Père Philippe Labbé - Tableaux genealogiques de la Maison Royale de France et le Blazon Royal - 1654

The Genealogical Tables: they list the members of the different branches of the French royal family (Capetians, Valois, Bourbons) as well as the six historical lay coronets: Burgundy, Normandy, Guyenne, Toulouse, Flanders and Champagne. Labbe provides abbreviated biographical and chronological notes on the life of each figure.

The Royal Blazon: this section is a treatise on heraldry. It offers a precise textual description (blazoning) of the coats of arms borne by kings, queens, the dauphins, as well as by the great allied families of the Crown of France.

The presence of an ex-libris by Michel Wittock deeply changes the game and significantly increases the book’s value.
Michel Wittock (1936-2020) was one of the greatest and most famous European bibliophiles of the 20th century. A passionate Belgian industrialist, he assembled a legendary collection of thousands of art bindings and old books (ranging from the 16th century to the contemporary era) and even founded his own museum in Brussels, the Wittockiana.

The label visible on the image is not a family coat of arms, but the bookseller mark of the famous dynasty of Belgium’s booksellers-experts Van der Perre in Brussels, more precisely of Francine Van der Perre whose historic shop was located at 21, rue de la Madeleine. (located at the end of the book).
The Van der Perre family is one of the oldest and most respected signatures in Belgian high bibliography, renowned for its expertise in precious books and old engravings.

This double provenance (Van der Perre Booksellers + Michel Wittock Collection) is excellent. It reinforces the book’s clear, prestigious history.