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Title: Il carattere del segno |
Ex libris book showcase
Il carattere del segno - The Sign Character
(page composed by G.N.)
The book, that I'm showcasing today, is the catalogue of the competition (we reported about it here and also - in Italian only - here, here and here): "Il carattere mobile da stampa e la tipografia", which culminated - with the award and Grand Opening of the exhibition ceremonies - on Saturday, 30th September.
It is a good-looking, hardcover book. The editor chose elegant colours, fonts and paper.
It has contributions by Egisto Bragaglia: the introduction, the presentation of the Tipoteca Italiana, an article about "Gutenberg and the Invention of the Movable-Type Printing", "Reflections on the Competition Rules", the rules, the minutes of the jury meeting, the International Standard Classification of the techniques. There's then the iconographic section, with the reproduction of the winning and selected ex libris, accompanied by short biographic profiles of the artists; then a selection of other entries follows. Indexes close the catalogue: the alphabetic one by artists and an analytical one by geographical areas. All the texts are in Italian and English.
"Il carattere del segno".
Cover, Frank-Ivo Van Damme, ex libris for Tipoteca Italiana, C2,
118x90, 2006
(ex libris selected)
I reproduce below the introduction.
L'ex libris, sigillo dell'alleanza tra il lettore e il
libro
The ex libris: a Seal of Alliance between the Reader and
his Book
by Egisto Bragaglia
The bookplate, dictionaries tell us, is the card, often decorated with flourishes, pictures and mottoes, which is stuck to the pages of a book to show who it belongs to. The Latin term ex libris before the owner's name means: «from the books (of)», as if to say «This book is part of John Smith's library».
It is often said that a bookplate is a kind of anti-theft device. Really? Surely a prestigious bookplate is simply further temptation for the dishonest?
Bookplates deserve serious research into the deep-rooted motivations behind their introduction.
The first question that springs to mind is in itself an explanation. Why on earth do we stick a piece of paper bearing our name to those pages preceding the frontispiece, decorating in artistically to reflect our personality? Why do we not feel the same urge with all our possessions: jewels, furniture, paintings, ornaments and so on? A monogram is as far as personalisation goes in these cases, but with books it is a very different matter. The bookplate is therefore an unusual, specifically book-related document and we therefore need to start by analysing books. Books cannot be pigeon-holed into one of the normal categories of merchandise normally used for purchasable goods. They are not, for example, vital consumer commodities nor are they consumer durables. Classification is difficult: they cannot be consumed and can be used by many people and generations without wear and tear, apart from accidental damage. In terms of money and apart from a few exceptions, their value is modest; however there are billions of books throughout the world and they represent humankind's most precious resource.
Closer investigation reveals that the relationship between man and book is similar to the one that exists with electronic computers between their internal memory, which stores all the elaboration processes and their external memories, which contain all kinds of information.
Direct experience is man's primary cognitive source, but it obviously has its limits. Books are what enable us to draw on the experience of others, offering us the chance to acquire the knowledge we need in any sector, by choosing from the enormous mass of information accumulated over time and in every country.
The reader's role, where books are concerned, might be seen as essentially passive.
This could not be further from the truth: a book without a reader might as well not exist: it is a seed that doesn't germinate, a fruit that falls to the ground and rots because nobody picks it. Books provide man with his knowledge in the same way that food provides him with calories. Knowledge, through a process of intellectual metabolism, becomes part of a personality, turning into and blending with what already exists. Each reader thus transforms the values he gleans into new experiences, with a different richer perception each time he reads the same book, thanks to evolution and change in his very being. The reader therefore has an active role in the book's existence, in addition to being an obligatory point of arrival.
These considerations are enough to clarify the relationship that links the owner to this special property. It is therefore totally justifiable that the reader tends to instinctively put his name up there with the author's, as a complementary element to the book itself. The bookplate in its highest expression is a confirmation of an existing link, a seal of alliance, the fraternity between the reader and his books. Book and reader are two poles joined by the passage of ideas from one to another and it is natural for the reader to feel the urge to mark his name alongside the author's, leaving evidence of his personality for those who later will use the same book to draw on the benefits they seek.
It goes without saying that this analysis also refers to the archetypes of the book and bookplates, without considering any degeneration or mutation.
It must be pointed out that other stimuli have joined this basic motivation: the obvious narcissism of seeing ourselves reflected in our own name printed on a series of artistically decorated labels and to a greater extent the ancestral vocation of leaving a trace of our very existence. With a bookplate the booklover entrusts his name to a book, this apparently ephemeral object whose contents manage however to straddle the centuries and in this way he hopes to entrust his cultural presence to future memory.
Now we can go back to the bookplate, or rather, to its origins. It came into use five centuries ago, with the invention of movable-type printing, as a piece of paper decorated with xylography. It followed on from the existing trend of marking hand-written codices, papyruses and even the clay tablets of the most ancient civilisations. The method used was different but the aim was the same.
For centuries, hidden between the pages of books in the silent serenity of private libraries, it carried out its role without ever leaving these inner sanctums of readers. After its discovery, halfway through the 19th Century, collectors disseminated its popularity.
The appeal of engraved art was ensured by a number of great artists who over the centuries dedicated their lives to it, the greatest of them all being Albrecht Dürer. Until the French Revolution, heraldic coat-of-arms prevailed, later came symbols, references and metaphors representing the owners' ambitions, thoughts and hopes.
The bookplate has been popular in every century with libraries and institutions open to the public. They qualified themselves by means of this sign of their possession.
Fervent activity by the Tipoteca Italiana has led to a collection boasting a good number of printing machines and typeface series in use during the fertile period of movable characters. It is now looking to expand its library and as a tribute to noble tradition wants to choose a dedicated bookplate worthy of the cultural values represented by the subject.
The international community of artists of the engraved art, whose passion is the creation of bookplates, through this international competition came up with truly praiseworthy proposals for a product inspired by the values of art and culture.
To learn more:
Tif - Tipoteca Italiana fondazione
Via Canapificio, 3 - 31041
Cornuda (Treviso) - Italia
tel. +39.0423.86338
www.tipoteca.it - info@tipoteca.it
(Disclosure: Artifex got a free copy of the book showcased)
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