ROUILLE (Guillaume). Promptuarii iconum insigniorum a seculo - Lot 267

ROUILLE (Guillaume). Promptuarii iconum insigniorum a seculo hominum, Prima et secunda pars. A major publishing venture by Lyon printer Guillaume Rouillé, offering a gallery of nearly 950 woodcut portraits. A veritable visual pantheon of universal history. Lugduni (Lyon), Gulielmum Rouillium (Guillaume Rouillé), 1553. 2 volumes in 1 in-4 (247 x185 mm). Full calf, boards embossed with cold-stamped and gilt filleting, corner fleurons, central iron with diamond-shaped floral motifs. Contemporary binding. 4 ff.n.ch., 172 pp. 2 ff.n.ch., 247 pp. 4 ff.n.ch. Restorations to headpieces and corners, jaws cracked with small tears, one corner damaged. The front flyleaf, added in the 18th century, shows handwritten inscriptions. Title with four handwritten bookplates. Marks of handling in the margins, some creasing, missing fragments of the margin of ff ll3 and oo6. Traces of light marginal wetness, more pronounced on approx. 30ff at beginning and in-fine. Copious handwritten notes in black pen on the last two leaves. Work collated and complete. First Latin edition of the famous gallery by Lyon printer Guillaume Rouillé, featuring medallion portraits from Adam and Eve to Henry II of France. In all, almost 950 woodcut effigies, at least two per page, accompanied by short biographies. Rouillé was a leading printer in Lyon, credited with inventing the in-16 pocket format. He served his apprenticeship in Venice, before settling in Lyon in 1543, where he founded his own printing house. This collection of portraits was published simultaneously in Latin, French and Italian, then in Spanish five years later, and was a huge success, sparking decades of imitations. Provenance of the libraries of: - "Gaillet ex-libris manuscript on the title. - Séminaire Senonense with bookplate (stamp) on title. - H. Foillard with bookplate on front flyleaf. A fully ruled copy preserved in its original binding.