Ex-libris: an integrative review

Abstract

Introduction: The present work is an integrative review on current studies of the ex-libris, mark of provenance and ownership of books that represent, through images and/or inscriptions, the owners of these devices. Objective: To present an integrative review of current ex-libris studies. Methodology: With regard to this type of bibliographic research, it presents the verification and analysis of studies carried out on the ex-libris in Brazilian and international journals, between 2015 and 2022, using documents from journals indexed in the Portal de Periódicos, of the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes) and in the Google Scholar search engine. Results: The search in the databases resulted in 14 scientific articles that met all the established criteria. We present the search results in full for better visualization of the data that will be discussed. Conclusion: It concludes that the ex-libris is a research object with multidisciplinary possibilities, relating different fields of knowledge, including for pedagogical purposes. The results also demonstrate the relevant presence of Brazil in current studies on this subject, however, the scarce amount of recovered documents also reflects the limitation of scientific production on this object.