One of the Earliest Costume Works: the Only Known Complete Copy Illuminated in Gold and Colours

Boissard, Jean-Jacques-Habitus Variarum Orbis gentium. Habitz de Nations estrãges. Trachten mancherley Völcker des Erdskreyß. Mecheln, Caspar Rutz, 1581. With 67 plates with all in all c. 200 engraved costume illustrations, in original illumination in gold and colours. Oblong folio (265 x 342 mm). Calf leather binding of the 19th century.

The French scholar Jean-Jacques Boissard spent a large part of his life travelling, which took him as far as Greece. His work on the costumes of many peoples of the world, with 67 oblong folio plates engraved by Julius Golcius, is not only a costume study, but also testifies to the humanistic interest in a typology of peoples. This rare, exquisitely and meticulously illuminated costume work in the characteristic oblong format was newly bound in the 19th century. According to our research, it is most likely the only complete copy in contemporary illumination that has come onto the market in the last 100 years.

Provenance: Illustrated monogram ex-libris by Antoine Mouradian on the flyleaf.

This book has been described in great detail in our catalogue 90 “Wunderkammer”, no. 62: view the digital version here and order your printed copy in our Online Shop.

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