Regarding the ex libris
Italian Culture from XII to XVI Century through the images of Modern ex libris
(we publish here the whole presentation)
The Ex libris
Prestigious personal mark
When the books were manuscripts, the amanuensis, in the first page, wrote the name and the titles of the patron.
With the invention of the press, for analogy bloomed the use to glue on one of the first pages of the book, a sheet adorned xilographically that, beyond to the name, contained figurations and a maxim, devised to reveal the personality of the owner of the book.
In the centuries the bookplate had spread all over the world and was adopted for the libraries of the Convents, the Universities and the cultured and refined persons.
Today, on the background of every cultured man it always exists, visible or invisible, a library. Then, if who possesses the library is sensitive to the values of the art, those books are often personalized to you with an ex libris realized by some appreciated artist.
At first sight, the bookplate is useful in order to recognize one's book and to refresh the memory to whom has had it on loan.
Analyzing the deeper motivations, one finds that the ex libris answers to the instinctive aspiration of the reader to place side by side its name to that one of the Author who has helped it to grow intellectually.
In every ex libris also there's the hope to leave one's trace that last beyond the limits of the life.
The bookplates are object of passionate interest by collectors, that with exchanges and purchases collect these interesting and valuable works of small graphic realized from famous Italian and International artists. Beyond their artistic value, the ex libris are to be appreciated as customs and culture documents.
The bookplate is the projection of the personality of the refined bibliophile that loves their books and wants to leave testimony of their passion.
Book cover: Italian Culture from XII to XVI Century
through the images of Modern ex libris
(what follows is the starting part of the text)
Italian Culture represented by Artists from all of Europe
The bookplates shown in the book, approximately a hundred works, are introduced to you in occasion of an exhibition that reports about the fundamental aspects of the literature, the history, the art, the architecture and the religion of Italy, as told by 60 artists from all of Europe (...).
The exhibition puts in prominence images (nearly all engravings
on copper or wood) tied to the book, the library, the literature
and the cultural Italian tradition as seen and felt by artists from
the Art Nouveau period until the contemporaries. They are well-known
graphic artists, illustrators, painters and sculptors that know
how to express in this particular kind of art of small format all
their inventiveness, and to represent with effectiveness the literature
and the cultural history of the Reinassance (...).
Book data
- Title: La Cultura Italiana dal XII al XVI Secolo attraverso le
Immagini degli Ex-libris moderni
- ISBN 2-9599935-6-X
- authors: Fulceri Bruni Roccia and Raffaele Porreca
- Cercle Pierre Roberti – Société Grand-Ducale
des amateurs de l’ex-libris
- Associazione Italiana Ex-Libris (Italian Ex libris Society)
- 85 ex libris reproduced
- book in French and Italian
Book shows the collection of ex libris exhibited during:
- Italian Week at European School of Luxembourg, 20-23 April 2004
- Exhibition at Centre Culturel Kulturfabrik Esch/Alzette, 9-16
May 2004
- 3me Fête du livre – Cité Littéraire
of Vianden, 11-12 September 2004
- Festival « Lire en Fête » – Couleurs d’Italie
Longwy, 27 September – 16 October 2004
- Exhibition at Centre Culturel de Rencontre Abbaye de Neumünster,
10-31 December 2004
