The largest plate thus far unearthed is about fourteen inches by ten. It once graced the books of Count Maximilian Louis Breiner, a distinguished official in Lombardy, of the Austrian Emperor. The centre of the plate is taken up with the family arms of the noble count, while all about the ornamental framework, representing a carved stone canopy, are disposed musical instruments in profusion, ancient armor, and munitions of war, as well as graceful garlands of roses and lions' heads; and on an imposing scroll, a long legend in Latin sets forth the services and offices of the owner. Designing and engraving are both the work of Giuseppe Petrarca, and it probably dates towards the middle of the seventeenth century.
All these early book-plate designs are heraldic. The family coat-of-arms was the distinguishing mark used to identify the belongings of the great families. In those old days, when libraries were kept intact as they passed from generation to generation, the heraldic emblem was the natural and fitting label with which to mark the books. Beginning with the simple shield of arms with its legitimate supporters, the designs gradually extended to the placing of the shield within an ornamental border. This border grew in elaborate detail until it became heavy and over-wrought. Too many figures were introduced, the ornamentation was superabundant, and not always in good taste. At length, as time went on, the heraldry was forced into a subordinate position, or wholly disappeared. Allegory came in to take its place; the gods and goddesses of Greece and Rome, as well as the heroes of the Nibelungenlied, were represented on German book-plates : the armed Minerva is very frequently met with as well as Thor and the dwarfs.
Finally, the pursuits, occupations, and pleasures of the owners came to be considered a proper feature of book-plate designing, and it is the development of this idea that brings us to the artistic examples of the present day, which in Germany are principally made by Joseph Sattler and Ad. M. Hildebrandt.
As the direction of the strong wind is indicated by the passing of the insignificant bit of straw, so in these "unconsidered trifles" book-plates, one may easily note the differences in the characters of the Northern and Southern inhabitants of Europe. The sturdy, muscular, active Teuton, practical and little given to taking his ease, used a cheap paper label, rough, frank, and sufficient, in his books; it was in him to cultivate, not the arts that please, but the forces that move: his book-plate was like him. The delicate Southron, fanned by warm breezes, falls to making music, to devising the elegancies of life, the things that please and are a delight to the eye, the ear, and the palate. His book-plate, when he adopted the fashion, partook of his nature; but before he had the book-plate he had something far more elegant, expensive, and satisfactory, - the beautiful binding with its tooling in gold, and its intricate inlay of colored moroccos. We know that in Germany the book-plate began to be used towards the close of the fifteenth century, while in France we find it very nearly a century later that the first plate of that country has a date,— 1574-Very probably this is not the first book-plate used in France, but it is somewhat difficult to identify as positive book-plates many of the earlier armorial prints. Very few examples are known which can confidently be assigned to a date previous to 1650. Such as were in use, were, nearly without exception, heraldic in character and so sufficient was the coat-of-arms as a means of identification that not over one-half of these have a name engraved upon them. These few plates are of great rarity and interest. Among the most prized are those of Emeric Bigot, the eminent bibliophile who collected some forty thousand volumes, and Alexander Petau, in whose library were many splendid manuscripts which at his death were purchased by Christina of Sweden and by her bequeathed to the Vatican. But not until the opening of the eighteenth century do French bookplates become numerous, or take on the diverting fancies and show the excellence of execution or delicacy of invention and detail which make them so charming. Up to 1790 when the First Republic suppressed all the existing titles and abolished armorial bearings, the heraldry is fairly correct and very commonly used upon the book-plates preserved to us.
A large plate of folio size engraved by Audran was used by Louis XV.: the royal crown, trophies, and the double L in monogram on a shield are the prominent features. Madame Victoire de France (Louis' daughter) and the Chateau de la Bastille had book-plates bearing the French arms, Azure, three fleurs-de-lys, orgeant. In this century books began to multiply, elegant bindings grew rarer, and eminent artists gave attention to the designing of book-plates : even Boucher engraved a few, of which a single signed specimen is now known. Court beauties read, or at least owned, books. Diane de Poitiers had many books beautifully bound by Le Faucheux, and on them was stamped her monogram, intertwined with that of her royal lover, Henri II., and in the design was the crescent of the fair goddess Diana. Scarron's widow, the Marquise de Maintenon, formed a valuable library which contained many hundred volumes stamped with her arms. The books of the Marquise de Pompadour were stamped with her arms, in addition to which she had a book-plate. Last, and least in many respects came Louis XV.'s last favorite, the Comptesse du Barry who survived royalty and died on the scaffold. Scarcely able to read or to spell, she owned beautifully bound books of a sort calculated to dissipate the ennui and to engage the mind of the debauched old monarch : she too, had a pretty book-plate. It is interesting to note that when the Republic came in and the old nobility was shelved, that even the arms on so trivial a piece of property as a bookplate were in many instances pasted over with hastily made designs in which the coronet gave way to the cap of liberty and the old titles were succeeded by the plain word Citoyen.
Napoleon made many changes in the heraldry of France and among the most interesting book-plates of his time are those of his brother Lucien, whom he made Prince de Canino; and that of Marechal Suchet, the hero of many battles and, in the opinion of his chief, his second bravest officer. The Emperor himself used no book-plate, but the books in the National Library were stamped with his arms ; and in like manner were the books of Josephine marked. From the downfall of the "man of fate " to the middle of the present century we find nothing interesting in the book-plates of France; then a renascence set in, and with heraldry a secondary consideration, we find the owners of plates adapting their designs to the expression of their individual tastes: statesmen, artists, scientists, authors, began to mark their books in this way. Gambetta, Victor Hugo, Theophile Gautier, Prosper-Merimee, Charles Monselet, the brothers de Goncourt, and Octave Uzanne are among the prominent men whose plates are valued by collectors.
Of the other European countries a word only is necessary. The earliest dated plate of Sweden bears the figures 1575; Switzerland follows, with one in 1607; and Italy has one dated 1623. All these countries have large numbers of book-plates, both old and recent, to help fill the collector's cases; and although in form and appearance the examples of country very greatly resemble those of the one others, there are differences controlled by national characteristics and the height attained by art in each country which assist the practised eye to judge accurately of the nationality of a specimen.



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