Marking all the volumes in your personal library with an Ex libris ownership stamp - from the library of [add your name] - is now a thing of the past. But when books represented a far more costly investment as a part of household income, this was a way of ensuring that if you lent a treasured volume to a friend you would be more likely to get it back. It also asserts that you have a collection, not just a few titles.
Fifteenth- century paintings by Hans Memling and Jan Van Eyck take religious subjects and use formal compositions but there’s an unexpected touch of realism, typical of the Renaissance. The Christ child is shown riffling the pages of the Bible – like all small children he explores the world through physical touch and finds turning book pages irresistible.
Holding an open book enables an embracing composition of mother and child; the mother can also hold the child steady and prevent wriggling.
Posing with a book gives individuals a studious air but photographers also kept books handy as a means steadying the sitter. Exposure time was much longer with early cameras and keeping still to avoid blurring was a real problem.