Boissard | Icones, Frankfurt, 1597, contemporary calf gilt

Jean Jacques Boissard

Icones quinquaginta virorum illustrium doctrina & eruditione praestantium ad vivum effictae, cum eorum vitis descriptis... omnia recens in aes artificiose incisa, & demum foras data per Theodorum de Bry. (Frankfurt: Johann Theodor de Bry), 1597

4to (194 x 145mm.), engraved title-page, engraved portrait of the author, full-page engraved portraits within decorative borders, near-contemporary calf gilt with central round Fortuna stamp, spine gilt in compartments, lacking portraits of Bartolus de Saxoferrato and Rudolphus Agricola, title-page repaired in gutter, a few small marginal wormholes, final leaf partly detached, binding slightly rubbed with a few small repairs

The first part of a series of portraits of famous men from history. This volume contains predominantly Italian scholars and humanists, beginning with Columbus and ending with Jean-Antoine de Baïf.

LITERATURE

VD16 B 6459 (all 4 parts)

PROVENANCE

Cornwell House, ink stamp on flyleaf