The term bookplate or ex libris (also ex-libris) (in Latin pronounced with long “ee” /i:/ at the end of the word - librīs is ablative plural of the Latin word liber, so “ex librīs” means “From the books”) is actually a common name for many art forms originating in a simple property label for your books. Such an art image is inserted and pasted into a book, usually at the back side of the front page denoting ownership over the said book. Ex libris, thus succinctly named, should contain the name of the owner, if linguistically possible in a genitive singular form in Latin – Ex libris Petri etc… - From the books of Peter etc… I have also seen very logical synonymous wordings such as: Ex bibliotheca familiae … (From the library of the … family). Of course, you could always opt for just a name and ex libris (or bookplate), no grammar involved – not everybody has, wants or needs his name Latinicized.
The historical reason for the existence of ex libris can be put down to people kleptomaniacly tending to forget proper book ownership - by pasting your own artistically done label into a book you show: 1) you have a book, that is a plethora of those, perhaps even a library, which makes you almost a gentleman 2) you have taste 3) you wish not to part with either of these permanently - this helped morals stay high, as well as vanities of the owners. Thankfully, things changed since.
Up to the 20th century, bookplates mainly depicted coat of arms or parts thereof, the owner’s name, perhaps to that some decorative bordure and/or a scene of some importance – so you could either go armorial or pictorial. This section of the gallery shows only those bookplates that use at least some heraldry. The main advantage, heraldically speaking, of modern ex libris is that you can put your full heraldic achievement and the arms of your college, town, country, ancestry, relatives, friends (or foes, keep them close) etc. into one meaningful composition without being pretentious! If you are a modest Armiger, on the other hand, there’s only one step from your coat of arms to your ex libris.
