The Latin term "exlibris" ("from the books") designates graphically printed sheets of mostly small format, which were stuck in books to indicate the owner, and which contained the name, the monogram or coat of arms of the owner or a pictorial representation referring to him or her. The earliest exlibris are from the 15th century.

 

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek owns the third largest collection of exlibris in Germany. In addition to the exlibris detached from library holdings in the 19th and the early 20th century, the collection encompasses several private collections acquired by the library at a later time, among them the modern papers of the physician Josef Klüber (1873-1936) and the librarian Ernst Freys (1863-1956) as well as the collections of Rudolf Freiherr von Hoschek (1887-1960), Hans Wanger (*1898/99), Emil Sulger-Gebing (1863-1923) and Aloys Fischer (1880-1937).

 

The collection of exlibris is categorised according to their previous owners and currently comprises about 39,500 sheets. For an overview of the categorisation system please click  here. The collection is mostly indexed and catalogued in a card catalogue of the exlibris owners and artists, which can be used in the reading room of the Department of Manuscripts and Early Printed Books.

 

For information on the history of the collection we recommend:

Dieter Kudorfer: Das Exlibris als privates Sammelgut und die Exlibris-Sammlung der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, in: Bibliotheksforum Bayern 11 (1983), p. 64-76.

 

A selection of digitized exlibris can be found  here. (in German)

 

Bibliography:

Dieter Kudorfer: Das Exlibris als privates Sammelgut und die Exlibris-Sammlung der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, in: Bibliotheksforum Bayern 11 (1983), pp. 64 - 76   [  PDF 3.6 MB ]