Ex Libris (Bookplate)

An ex libris (bookplate, from the Latin ex libris — 'from the books of [so-and-so]') is an owner's book sign: an artistically designed label pasted on the inner side of the binding or the endpaper, or a stamp impression, attesting a book's belonging to a certain person, family, or library. An ex libris usually contains the owner's name or coat of arms, a motto, and often a narrative image characterizing their interests. One distinguishes the armorial (heraldic) ex libris, the monogram one (with initials), and the pictorial one. As a distinct kind of graphic art, the ex libris arose in Europe with the spread of the printed book (15th–16th centuries); outstanding graphic artists worked on them, notably Albrecht Dürer. The ex libris is a valuable source for establishing the provenance (history of ownership) of a book and reconstructing private and monastic book collections. The art of the Ukrainian ex libris has a long tradition; in the 20th century it was developed by the graphic artists Heorhii Narbut and Jacques Hnizdovsky.