http://www.hab.de/de/home/museum-kulturprogramm/ausstellungen/ausstellungsarchiv/hochzeit-von-bild-und-buch-anfaenge-der-druckgraphik-1420-1515.html
The first ex libris
Angel with Coat of Arms of the Brandenburg Family, German, 1470–1480, woodcut, coloured by hand, 72 ´60 mm
HAB: Berlepsch Ex libris vol. I, p. 7, no. 1
* The original text is German.
A further function of the pasted in woodcut is the owner’s mark, the ex libris. The woodcut shown here, with the angle with the coat of arms of the Brandenburg family, is the oldest printed ex libris known to us. It is a gift signet (donator’s ex libris) of Hildebrand Brandenburg (?–1514) from Biberach (Württemberg) to the Carthusian monastery of Buxheim near Memmingen (Suabian Bavaria). Hildebrand Brandenburg was priest of the order and donated his books, marked by this woodcut, to the monastery’s library c.1480. The woodcut is produced between 1470 and 1480. Two varieties are known and the exhibited sheet is the oldest one. Ex libris quickly became fashionable in Germany and floorished in the first half of the sixteenth century (compare with no. 8). In this period ex libris were designed by the most important artists, such as Hans Baldung Grien, Lukas Cranach the Elder and Albrecht Dürer. Only later ex libris came use in other European countries.
MEMO
translated the English text into Japanese by Yuriko Miyoshi
The first known bookplates printed in this fashion are believed to have appeared in Germany. Some authors, stated, with some doubts, that the oldest, dated circa 1450, was the simple woodcut made on behalf of Johannes Hans Knabensperg - nicknamed «Igler»- who was the chaplain to the Schönstett family, bearing the legend «Hans Igler, das ein Igel kuss».
この方法で印刷された最初のものとして知られている蔵書票は、ドイツで登場したたと考えられています。いく人かの著者は、幾つかの疑念を持ちつつ、1450年ごろの日付とされる、Johannes HansKnabenspergのために作った、単純な木版であると述べている。
However, more certain as to its authenticity as a bookplate, following F. Warnecke, is the one that belonged to a Cistercian Monk named Hilpbrand of Biberach with the Coat of Arms of the Brandenburg Family, dated at 1470-80. Amongst German painters who did not hesitate in drawing ex libris were H. Holbein and Albrecht Durer. The latter is known to have made at least five bookplates, among which those of Hieronimus Ebner (circa 1516) and of Bilibaldi Pirckheimer.
蔵書票としての真正性に関してより確かなのは、F. Warnecke曰く、1470〜80年の日付のある、Brandenburg家の紋章を持つBiberachのHilpbrandと名づけられたのCistercian Monkに属していたものである。
sample images are also here.
https://hyperallergic.com/354947/the-first-known-printed-bookplate/
