The True Use of Armorie, Shewed by Historie, and plainly proved by example: the necessitie therof also discovered: with the maner of differings in ancient time, the lawfulnes of honorable funerals and moniments: with other matters of Antiquitie, incident to the advauncing of Banners, Ensignes, and marks of noblenesse and chevalrie.

WYRLEY, William.

Published by London: John Jackson for Gabriel Cawood, 1592

About this Item

Rare first edition of this essay on heraldry, finely bound. Wyrley, an antiquarian and officer of arms, explains the symbolism of armorial devices with illustrations. Appended to the essay are two long poems about the knights Sir John Chandos and Sir John de Gralhy. This volume is from the library of Stowe House, Buckinghamshire, which was inherited in 1834 by Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. His wife, Anne Elizabeth, was the sole heir of the 3rd Duke of Chandos and a descendant of Sir John Chandos. Wyrley highlights the importance of heraldic devices as distinctive marks especially in war. He rejects the practice of dividing a shield into too many parts, and shows how the same blazon can be varied in an effective way for different members of the same family using illustrations of shields of the Basset family. William Dugdale republished part of the tract in his Ancient Usage of Bearing Arms (1682), misattributing it to Wyrley's mentor Sampson Erdeswicke. The two poems are written in the style of The Mirror for Magistrates, a Tudor-era collection that recounts the lives and tragic deaths of historical figures. Both pieces take the form of moralized complaints against Fortune, voiced by their ill-fated subjects. Sir John Chandos, in the tenth stanza of his poem, praises the authors of the Mirror and wishes to be counted among their storied figures. This work is rare in commerce; we have traced no other copies at auction in over 45 years. Provenance: a) Lot 5699 in the S. Leigh Sotheby & Co. sale "The Library Removed from Stowe House, Buckinghamshire" (8 January to 9 February 1849), with notes on the initial and final blanks, one indicating that it was bought for £2 10s. b) Herbert Norman Evans (1802-1877), doctor of Hampstead Heath, with his ownership inscription. b) Armorial of Henry Thomas Ellacombe (1790-1885), divine and antiquary, cut down from his bookplate and affixed on the front pastedown. c) Francis Pierpont Barnard (1854-1931), British archaeology professor, with his bookplate, shelf mark, and ownership inscription. ESTC S120446; USTC 512292. Quarto (188 x 129 mm), pp. [i], 159, [1]. Bound without initial blank. With 15 woodcut illustrations of armorial devices (13 hand-coloured); title page within elaborate woodcut border and enclosing woodcut ornament, large historiated initial, tailpiece. Early 19th-century deep red straight grain morocco, smooth spine divided by gilt and blind rolls, lettering and floral pointille decoration in compartments, covers bordered with a sequence of blind and gilt frames, central panel with floral pointille cornerpieces, board edges and turn-ins similarly decorated, blue pulled-paste paper doublures and free endpapers, edges gilt, blue silk bookmarker. Two long bibliographical notes on the front blanks and occasional pencil annotations in text in a 19th-century hand, early pen trials on two final leaves. Extremities refurbished, superficial splits to inner hinges, but firm, contents toned, intermittent minor damp stain to margins, final leaves a little soiled, occasional mark, red tint on woodcuts smudged and offset in places, else clean. A very good copy, handsomely bound.

Seller Inventory # 182064

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The True Use of Armorie, Shewed by Historie, and plainly proved by example: the necessitie therof also discovered: with the maner of differings in ancient time, the lawfulnes of honorable funerals and moniments: with other matters of Antiquitie, incident to the advauncing of Banners, Ensignes, and marks of noblenesse and chevalrie.
• Publisher: London: John Jackson for Gabriel Cawood, 1592
• Edition: 1st Edition