A Display of Heraldrie

GWILLIM, John.  A DISPLAY OF HERALDRIE.

 

London: Printed by William Hall for Raphe Mab, 1611. Folio. Contemporary paneled calf. xiv, 276, 271-284 pages. First edition, second state.

Generally believed to be the first systematic systematic study of heraldry, John Guillim's work was first published in 1610 and is here reissued with a cancelled engraved title leaf dated 1611.  The sheets, however, are from the first edition and contain Hall's colophon on page 284 dated 1610.  The work is copiously illustrated with hundreds of woodcut examples of coats of arms and remains one of the most ambitious English books of the period.  Guillim's text was the most encyclopedic work on English heraldry of the early 17th century and according to Lowndes, writing 230 years later, remained in general use.  In colonial Virginia, a copy is recorded as being in William Byrd's library.  The first edition is rare in commerce.  The last copy we were able to locate as selling at auction was in 1989.  This is a very nice copy despite some minor staining and closely cropped margins along the foreedge of a few leaves.  With the circular, dated bookplate of Arma Johannis, Baron of Cataret of Hawnes (1841). [See Hamilton. Dated Book Plates, page 189.]

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