Album amicorum: History and Key Facts

The album amicorum ('album of friends', friendship book) was an early form of the poetry book, the autograph book and the modern friendship book. It emerged during the Reformation period, during which it was popular to collect autographs from noted reformers. In the 1700s, the trend of the friendship book was still mainly limited to the Protestant people, as opposed to the Catholics. These books were particularly popular with university students into the early decades of the 19th century. Noteworthy are the pre-printed pages of a friendship book (Stammbuchblatt) from 1770 onwards, published as a loose-leaf collection by the bookbinder and pressman Johannes Carl Wiederhold (1743-1826) from Göttingen.

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