936J Gorgette de Montenay. (1540-approximately 1581), 

Stammbuch, darinnen Christlicher tugenden beyspiel/einhundert ausserlesener emblemata : mit schonen Rupffertsucten gezieret. Erflischen in Frankofischer sprachs von der edsen sinnreichen jungfraum Georgetta von Monteney beschrieben. Runmehr aber mit Lateinischen/ Hispanischen/Italianischen/Teutschen/Englische n vnd Niderlandischen derfen vermehret.

[Frankfurt am Main] : Gedruckt in Verlag Johann-Carl Unckels, Buchhandlers zu Franckfurt am Mayn, Anno MDCXIX [1619]                           

                                            Price $6,500

Title page of 'Stamm buch, darinnen Christlicher tugenden beyspiel/einhundert ausserlesener emblemata' by Georgette de Montenay, featuring ornate engravings and detailed text in multiple languages.

Octavo 19x 14.5 cm. Signatures: A-X8, Aa-Ee8 ((lacking Ee8 replaced with 7 lines supplied in hand facsimile) ( B8 blank and present).

100 Emblems printed from plates engraved by Pierre Woeiriot (1532-1599). Polyglot edition with engraved title page by Peter Rollas. “The book was intended as an album amicorum, with a blank space for entries at the end of each emblem The layout is Emblematic number, Pictura including motto, with poetic explanation of the emblem itself in French,Latin, Spanish, Italian, German, English and Dutch(actually Belgian Belgice) as are all the descriptions of the emblems.   This copy is bound in modern full calf  four raised bands, a maroon label with gilt lettering, blind stamped borders on the front and rear covers, blank endpapers. There are names printed in old script in the margins on two pages (74 and 188), One paper saw in emblem LVI. see below

This is  the first emblem book to use engravings instead of woodcuts.

After the title page, there is three-page preface dedicated to the nobility, then a three-page preface by the publisher, a full-page engraving of Georgette de Montenay and a page honoring her for writing this book with Christian emblems, six pages by Georgette de Montenay paying homage to Jeanne D’Albrecht (the Queen of Navarre), then three pages by the author to the readers, two more pages praising the author, then a long two-page verse to the reader explaining that the book is not meant to hurt people, but to guide them in making good choices, two more pages thanking the author again for her birth and honoring the female sex high praise for the times and saying that the whole Bible is represented in the emblems in this book, and even though emblems have been printed before, the ones here surpass the ones in Scripture, then two more pages in English commend the author for her nobility and her wisdom, a page in German that thanks all those who helped in making this book and not to despise them, and the first emblem and verse finally begin on page 34 and the emblem itself depicts the Queen of Navarre, a leader in the French Protestant movement the author dedicated the whole book to her the book. 

An illustration from Georgette de Montenay's emblem book, depicting Queen Jeanne d'Albret and featuring the emblem title 'Sapienti Mulier Aedificat Domum.' The engraving is accompanied by a verse in French about the efforts of the Queen.
An illustration from an emblem book featuring a depiction of a man praying with a backdrop of clouds and a powerful figure wielding a staff, along with French text beneath.

The first emblem book to use engravings instead of woodcuts. In the present polyglot edition—the title of which is recorded in several of the languages it features—the 8-line verse accompanying each emblem is presented in German, English (not very good), Dutch, French (from the first edition), Latin (from the 1584 edition), Spanish and Italian.

De Montenay’s book is a milestone in the history of emblem books because it was written by a female member of the Calvinist faith, she was the first woman to author an emblem book, and in her foreword, she claims the book represented the first collection of Christian emblems, but there were earlier emblematic works, such as Claude Paradin’s “Devises heroiques” published in Lyons in 1551 and 1557. By titling the 1619 Frankfurt edition a “Stammbuch”, the publisher signals that this is not merely a book of emblems but a moral album — a book patterned on the Album Amicorum, the autograph book carried by students, ministers, and humanists across Europe. In this book the protestant emblems are theologically safe because they contain no sacramental imagery, no saints, no Marian typology, no miraculous iconography.

Engraved illustration and text from the book 'Stamm buch, darinnen Christlicher tugenden beyspiel', depicting an emblem titled 'CANE' with accompanying verse in French.
An illustration from 'Stamm buch' depicting a figure climbing a ladder towards clouds, accompanied by a French text discussing faith and reassurance.

Landwehr, German Emblem Books, 445;ESTC No.S114247 ; STC (2nd ed.), 18047 ;( Another issue of: Montenay, Georgette de. Monumenta emblematum christianorum virtutum (STC 18045).  Praz, Studies, p. 431 (1571 French ed.); BerlinCat 4516 (1584 Latin ed.); Not in BL STC Ger. C17 or Brunet. A. Adams, Webs of Allusion: French Protestant Emblem Books of the 16th Century (Geneva, 2003); P. Choné, ‘Lorraine and Germany’, in The German-Language Emblem in Its European Context, ed. A. Harper et al. (Glasgow, 2000), 1-22.  “Georgette de Montenay” Renaissance Quarterly 47, no.4 (Winter 1994).

Copies located at: Princeton, Harvard, SMU, Trinity, Delaware,Yale

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