Alan Coates, Rare Books Section, Bodleian Library

Provenance is the study of the history of an item (whether a book, painting, piece of silver or porcelain, or other antique). When used in relation to manuscripts and books, it is usually considered, more specifically, to refer to their ownership.

Probably the best modern guide in English to the provenance of books is David Pearson, Provenance Research in Book History: A Handbook (London: British Library, 1994, repr. with introduction, 1998). Pearson discusses all the features of provenance evidence recorded below.

Evidence for provenance divides into two areas, which may be defined as the direct and indirect. The direct consists of evidence to be found in the book under consideration, including, for example, what Pearson calls ‘internal evidence’, such as manuscript inscriptions written in the book, book-plates attached to its pastedown, and what Pearson calls ‘external evidence’, such as armorial stamps applied to its binding.

The indirect evidence for provenance consists of evidence not included in the book itself, for example references to it in letters, or where it is recorded in auction sales or booksellers’ catalogues, or the archival documents of an individual or institution.

Direct evidence
Inscriptions
Three of the eight Bodleian blockbooks contain manuscript inscriptions which provide important evidence to the reader about the history of each book. BB-2 contains an inscription, written in a late fifteenth-century German hand in German, which seems to indicate that one Dieter von Handschuhsheim gave the blockbook to a religious house. Dieter has been identified as Dieter V von Handschuhsheim (1432–1487), an official in the service of the Elector Palatine at the court in Heidelberg. Given that this blockbook dates from c.1470, this provenance represents important early information about the book’s history. See the inscription here

Inscriptions can, however, present a series of problems to the student of book history. They are, frequently, difficult, if not impossible to read, although, according to one distinguished scholar of handwriting, such inscriptions should never be described as 'illegible', but only 'unread' -- after all, someone else may look at them later who can actually read them! Examples of such awkward inscriptions are to be found in BB-3. They are written in Italian hands of various dates through to the eighteenth century. The inscription on folio F1 recto of BB3, on label drawn pendant to the angel's horn.

BB-1, Bodleian Douce 249, formerly belonged to Francis Douce, and the printed pages of the blockbook are bound together with several pages of notes written in his own hand.  Here is the full digital facsimile showing the added pages:

For further information on inscriptions see Pearson pp. 45–53, with illustrations.

Book-plates  The use of book-plates goes back to the beginnings of printing. An example of a nineteenth-century book-plate used in two of the blockbooks is that of Francis Douce (1757–1834), former Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum Library, but later one of the Bodleian’s principal benefactors. It is an armorial book-plate, that is it shows the coat of arms of the owner. The bookplate of Francis Douce on two blockbooks

For further information on book-plates, book labels, and book stamps see Pearson pp. 54–96, with illustrations.

Armorial book stamps These stamps are placed on bindings, often on both covers of a book, and show the coat of arms of the owner. The stamps may be in blind (that is without gold or colour), or in gilt (with gold added). The Bodleian Blockbooks show two examples of such armorial book stamps. One, the stamp of William Laud (1573–1645) Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of the University of Oxford, appears in gilt on the upper cover of BB-2. The armorial binding stamp of William Laud. The other, the stamp of Sir Mark Masterman Sykes, 3rd Baronet (1771–1823), a noted bibliophile and collector from a Yorkshire county family, appears on BB-4. The armorial binding stamp of Sir Mark Masterman Sykes

For further information on armorial stamps see Pearson pp. 97–115, with illustrations.

Indirect evidence
There are several examples of ‘indirect evidence’ for provenances in the Bodleian Blockbooks. Three of the Blockbooks (BB-1, BB-4, and BB-8) can all identified as appearing in auction sales, and details of the catalogues of these sales are provided in the full catalogue desccriptions for each item. BB-3 provides an example of a different type of ‘indirect evidence’, namely a letter in the Austrian National Library in Vienna from a bookseller to the Library, referring to what is clearly BB-3. Other forms of evidence may include, for example, early library catalogues or shelfmarks. BB-2 contains various former Bodleian shelfmarks, as do BB-6 and BB-7, both of which appear in an early catalogue, namely Edward Bernard’s Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ in unum collecti of 1697.