Dear readers,

In this series we will present you some of the books, written by our famous experts in the area of the ex libris, which are considered to be a bibliographic rarity in recent days. We hope that these materials will help you to enrich your knowledge along with the resurrection of the memory of the Bulgarian Pioneers in studying and popularizing the Bulgarian art.

We selected to start with the oldest book:
Shiklev, Stoyan, Ex Libris (Sofia, National Library "St.St.Cyril and Methodius", 1971, 160p., illustrated, total print 800 copies).

The Latin ex libris, sometimes replaced by "ex biblioteca",
originates from the rewriting of "hic liber mihi est", placed on the first page of the medieval manuscripts and books, valued as a treasure. In Bulgarian the phrase "ex libris" or "ex biblioteca" means "from the books" or "form the library" of the actual owner.

The ex libris has different names in the different countries. For example, in the USSR (today's Russia), it is called "knijnii znak", in the English speaking countries - "bookplate", in Germany- "Bibliothekzeichen", "Bucheignerzeichen" and "Buchermarke", in France- "Marque de possession", in the Netherlands- "Boek merteeken", in Bulgaria - "bibliotechen" or "knijen znak", etc.
But the expression "ex libris" is quite popular and accepted throughout the globe.

The exlibris is usually a finely crafted decorative label, pasted to the inside front cover of a book or printed on its titular page. It is intended to indicate ownership.

The first known ex libris is the one possessed by the Pharaoh Amenophis III (1400 BC), which is a text in hieroglyphic writing on a ceramic plate, attached to a special coffin, containing the papyri. This plate is now in safe keeping in the British Museum in London. The text is read and published in 1922 by the famous paleographer Viktor Gardhausen. On the top part of the text the names of the two owners appear. The translation is: "The good God Amenophis III, who gives birth, beloved by Ptah, to the King of both Kingdoms (Upper and Lower Egypt) and the Queen Tin, who lives…" On the bottom side the title can be seen: "A book (by) Sikomoro (and about)… dates…"

Another famous ex libris is the one owned by Assurbanipal. It is a cylindrical seal with a text: "Owned by Assurbanipal, King of the world, king of Assyria". All the king's hieratic (hieroglyphic writings) were sealed with it.

Bookplates in Europe probably originated in Germany in 1470, according to the literature data available. Bookplates are made later in Switzerland (1498), Poland (1516), France (1529), Czechoslovakia - today's Czech Republic (1536), Italy (1550), and in England, Sweden and the Netherlands in the second half of the XVI century. Afterwards it appeared in the other countries.

Germany is the birthplace of the European ex libris due to the fact that Guttenberg was the first to create a machine for making portable letters, and a wooden press which is the foundation of the modern book printing.

The creation of ex libris thus has been transformed from craftsmanship to a mechanical process. This naturally leads to the rapid development and distribution of the bookplate. The oldest wood-cut bookplates belong to the monasteries and the clergy. Their elements are usually armorial devices such as coat of arms, shield, key or the figures of saints.

To those old times belongs the ex libris of the Caplan Hans Igler and the copper ex-libris made by the Cologne crasftsman P.P.V. , owned by a priest from Pilsen. The German bookplates flourished in the XVI century, when they were made by the famous painters Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), Hans Holbein (1465-1524), Lukas Cranach (1472-1553), Hans Bruckmaier (1480-1540) and others. Durer has made a lot of bookplates including those for his friends Willibald Pirckheimer and Hector Pomer (parish counsellor in St.Lorenz Kirche, Nurnberg), as well as for many members of the Nurnberg aristocracy and for the fellows of Herzog Maximillian I.

Shiklev, Stoyan
Ex Libris (Sofia, National Library "St.St.Cyril and Methodius", 1971, 160p., illustrated, total print 800 copies).

The owner’s label on a book( ex libris, book plate) is not of long-standing tradition in Bulgaria - country of origin of the oldest Slavonic books. This is one of the paradoxes of our cultural development. Like all others, it can be explanained by the cicissitudes in the history of a people who have looked upon books as much more than mere property. As an instrument of spreading literacy among the other Slavs, the Bulgarian book has for many centuries been something of an “itinerant” on which any sign of ownership has been superfluous.

In recent decades bookplates have become familiar in this country. They have appeared in exhibitions and have been printed in newspapers, magazines and books. And now, a little known variety of the bookplate - the Ex Musicis - has gathered momentum, so to speak, in a very short time and has earned the right to be presented in a separate publication.

The Ex Musicis has its place in that portion of a library, which contains printed musical scores and books on musical subjects. The text in it, indicating the owner of the music publications (and - naturally - of the book plate itself) relates to the picture, which conveys the artist’s impression of the musician’s personality and creativework.

The works selected for inclusion in the present book which is the first publication of its kind in this country reveal the useful and - let us admit it - somewhat forgotten link between practitioners of different kinds of art, in this instance between artists and composers. The manner of artistic execution varies from item to item, just as the degree of the artist’s insight into what is more profoundly characteristic of the owner of a particular Ex Musicis. Some artists show their preference for the drawing, others emphasize a single typical feature of the musician they are working for, and with still others the organic link a homogeneous and striking characterization of the composer.

In the difficult task of producing Ex musicis of Bulgarian composers the established masters of Bulgarian Ex Libris Stefan Kantscheff, Pencho Koulekov and Atanas Vassilev have been joined by the graphic artists Evgenii Bossytzki, Todor Atanassov, Jeanna Kostourkova, Roumen Skorchev, Lyubomir Yordanov, Hristo Gradechliev, Stoimen Stoilov, Spartak Paskalevski, Tonya Goranova and others.

Seeking the rhythm and symbols of music, they succeed in giving us an insight into the individual’s psyche.


Axinia Dzurova 1983 ©
Introduction for the book
Ex Musicis of Bulgarian Composers