A volume in large folio (35.3 x 25.4 cm), quarter binding from the 19th century, leather spine, with ribs and gold embossing, red label: TESSERAE GENTILITIAE. Frontispiece copper engraved by Taddeo Barberini and 6 unnumbered sheets, including a copper engraved full-page coat of arms, 678 pp., 15 unnumbered index sheets. With countless copper-engraved coats of arms in the text, some are full-page. Wood engraved tops and initials. Minor tear in a preliminary folio and folio 609, without loss. Stain on the inner margin of all the volume. Rare and sought after treatise on heraldry. For this work, the author, Sylvester of Petra Sancta, Confessor of Cardinal Caraffa, had a heated dispute with La Colombière over his approach to the study of heraldry. Petra Sancta explained in this work his novel system of enamelling the blazon, and La Colombière contested the idea.