Sunday, March 21, 2010

On the Psychology of the Bookplate

The bookplate receives its due.


Yale University Library's Arts of the Book Collection contains nearly one million bookplates. Alex Beam provides a commentary on past meanings of the bookplate and its future in the digital age.

“This book belongs to me.” For over five centuries, that has been the message conveyed by every bookplate, whether printed and hand-tinted for Hildebrand Brandenburg in 1480 or mass-produced for Barnes & Noble or Amazon. (Yes, they sell bookplates.) Think of a bookplate as a wedding ring binding the reader to the book, and vice versa. The symbolism isn’t so far apart: ownership, possession, desire.

More bookplates here.

Via exilebibliophile.

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