he
hand-painted armorial or otherwise symbolical personal device found in
medieval manuscripts that the printed page does to the scribe's work.
The earliest known examples of book-plates are German. According to
Friedrich Warnecke, of Berlin (one of the best authorities on the
subject), the oldest movable _ex-libris_ are certain woodcuts
representing a shield of arms supported by an angel (fig. 1), which were
pasted in books presented to the Carthusian monastery of Buxheim by
Brother Hildebrand Brandenburg of Biberach, about the year 1480--the
date being fixed by that of the recorded gift. The woodcut, in imitation
of similar devices in old MSS., is hand-painted. In France the most
ancient _ex-libris_ as yet discovered is that of one Jean Bertaud de la
Tour-Blanche, the date of which is 1529; and in England that of Sir
Nicholas Bacon, a gift-plate for the books he presented to the
university of Cambridge (fig. 2). Holland comes next with the plate of
a certain Anna van der Aa, in 1597; then Italy with one attributed to
the year 1622. The earliest known American example is the plain printed
label of one John Williams, 1679.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Gift-plate of Hildebrand Brandenburg of Biberach
to the Monastery of Buxheim (c. 1480).]

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Book-plate of Sir Nicholas Bacon (slightly
reduced).]

A sketch of the history of the book-plate, either as a minor work of
symbolical and decorative art, or as an accessory to the binding of
books, must obviously begin in Germany, not only because the earliest
examples known are German, but also because they are found in great
numbers long before the fashion spread to other countries, and are often
of the highest artistic interest. Albrecht Durer is known to have
actually engraved at least six plates (some of very important size)
between 1503 and 1516 (fig. 3), and to have supplied designs for many
others. Several notable plates are ascribed to Lucas Cranach and to Hans
Holbein, and to that bevy of so-called Little Masters, the Behams,
Virgil Solis, Matthias Zundt, Jost Amman, Saldorfer, Georg Hupschmann
and others. The influence of these draughtsmen over the decorative
styles of Germany has been felt through subsequent centuries down to the
present day, notwithstanding the invasion of successive Italian and
French fashions during the 17th and 18th centuries, and the marked
effort at originality of composition observable among modern designers.
The heavy, over