HEROLD, Johannes (1514-1567). Tabula Palatinorum. Basel: Johannes Oporin, March 1556.
No VAT on hammer price or buyer's premium. Property of a Lady
HEROLD, Johannes (1514-1567). Tabula Palatinorum. Basel: Johannes Oporin, March 1556.

Details
HEROLD, Johannes (1514-1567). Tabula Palatinorum. Basel: Johannes Oporin, March 1556.

The rare first edition of this superb, large-format engraved genealogy of the Wittelsbach dynasty.

Folio (458 x 312mm). 22 woodcut plates by Zacharias Speckle and Hieronymus Wyssenbach after Jacob Clauser and David Kandel, comprising: 21 double-page plates, and one single-page plate with a large ornament in three parts which, when joined, bears the motto 'De Coelo Victoria'; and with a related octavo pamphlet by Herold [Exegesis, Basel: J. Oporin, April 1556]; all plates and pamphlet mounted on stubs (some small repairs at the folds). Late 19th-century tree sheep, lettered up the spine in gilt, sides with a roll-tooled border in blind, edges sprinkled red (spine worn with ends chipped). Provenance: David Lindsay, Earl of Crawford and Balcarres (1900-1975; signed 'Balniel 1925', and with an ALS from Campell Dodgson dated 1927 laid in).


If joined the sheets would form a printed family tree nearly 4.5 meters high, tracing the roots of the then Elector Palatine Friedrich II (1482-1556) back more than a thousand years to King Clovis I (466-511). The House of Wittelsbach ruled Bavaria from the 12th century, and the Electoral Palatinate from the 13th century. The engraving shows half-length portraits of more than 900 male and female members of this noble house, the baptism of its supposed founder Clovis, and a view of Cologne. The border features roundel portraits of Roman and Byzantine Emperors, and of Friedrich’s contemporary Suleiman the Magnificent (1497-1566). The fine woodcuts are after drawings mostly by Jacob Clauser (c. 1520-1579), who also worked on Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia. ABPC and RBH record no other copy having been offered at auction. WorldCat locates copies at Princeton and in the British Museum only. A second edition was issued in 1680, with the blocks re-cut by Gaspar Ulrich of Zürich.
Special notice
No VAT on hammer price or buyer's premium.

Brought to you by

Robert Tyrwhitt
Robert Tyrwhitt

More from Valuable Books and Manuscripts

View All
View All