The History of Bookmarks

"The need for some device to mark the place in a book was recognized at an early date. Without bookmarkers, finely bound volumes were at risk. To lay a book face down with pages open might cause injury to its spine, and the crease on a page that had the corner turned down remained as a lasting reproach." —A. W. Coysh in his work on the history of English bookmarks, Collecting Bookmarkers (1974).

Bookmarks were used throughout the medieval period in Europe, consisting usually of a small parchment strip attached to the edge of folio or a piece of cord attached to headband. The rotating bookmarks were attached to a string, along which a marker could be slid up and down to mark a precise level, to the row and column, on the page.

In 1584, Queen Elizabeth I was presented with a fringed silk bookmarker by Christopher Barker, who had acquired a patent as Queen's Printer in 1577. This gave him the sole right to print the Bible, and since he was also a draper, he used silk for the bookmark.

The Royal Museum of Brunei showcases an ivory bookmark made in India, which is embellished with a geometrical pattern of pierced holes dating from the 16th century and used in illuminated Korans. These are the earliest known references to bookmarks in written history and found in excavations.

It was during the latter part of the 19th century that bookmarkers really took off as collector items in themselves. Bookmarks continue to be made of a wide variety of materials: linen, silk, satin, leather, paper, plastic, copper, gold, pewter, brass, glass beads, wood, ivory, bone, papyrus, vellum, paper, cardboard, and animal skins.



Now Romanistas, y'all are book collectors, I know. Are you also collectors of bookmarks? (Ooh, can we all say Conference Goody Rooms together?)

A Bag of Moonshine — hogwash, illusion, nonsense — G.F Northall's "Warwickshire Word-Book" (1896)

Flaybottomist — pedantical whip-arse —Randle Cotgrave's "Dictionary of the French and English Tongues (1611)