The invention of printing made private ownership of many books possible. Frequently, owners identified their personal collections with labels which read ex libris ("from the library of"). Artists were soon commissioned to create bookplates which might include symbols, accessories, or armorial crests reflecting the owners' status, vocation or interests.

The Library's bookplate collection contains plates commissioned by Jewish owners or executed by Jewish graphic artists. Many artistic techniques are represented: etchings, wood and copper engravings, woodcuts, lithographs, and scissor cuts.

Bookplates of the Birnholz Family
They reflect Marco Birnholz's profession as a pharmacist, his various hobbies, abd his family name, which means "pear tree." He commissioned bookplates for his wife, his daughters, and his sisters -- over three-hundred-fifty in all!

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R.B.R. Exhibit	Music	Haggadah	16th cent.	Bookplates	Manuscripts
Stamps	Bindings	Americana	Broadsides	Maps	Kaifeng

Copyright © 1997 Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
made possible through the generous bequest of Sadie Klau