Les hommes illustres et grands capitaines françois qui sont peints dans la galerie du Palais Royal. Ensemble un abrégé de leurs vies & actions mémorables [...]. Avec leurs portraits, armes et devises, dessignez et gravez par les Sieurs Heince & Bignon, peintres et graveurs du roy.

Folio, mounted on guards; 27 pl. (some text ff. sl. browned, marg. damp stain on G, foxing).

19th-c. half tinted red vellum, marbled paper covers, flat spine (very rubbed, sm. label on front cover, renewed endpapers).

Nicely illustrated with full-page copper-engravings by Z. Heince and Fr. Bignon: coat of arms of Richelieu and 26 portraits of French rulers (Pierre Séguier, dedicatee of the work, Bertrand du Guesclin, Jeanne d'Arc, Gaston de Foix, Anne de Montmorency, Francis I of Lorraine, Marie de' Medici...) within frames by Jean Guisse figuring scenes of the character's life and emblems. Accompagnied with a biography of the ruler, description of their blasons and "devises heroyques" by Marc de Vulson de La Colombière (d. 1658). The 1st edition was published in 1650.
Ref. Saffroy 34114. - Cp. Landwehr, Romantic, 777, Praz 532, Cicognara 2085, Lipperheide 1065 (other ed.).