A characteristic German plate of about 1570 is that of Johann Hector zum Jungen, with his name thus engraved in full under his arms, and the Latin motto: “Memorare nouissima tua,” at the top of the plate. In the earliest ex libris we did not find the owners’ names engraved.
So far almost everything has been purely armorial, and now we will turn to something different. This is a 1588 German plate; certainly it bears a small shield of arms, but most of the plate is occupied with the following engraved inscription: “Reverendus et Nobilis Dominus Wolfgangus Andreas Rem à Ketz, Cathedralis Ecclesia August: Sum: Præpositus, librum hunc unà cum mille et tribus aliis, variisque instrumentis Mathematicis, Bibliothecæ Monasterii S. Crucis Augustæ, ad perpetuum Conventualium usum. Anno Christi M.D.LXXXVIII. Testamento legauit.”
We have noticed 1574 as the date of the earliest English dated bookplate, the next dated is not until 1585, and in France the gap is still wider; 1574 is the earliest dated French plate, and the next that has been found is dated 1611.
In Sweden, too, many years passed after the 1595 example without a dated successor. In Switzerland, also, where the earliest dated ex libris was in 1607, a long interval followed, in which we do not find dated Swiss ex libris. In Italy we do not find any dated ex libris before 1623.
This 1611 plate is that of Alexandre Bouchart, Viscount de Blosseville. This was found in a folio copy of the works of Ptolemy printed at Amsterdam in 1605, in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. The graver-work and probably the design, too, was done by Leonard Gaultier, who also executed an engraved portrait of Alexandre Bouchart. Leonard Gaultier was born at Mayence in about 1561, and died in Paris in 1641, having engraved above eight hundred plates.
Herr Carlander, the chief authority for Swedish bookplates, finds 1596 the earliest date, and this on the plate of Senator Thure Bielke, of whom we do not know much more than that to his own cost he took the wrong side in politics, was beheaded in 1600, and had therefore no further use for his dated ex libris.
A German ex libris of near this date is interesting, as, like a good many others, it is to be found in three sizes. This is the ex libris of Johann Baptist Zeyll, designed by P. Opel, and cut on wood by C. L. in 1593.
Of course now in the days of photography it is easy to have your bookplate in several sizes; but it was far otherwise in these old times.
Next must be named a plate engraved in 1613 for placing in the books presented by William Willmer, a Northamptonshire gentleman, to his college library in Cambridge. Mr. Griggs reproduced it among his eighty-three armorial examples. It is inscribed “Sydney Sussex Colledge Ex dono Wilhelmi Willmer de Sywell in Com. Northamtoniæ, Armigeri, quondam pentionarii in ista Domi. Vizin Anno Domini 1599 seddedit in Anº Dñi 1613.”
In France, as likewise in England, there are hardly any dated bookplates at this period. Mr. Walter Hamilton, in writing of French ex libris before 1650, refers to three in different sizes, all engraved for Jean Bigot, Sieur de Sommesnil; and somewhat later, another set differing from the former, and with the owner’s name engraved as Johannes Bigot. After that we read of three bookplates engraved for the son, L. E. Bigot. In this connection the late Mr. Walter Hamilton is drawn on to give particulars of a family of ardent book collectors, thus incidentally illustrating very happily how the possession of one dirty scrap of paper—an old ex libris—may lead on from one fascinating inquiry to another.