Ex libris

WHY AND WHEREFORE

In days when a book was a valuable possession book-plates often carried a warning to the borrower such as the one used by John Hughes, a German of the 17th century, which, translated, read:

"By him who bought me for his own,
I'm lent for reading, leaf by leaf.
If honest you'll return the loan,
If you retain me, you're a thief."

Book-plates were used also to record the fact of a gift and the name of the maker of it, especially in the case where the recipient was an institution. The early book-plate of Harvard College was large, most elaborate and exquisitely design.

M., C., 1916. EX-LIBRIS. Bulletin of the Detroit Museum of Art 10, 8–12.