Elegantly bound set of a scarce edition of this early encyclopaedia of famous historical, literary, political, religious and cultural figures, from antiquity to the C16. Antoine du Verdier (1544-1600) was ‘conseiller du roi’ in Lyon, but mostly known as a biographer. ‘Prosopographie’ – i.e., a collection of biographies – first appeared in Lyon in 1573; it went through at least 4 further editions, the present by du Verdier’s son, Claude. In the humanistic tradition of ‘de viris illustribus’, the work gathers thousands of eminently educational anecdotes. Biblical figures include Adam, Eve, the Devil (with a wonderful woodcut portrait), the patriarchs, the Evangelists (with a lavishly illustrated biography of St Peter), and popes. Related religious figures are Zoroaster and Mohammed. Extensive sections are devoted to classical antiquity and mythology, with deities, heroes, emperors, philosophers and historians. Most valuable are the sections concerning Du Verdier’s contemporaries. In addition to kings, emperors and political figures, these include Pietro Aretino, Sir Thomas More (with an account of his death), Paracelsus, Ignatius of Loyola, the seditions of the Anabaptists in Westphalia, F. Rabelais (with a clear chronology), Francis Xavier, Sultan Suleyman, the occultist Guillaume Postel, Estienne Battori Prince of Transylvania, Mary Queen of Scots, the mathematician and cryptographer Blaise de Vigenère (with a bibliography), and Elizabeth I of England. The absence of portraits for several figures shows the impossibility of retrieving the actual likeness of hundreds of real and legendary figures. From the library of Maurice (1572-1632), Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, lover of culture and the performing arts. Among the travelling theatre troupes he hosted in Kassel were some from England. Subsequently in possession of his son Herman IV (1607-58), Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg. Due to a crippled foot, he eschewed the military life, becoming a respected scholar of astronomy, geography and mathematics. Then to Ernest (1623-93), Landgrave of Hesse-Rheinfels, Herman’s step-brother, known for his religious tolerance and the liturgical book he patronized, containing Catholic, Calvinist and Lutheran hymns. In the C19, this copy was in the renowned library of the Dukes of Arenberg at Nordkirchen Castle.
