are about the nearest I ever managed was reading George R.

Martin's A Storm of Swords on a bus in Southern France , and more, Fadiman keeps pointing out that her love of books and reading vastly surpasses mine, but I'm not going to let that come between us. What are Bestest Friends for, if not to share and recommend good books? Now if only she'll return my calls.

We were supposed to go bookstore-browsing today. View all 4 comments. Jun 10, Lobstergirl rated it liked it Shelves: There are two groups of people in this world. The first are erotically aroused by eating voluptuous, dripping fruits and having the fruity, pulpy juices trickle down their chins. The second would just like to get to a sink and wash it all off. Count me among the latter.

Miami Dice: Ex Libris

Anne Fadiman is the former: I have always preferred Keats to Wordsworth, but I was never able to put my finger on why until I read that Wordsworth, according to a visitor, "will live for a month on cold beef, and the next on cold There are two groups of people in this world. I have always preferred Keats to Wordsworth, but I was never able to put my finger on why until I read that Wordsworth, according to a visitor, "will live for a month on cold beef, and the next on cold bacon," whereas Keats once wrote his friend Charles Wentworth Dilke: Talking of Pleasure, this moment I was writing with one hand, and with the other holding to my Mouth a Nectarine - good God how fine.

It went down soft, pulpy, slushy, oozy - all its delicious embonpoint melted down my throat like a large Beatified strawberry. I have never read two sexier sentences. Some things she writes are odd, and not believable. She loves the written word so much that, having run out of regular reading material in her apartment, she began obsessively poring over a Toyota Corolla manual. She should have just sat back and daydreamed. I think her writing would be better for it. Sometimes she is overcome by twee. A thin book gets tightly packed in among her other books and goes AWOL for awhile. Finally, she finds it: She figures The Odyssey will take them six months.

Now I feel we are too busy not to read him. Rosenblatt's style might be called pedestrian twee. Maybe I'm just being mean, but would she have been offered a column in the Library of Congress's in-house magazine, Civilization , if her last name weren't Fadiman? Would she have gotten a summer job interview as a year-old with Wallace Shawn at the New Yorker?

It's not all bad. I enjoyed some of the essays, like the ones on plagiarism "Nothing New Under the Sun" and the Fadiman family's anal proofreading habits, which I share. I dug the anecdote about the Danish hotel chambermaid who, finding Fadiman's year old brother had left an open book face down on the bedside table, left a signed note: When they returned, they discovered that their entire library had been reorganized by color and size. Shortly thereafter, the decorator met with a fatal automobile accident. I confess that when this story was told, everyone around the dinner table concurred that justice had been served.

In fact, I gobble them up whenever and wherever I can find them. After all, isn't an addict bound to feel a lot less bad about himself if he can point to others who share his compulsion? Oh, how I wish I enjoyed this more than I ultimately did. It is quite odd, since I can't seriously fault Fadiman's work in any major way.

Especially in terms of her prose - elegant and a pleasure to read - I find her to be rather excellent. It's me, not you, Anne. I found there was a tad too much of a focus on Fadiman's personal life and other subjects not strictly book-related, which frankly didn't do much for me. Undoubtedly, this might be a case of me having had wrong expectations. Nothing wrong with that of course, though I suspect that individuals who have actually gone through these major life phases, would connect more with it.

I, for now at least, do not, though I appreciate the sentiment. The two make for a marked, yet intriguing contrast, since they are both talking about the same subject: Cheerleaders, of whatever stripe, for this passion, must always be welcomed, for they are truly doing God's work or at least the closest thing to it. This was my first book about books. Written in an essay form, the book deals with various topics that all readers will identify themselves with. I don't usually review books, but I want book readers to read this one so badly that I'm making an exception.

Following is a list of some of the many reasons why I request, plead, and beseech bibliophiles to read this one- 1. It talks about couples merging their books after marriage. Very aptly titled 'Marrying Libraries. It has an essay which emphasises that for so long, we've ignored the feminine pronouns, only to be taught that 'she' is always understood when 'he' is said.

I was given this answer when I used to question why do we use mankind and not humankind. And no, I will not accept 'to each his own' as an answer here. It describes the ethereal beauty of reading a book at the place where it is set. Not like I need more reasons to fuel my longing for travel. It classifies readers into "courtly" lovers- who treat the form and the content of the book to be the same and want their books to be preserved in their pristine glory or "carnal" lovers- for whom, the words are holy and the book otherwise is just a vessel to hold all the words in.

Break my book's spine and I'll break yours. In my head, of course. It reminds us that we're slowly losing so many beautiful words. And I do accept that my capacity to learn new words has reduced drastically. It discusses compulsive proofreading and how egregious it is to find misspelt words. If you're not sold on it already, one of the chapters is dedicated to books and food, and the author revealed some gluttonous excerpts. Two of my most salient characteristics- reading and eating. There's a chapter on plagiarism.

Book readers and writers, both alike, would agree that plagiarism is a sin and imitation to the extent that it's a blatant copy is not the sincerest form of flattery. Seriously, there are better ways to show your admiration. Try writing an original piece as a tribute, maybe? There is an essay about growing up in a house full of books and having parents who together had about seven thousand books between the two of them.

The delight of developing the love for reading because you've been surrounded by books right from your childhood. Also, inheriting books, wow! And here I constantly get into fights with my mother over space constraints, and I own only measly hundreds. A chapter is beautifully dedicated to second hand books and second hand bookstores. I would have loved to know the Fadimans. The relationship between the author and her husband is adorable without being cheesy. The anecdotes are humourous and realistic, you can actually imagine you and your friends having similar conversations!

There are far too many favourite lines to be reproduced but I'd like to just quote one, which in all fairness will affirm the author's love for books- "These beautiful volumes have been published in , and not a single person had read them. I had the urge to lend them to as many friends as possible in order to make up for all the caresses they had missed during their first century. View all 15 comments. May Re-read 2 - February Re-read 3 - June There isn't anything I can say about this wonderful book of essays except I absolutely love it and anticipate re-reading it many more times in the years to come.

This is one of my favorite books. The daughter of Clifton Fadiman can write! This is a book worth owning to be able to reread certain essays every once in a while. This book is a perfect gift for anyone who enjoys reading, books, and language. View all 6 comments. Sep 15, Aubrey rated it liked it Shelves: Yet another case of had I read this book a mere few years ago, four stars would have been a guarantee, five if I was feeling especially forlorn due to few real life acquaintances even liking the concept of a book, let alone sharing my fervent devotion for the written word in bound and paged form.

Alas, while I added this book more than two years ago, I didn't get around to a finally acquired copy till now, and the three stars would need a great deal of this way or that motion to raise or lower i Yet another case of had I read this book a mere few years ago, four stars would have been a guarantee, five if I was feeling especially forlorn due to few real life acquaintances even liking the concept of a book, let alone sharing my fervent devotion for the written word in bound and paged form.

Alas, while I added this book more than two years ago, I didn't get around to a finally acquired copy till now, and the three stars would need a great deal of this way or that motion to raise or lower it to any noticeable extent. It's not as if any of the contained essays diverge from the wide range of topics allotted by literary pursuits intertwining with a single life. Long words, odd choices in reading, writing utensils, secondhand books, and so much more; all familiar, especially the feminist section regarding the rampant word usage devoted to the 'everyman' and all the thought patterns spawned from it.

Recognizable, yes, but as a reference, a greeting card, a moment of equal experience in terms of the letter but as the spirit, well. Every essay reached the pinnacle of polite 'Ah yes, I know what you mean' and ultimately shied away from the ecstatic 'Oh my god you understand me. The worst part of the disappointment is the faceted aspect of it, as with every essay it was always something different that niggled and nagged and refused to let me enjoy this book about books, a genre that seems perfectly tailored for me but has proved itself as hit and miss as the rest.

For summary purposes, I will put it in terms of disliking something based on not being able to empathize with the characters, a judgment that I usually don't hold by but am apparently substantially affected by when it comes to more autobiographical works. If my usage of a laptop for all my compositions makes all of said works 'prolix' aka self-indulgent and a whole host of popularly imposed no-no's, unwritten but heavily implied , so be it. It's a silly thing to be bothered about, I know, but warm familiarity is chilled ever so quickly by gate-keeping, no matter how subtle or unintentional.

Besides, with my reading habits I rarely get the chance to be easily annoyed to a superficial extent in my reviews, so I will gladly sacrifice this flitting tome for the sake of the classics and all the rest. For all those admirers of my 'prolix' prose, that one's for you.

Ex Libris | Board Game | BoardGameGeek

Jul 01, Cheryl rated it it was amazing Shelves: This is a delightful slim book, a collection of personal essays about her love of reading. In "Marrying Libraries", she and her husband embark on merging their libraries. Like most people with a high tolerance for clutter, George maintains a basic trust in three-dimensional objects. If he wants something, he believes it will present itself, and therefore it usually does. I, on the other hand, believe that books, maps, scissors and Scotch tape dispensers are all unreliable vagrants, likely to take off for parts unknown unless strictly confined to quarters.

I always love reading about the passionately held attitudes of bibliophiles towards their books. One of my favourite essay was "Never Do That to a Book". When her brother left a book open and facedown on a hotel night table, he was chastised with a note from the chambermaid: This categorises the chambermaid as a "courtly" lover of books. The Fadiman family on the other hand, are "carnal" lovers of books.

It is all about the words, not the physical structure that holds them, so it is " It reflects its life, its caresses, its communion with the reader. In "Secondhand Prose", when receiving a very old 2-volume book set with uncut pages, she realises the books have never been read and " I had the urge to lend them to as many friends as possible in order to make up for all of the caresses they had missed during their first century. She writes gracefully, with humour, and with passion.

I wish there were more essays - this book finished too soon. View all 7 comments. Jan 03, Cecily rated it it was amazing Shelves: A delightful collection of essays by a bibliophile, for fellow bibliophiles.


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Small enough for a pocket, great for dipping in to. She describes growing up a sesquipedalian, the joys and otherwise of trying to merge her library with that of her husband, the quirks of proof reading, and much more, as she shares her love of all things literary. A delight from cover to cover and worth every one of the very pennies it costs. Jun 18, Leanna rated it liked it.

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Confessions of a Common Reader at the library and immediately turned around. Without reading the dust jacket, I added the book to my pile. Any book about books must be a good book. After reading Ex Libris , I'm not so sure. The collection of essays is ten years old, and they already feel dated—particularly an essay about pens and typewriters. More than anything, though, I take umbrage with the subtitle.

Is that the pedigree of a common reader? Fadiman often comes across as pretentious and elitist. Will we divvy up or donate her thousands of mysteries? In Ex Libris , Fadiman concentrates less on the texts themselves and more on the reading process or reading habits: This book is primarily a book of humor. There are 18 essays, all of which are related to books and you and me, the people who read them. It is a book about us! Of course some essays are better than others.

The majority had me laughing, but not all. How do you organize your library? Are you a courtly book-lover or a carnal one? I am carnal, meaning that I write in my books and don't hesitate one second to use then for other purposes. They follow me around, get dirty, squished in bags, are taken t This book is primarily a book of humor. They follow me around, get dirty, squished in bags, are taken to the beach. It is their content not their matter that interests me!

It IS hard to sit down and listen to one funny essay after another; one even tires of laughing. If you can read one-a-day, that might be a better alternative. I prefer long books where you meet people and get to know them well. Here you only learn a teeny bit about the author's family, but very, very little and not enough to create a personal interest in them.

I am really turning into an audiobook maniac. I prefer these over paper books since I can take my Ipod with me anywhere. This one has excellent narration by Suzanne Toren. Please note that she fact reads the lists, mail-order catalogs and footnotes.

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader

This is all part of the book's content, and the intent is humorous. Some catalogs read as poetry. They really do, at least if you have a sense of humor! Do you read post-order catalogs? I don't, but I know for a fact that others in my family do! View all 17 comments. Feb 01, Jonfaith rated it liked it. It has become familiar. I have ventured again for family reasons to a funeral home. This is five times in the last nine months.