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Bookmarks

The official historiography says that was the 1584 the birthdate of the bookmark. It seems that a certain Christopher Baker has shown to the Queen Elisabeth I a bookmark, probably silkmade. Really, the bookmark was born before, as we can see in the paintings. In the polyptyc Saint Giorge by Carlo Crivelli (Londra National Gallery) are shown the Saints Pietro and Paolo. They have two sacred books and from one of them comes out, unmistakable, a bookmark. It is 1470. If there was a book, surely there was a bookmark to remember a page, a chapter. How? With a part of a unused parchmen, a tissue strip or an object.

The evolution of the bookmark was been very quick, asserting itself around 1800. A historiographer has identified some times in the evolution of the bookmark.

A.W. Coys (Collecting Bookmarkers) divides, in fact, the histoy of the bookmark in four periods:

Ribbon from 1850 to 1880
Victorian Advertising from 1880 to 1901
Pre world War I from 1901 to 1914
Publicity and Greeting from 1914 today.

In Italy it was influenced by the liberty style: the most with female pictures. Very nice.
During the Fascism it was used to canvass.
And now we talk about the bookmarsk of our childhood. Do you remember the mythical bookmarks by Fila? They was the wanted premium in the pencil cases. They are traded still today.

Today the bookmark is used for several purposes. From the books advertising, to the library that remembers us, with a bookmark, that we must return the book. And it is used to advertise any kind of products or service. The shapes are changed too. From the rectangle of the origin the bookmark has now different and strange shapes.

The final evolution is the Post-it. Yes, it’s not an error, I really talk about the yellow square you know. Art Fly, engineer of the 3M, tired of losing the bookmarks in the church song books, carried out an old project of his colleague and invented the Post-it.
Anecdotes and curiosities populate the world of the bookmark. It is said that Einstein used like bookmarks the high denomination banknote. More odd, instead, the practice to use sardelle of salami assigned to the librarian Antonio Magliabechi (the abbot Gaetano VOLPI in his “Furore d’aver libri”).
We must remember Alessandro Manzoni when he describes Don Abbondio in the Promessi Sposi? “Per una di queste stradicciole, tornava bel bello dalla passeggiata verso casa, sulla sera del giorno 7 novembre dell’anno 1628, don Abbondio, curato d’una delle terre accennate di sopra: il nome di questa, né il casato del personaggio, non si trovan nel manoscritto, né a questo luogo né altrove. Diceva tranquillamente il suo ufizio, e talvolta, tra un salmo e l’altro, chiudeva il breviario, tenendovi dentro, per segno, l’indice della mano destra“.

Talking about the curiosities, you must know that in Rome there is oma c’è una fountain where the water flows from stone bookmarks. In the rioquarter Sant’Eustachio (via degli Staderari), the architect Pietro Lombardi created the Fountain of the Book. In the travertino they are sculped four books from which poke out two bookmarks. From them the water flows and collects in a round basin. This is one of 8 little fountains that the architect Lombardi built in the period from 1926 to 1929 on demand of the city of Rome. Another curiosity is the interesting curiosità è l’interessante publishing venture from the Full Color Sound. This publishing house issues short tales on bookmarks. Every bookmark is a short tale with 800 keystrokes. Not only an object to remember the page of a book we are reading, but a really short book to read in one swallow. In the Art the painting considered the symbol of the bookmark is the Librarian by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, painted in 1566.

Catalogation criteria

It is difficult to hazard a catalogation. Some collectors order them by the publisher, other by literary prize or book event, other by subject or figure (for example, all bookmarks with cats), or by country.

The diffusion of this collection

Collecting bookmarks is an hobby very loved in France, Spain and Germany. In Italy it is still not a trend. Italian people loves old and ancient bookmarks.
How to find the bookmarks. The first source, obviously, are the publishers that print bookmarks, they can send you some copies of them. Then, they are the trades with other collectors. Another opportunity to find bookmarks are the book events. This is the end of this short story of the bookmarks. This is a fascinating world. If you want other informations about it you can visit this web sites: