Bibliotheca chalcographica de Jean-Jacques Boissard - 1650: illustrium virtute atque eruditione in tota Europa, clarissimorum Virorum Theologorum, Jurisconsultorum, Medicorum, Historicorum, Geographorum, Politicorum, Philosophorum, Poetarum, Musicorum, Aliorumque

First edition of this famous collection of portraits of leading European Renaissance figures.

Engraved title page, 8pp index and 235 chalcographic (copperplate) engravings.

A collection of portraits edited by Jean-Jacques Boissard (1528-1602), engraved by Johann Theodore de Bry (1561-1623).

Very good copy of the rare first edition of the work, which was later republished with additional engravings.

Portraits of leading Renaissance academics, scholars, humanists, doctors, alchemists, herbalists, cartographers, cosmographers, judges, bishops, composers, musicians, historians, poets and theologians, including Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, William Camden, Sir Thomas More, Christopher Columbus, Machiavelli, Copernicus, Mercator, Vesalius, Vasari, Leonhart Fuchs, Sebastian Munster, Jean-Jacques Boissard, etc. Most within decorative oval borders ornamented with foliage, animals, insects, etc.

Condition: Recent 20th century leather spine with five raised bands and red leather title label, scuffed and worn older leather boards. Interior with some browning to edges of the pages, but engraved portraits clean and sharp.

Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) was an engraver, goldsmith, editor and publisher, famous for his depictions of early European expeditions to the Americas.

Jean-Jacques Boissard (1528-1602) was a French antiquary and Neo-Latin poet.