Ex libris van Hieronymus Baumgärtner 1512 - 1540

This "Ex Libris" was made by Barthel Beham in the 16th century using engraving. It's a bookplate, designed to be pasted inside the cover of a book to indicate ownership, in this case belonging to Hieronymus Baumgärtner. Beham was one of the Little Masters, a group of German printmakers who made small, highly detailed engravings. The image is filled with symbolic meaning. We see the Baumgärtner family crest, along with a skull, an hourglass, and a clock, all memento mori, reminders of the fleeting nature of life. The falcon suggests nobility. Nuremberg, where Beham worked, was a center of humanist learning during this period and these objects were associated with wealth and knowledge. To understand this image fully, we would need to research the history of Nuremberg and its printing industry and look at other similar bookplates from the time. Bookplates offer a window into the reading habits and social status of their owners and tell us something about the culture of reading and collecting in the 16th century.