Album of Suites

[Album of thirteen suites of devotional engravings].
Paris: Thomas de Leu, Jean IV Le Clerc, Nicolas de Mathonière, and Jean Messager, 1601–1621. (BRB 1148)

This remarkable album of 211 early seventeenth-century Parisian religious engravings includes thirteen suites of plates. Based on Flemish, French, Italian, and Polish sources, the prints in this volume appear to have been assembled later in the seventeenth century and provide a rich source for the role of graphic imagery in popular piety in early modern Europe. On display is the plate of the Four Horsemen from Figurae libri apocalypsis beati Ioannis apostoli. Figures du livre de l'apocalypse, ou des révélations de St. Iean l'apostre. Engraved by Jan van Halbeeck (active ca. 1600–1620) after designs by the Polish engraver Jan Ziarnko (active ca. 1605–1629), the suite was published by Jean le Clerc.