Devises heroïques [...].

Sm. 8vo: 261-[1] pp., interleaved with penciled and coloured coats of arms (3 ff. missing: pp. 69-70, 241-242, 255-256, some ff. misplaced in last part, several leaves restored without loss and/or reinforced on (blank) verso, soiling, water stains).

17th-c. vellum, white paper label with shelf mark on spine (sl. dusty, corners sl. bumped).

Second edition (1st ed.: 1551, with only 117 woodcuts), greatly enlarged, of the "first Protestant collection of religious devices, a book wich played a very important role in the European emblem tradition" (Landwehr). Ill. with 182 woodcut emblems with Latin captions: 104 woodcuts of 1st ed., 8 newly cut and 70 new ones, attributed to Salomon Bernard, most enhanced with watercolour or gouache. With the fine woodcut border with grotesque figures already used for the "Métamorphoses figurées". Woodcut mark on last page. Enriched between ca. 1557 and 1670 with ca. 175 dedications mostly in the form of painted coats of arms accompanied by mottoes and/or texts in prose or verse (some without ill., in the margins of printed text), in French, Latin, Italian, Spanish... thus forming an album amicorum. They are mainly addressed to a Spaniard named Cristobal (or Cristoforo) de Ametzaga, "alias Escargot" (or "Scargo", "Escargos"). Some names of his "amigos": Marnix, Vaernewyck, Philippe Louis de Nassau, Montoya, Antonio Maria Viscount of Milano, Jacobus ab Amondans, Claude Sigoney "garde du corps de l'empereur Charles Quint", etc. Two coats of arms on loose ff.
Ref. French emblem books F-461. - Landwehr, Romanic, 564. - Mortimer, French, 410. - Cartier, De Tournes, 379. - Not in Baudrier. - Another copy of Paradin's book (Moretus ed. in Latin from coll. of Cultura Fonds) used as album amicorum in the virtual exhibition "A century of typographical excellence: Christophe Plantin and the Officina Plantiniana (1555-1655)" (Bib. Mazarine).
Prov. Cristobal de Ametzaga (many ms. entries in dedications). - R. de Grez (ms. entries on endpapers): the 1st dedication after the title is signed "de Grez 1660" (with arms), probably an ancestor (see also mention dated 1671 on p. 85). - Van Waesberghe (armorial bookpl.). - Ms. mention cancelled on title.