Medical Bookplates in Australia: A History with Progress Notes

Abstract

A bookplate is a label, usually pasted inside the cover of a book, which indicates ownership. It is also referred to by some as an ex libris. The introduction of bookplates coincided with the development in Germany in the fifteenth century of printing from moveable type. However, the need for a similar device to either celebrate completion and acquisition of an important manuscript or to warn off potential 'borrowers' began long before the appearance of the earliest printed books. The British Museum has a clay tablet, which functioned as a bookplate to a 3400^year-old papyrus belonging to Pharoah Amenophis. On the other hand, the earliest recognised medical bookplate is one marking a gift of books by Dr John Collins, Regius Professor of Physic at Cambridge, to St John's College in 1634.1