''Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum'' (full title: ''Prima pars Promptuarii iconum insigniorum à seculo hominum, subiectis eorum vitis, per compendium ex probatissimis autoribus desumptis''; ) is an

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

book by

Guillaume Rouillé Guillaume Rouillé ( la, Gulielmus Rovillium; 15181589), also called Roville or Rovillius, was one of the most prominent humanist bookseller-printers in 16th-century Lyon. He invented the pocket book format called the ''sextodecimo'', printed with ...

. Its title means ‘

Promptuary The promptuary, also known as the ''card abacus'' is a calculating machine invented by the 16th-century Scottish mathematician John Napier and described in his book '' Rabdologiae'' in which he also described Napier's bones. It is an extension of ...

(Handbook) of the Images of the Renowned eople��.

History

It was published in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

, France, in 1553. The work includes portraits designed as

medal A medal or medallion is a small portable artistic object, a thin disc, normally of metal, carrying a design, usually on both sides. They typically have a commemorative purpose of some kind, and many are presented as awards. They may be int ...

s, and brief biographies of many notable figures. Although Julian Sharman, author of ''The Library of Mary Queen of Scots'', judges the work to be "not one of much

numismatic Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also includ ...

interest", he notes that, "This work has been pronounced to be one of the marvels of early wood-engraving." The book includes a total of 950

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

portraits. Many of the figures portrayed are of English origin. The images begin with

Adam and Eve Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...

. In the preface, the publisher praises the work."''Abhandlungen Der Königlich Preussischen Akademie Der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Classe.''", p
3
. "''I. In der Prima pars promptuarii iconum insigniorum a seculo hominum, subiectis eorum vitis, per compendium ex probatissimis autoribus desumptis. Lugduni, apud Gulielmum Rovillium 15 5 3 beginnt die Reihe der kleinen münzenartig gezeichneten Holzschnittbildchen mit Adam, neben den zunächst Eva gestellt ist. In der Vorrede rühmt der Verleger den Nutzen seines Werkes, und sein Latein mit einigen griechischen, freilich nicht immer in ganz richtiger Gestalt erscheinenden Zieraten schmückend, bemerkt er...''"

References

Sources

* "''Abhandlungen Der Königlich Preussischen Akademie Der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Classe.''" Verlag der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1908. * Sharman, Julian. ''The library of Mary Queen of Scots''. E. Stock, 1889. * Stark, John Mozeley. ''A Catalogue of Foreign and English Theology ...: A Collection of Aristotelic, Scotist, Thomist, and Other Writers from the Twelfth to Eighteenth Century ... Specimens of Early Typography ... and a Few Miscellaneous Works ...''. J.M. Stark, 1871.

External links

*
Prima pars Promptuarii iconum insigniorum à seculo hominum, subjectis eorum
' (

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

) 1553 books 16th-century Latin books French books {{Art-book-stub

History

See also

References

Sources

External links