The Can-You-Help? database, which CERL previously offered to assist in identifying bookplates, binding stamps, library labels, or owners’ inscriptions, has been retired.
The Can-You-Help? forum has found a new home in the Provenance Digital Archive (PDA). You can now explore all the provenance evidence where we need your help in identifying former owners. If you recognize an item or have a suggestion for further research, simply click on the image to open the record and leave your comments.
Queries posted on the Can-You-Help? database up to 2009 are available. CERL plans to migrate queries posted between December 2009 and August 2018 to the PDA, but due to GDPR requirements, we can only include these with the permission of the original contributors, so this process is ongoing.
Join us in uncovering the histories behind these books and helping the PDA grow!
Solved Queries
Below are some examples of provenance queries in the Can-You-Help? database that have already been solved, but you too can seek help for your own provenance questions or contribute your knowledge to help identify other items.
PDA – Can you help page – solved query – title page inscription
Title-page inscription in Lodovico Domenichi’s Dialoghi (Venice: Giolito, 1562) identifies ownership by the Collegio dei Nobili, Naples. Copy in the Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College (USA). Identification by Chris Coppens; query by John Lancaster.
PDA – Can you help page – solved query – Latin bibie with pigskin binding
Latin Bible with pigskin binding stamped in gilt with episcopal/abbatial arms. Initials I.I.G.P.S. identify Johann Joseph Glätzl, Propst zu Sternberg (mid-18th century). Identification by Klaus Graf, Manfred Huiskes, and Bernd-Christoph Kämper; query by Anthony Tedeschi.
PDA – Can you help page – solved query – Armorial book stamp
Armorial book stamp from the library of the Earls of Guilford, probably Frederick North. Identified by John Goldfinch; query by Renae Satterley (Middle Temple Library, London).
PDA – Can you help page – solved query – engraved bookplate
Engraved bookplate “M. de Lançon” with motto Fortitudine et charitate in Histoire de l'Église (Paris, 1678). Ownership inscription links the volume to Jacques Pouilly de Lançon of the Mensdorff-Pouilly family, Lorraine. Identification by Annelen Ottermann.
PDA – Can you help page – solved query – Armorial binding
Armorial binding in Johann Friedrich Burg’s Chrestomathia patristica Graeca bears the arms of Frederick II of Prussia, likely associated with Poznań. Identified by Chris Coppens.
PDA – Can you help page – solved query – Prayer arms Henrietta Cavendish Harley
Harleian-style binding on the Book of Common Prayer bearing the arms of Henrietta Cavendish Harley. Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Leipzig. Confirmed by Philip Oldfield.
PDA – Can you help page – W/F-5-23
Armorial binding on A. Du Chesne’s Historiae Normannorum scriptores antiqui from the library of William Somner; arms identified as those of Sir Thomas Shirley. Identification by Tobias Abeloff.