Bara (Hiérosme de). - (Mis en couleurs) Le Blason des armoiries, auquel est monstrée la manière de laquelle les Anciens & - 1581-1597

Bara (Hiérosme de).
The Blazon of the Armorial bearings, in which is shown the manner in which the Ancients & Moderns have used them. Treatise containing several different coats of arms, by means of which one can discern the others, and to blazon or arm the Armorial bearings. Revised, corrected, amplified by the author with the addition of several coats of arms, both ancient and modern.
Paris, Nicolas Gilles, 1597.
Small folio, later binding, smooth spine with manuscript title. Endpapers of wove paper.
Rare Parisian issue of the famous heraldic treatise by Hiérosme de Bara.
The volume preserves at the end the colophon of the augmented edition of 1581, “Achevé d’imprimer le XI de février l’an M.D.LXXXI”, and presents itself as a Parisian reissue of the sheets of this important enlarged edition.
The observed collation reaches 247 pages, followed by printer’s errors and the colophon. The description of the 1581 edition gives [12], 181, 183-247, [2] p., signatures ¶6, A-2H4.
Very remarkable copy, largely heightened in colors by hand, with numerous coats of arms colored in azure, gules, vert, sable, purpure, or and argent, as well as polychrome details on animals, crowns, fleur-de-lis, and arms of kingdoms. This antique coloring constitutes the principal interest of the copy; copies of the 1581 edition with hand-colored armorial bearings are also noted in public collections, notably at the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Abundant wood-engraved illustrations: colors and metals of the blazon, furs, partitions, honorable pieces, crosses, figures, arms of knights, houses and European realms, with several large-format compositions. The 1581 edition is the major enlarged edition of the treatise, enriched with many new coats of arms.
Significant ancient damp-stains and brownish halos affecting many leaves, sometimes near the figures; some stains and signs of use. Paper nevertheless sturdy, printing generally clear, colors well preserved. Old posthumous binding, probably late 18th–early 19th century.
Fundamental treatise of French heraldry from the Renaissance, sought after for its wood engraving illustration and the extent of its old colorization.