As compared with German book-plates, those of other countries are sadly deficient in artistic composition. The former, particularly examples of the seventeenth century, are ornate and well designed.
Take, for instance, the really magnificent book-plate of Peter Vok, Ursinus, Count of Rosenberg, dated '1609.' It is engraved on copper, and measures 10 inches by 6. In a central circular medallion, 32/3 inches in diameter, is depicted the owner, arrayed in armour, and seated on a richly caparisoned war-horse, plumed, and going at full speed across a landscape of hillocks. On his breastplate is an escutcheon bearing his arms; a knight's sword is in his hand. Round the margin of the medallion runs a wreath of roses. Platforms come out on either side of the medallion, and on each of these there stands a figure about 5 inches in height; the one on the left is a female symbolical form, clad in flowing drapery, and holding in one hand the cup of the Eucharist, and in the other a cross. A somewhat similar figure stands on the right, holding in her hand a tablet, inscribed Verbum Domini manet in eternum.
The medallion rests upon two bears—an allusion, of course, to the family name of the owner, Ursinus—crouching between the two female figures described. The face of the altar-like platform below is divided into one central and two lateral compartments, of which the side ones project forward. On the right lateral slab is an escutcheon, charged simply with the Rosenberg rose; whilst on the left we see the family arms, as on the breastplate, but surmounted with an ermine-faced crown. On the central slab is a skull resting on two shin-bones.
Reaching across the upper portion of the design is an oblong tablet, with indented shelly scroll-work edges, and a background border of large full-blown roses, with thorny stems. With the inscription, which is appropriately pompous, I need not trouble the reader; but I have thought it worth while to give here (following Lord De Tabley's example, and using sometimes his words) a very full verbal picture of this truly magnificent book-plate, in order that the pitch of elaboration to which a German book-plate can be carried may be understood. Suffice it to add that this work of art was engraved by Giles Sadeler, the Antwerp-born engraver, who, after studying in Italy, was invited by the Emperor Rudolph II. to enter his service at Prague; in short, to become what he styles himself in his signature to this book-plate—'Engraver to His Imperial Majesty.'
Less elaborate, yet very beautifully engraved, are the book-plates used in the Electoral Library of the Dukes of Bavaria at Munich. On one, dated in 1618, the largest variety of which is 7 inches high and 5½ broad, we have the arms of the Duchy enclosed by the collar of the Golden Fleece. Winged Caryatides support the Electoral crown, whilst below is an arabesqued platform, on which is the inscription: Ex Bibliotheca Serenissimorum Utriusque Bavariæ Ducum, 1618. A smaller variety of this plate is figured opposite. Some twenty years later, a still larger and more ornate book-plate (10 × 7 inches) was designed for use in the same library. Here the arms are in an oval frame, surrounded by the Golden Fleece; on the right and left are inverted cornucopiæ, and the crown is held aloft by four cherubs. All the book-plates of this library exist in a great variety of design, and nearly all the varieties are found in different sizes.
These examples are typical of many other German book-plates; the conception of the design is excellent, and its working out is equally good. In later times, the work on book-plates perhaps deteriorated, because it fell, to a large extent, into inferior hands. Yet Germany can show several very creditable examples in the eighteenth century. Some of those which give the view of a library interior are decidedly pleasing; they appear soon after the commencement of the century. The libraries represented have usually one or more mythological inmates; but, in one instance, the owner is in possession, and is seen hard at work amongst his volumes.
In concluding this chapter, it may be noted that examples of name-tickets are found in Germany as in other countries. Perhaps the earliest is one (first noticed, I believe, by Mr. Weale) in a copy at the Bodleian Library of a German Psalter printed at Augsburg in 1498. This reads, 'Sum Magistri Georgii Mayrii Monacencis' [i.e. of Munich], with the motto, 'Melius est pro veritate pati supplicium, quam pro adulatione consequi beneficium.' The same inscription has been written in ink on the title-page, with the added date 1513, and afterwards—no doubt a few years later when the label was printed and placed in the book—crossed through.
The most complete work on German book-plates that has yet made its appearance is Herr Warnecke's Die Deutschen Bücherzeichen, Berlin, 1890; but a work properly classifying the different styles of German book-plates, and affixing to these styles covering dates, has yet to be written.