1040 - "A book containing several coats of arms from various provinces. The morning sun, a child fed on wine, and a woman speaking Latin—these rarely end well." [Southern Netherlands, c. 1600] Small in-4°, 20 x 14.5 cm: [106] ff. + a few blank pages, brown ink on laid paper with watermark, in French, a few rare erasures (tiny pinholes and minor burn holes with no loss of text throughout). Fawn sheepskin with a large flap, cold-stamped, decorated with scrollwork borders and crisscrossing fillets on the covers and flap; title handwritten later. on the upper cover; spine unmarked with faint raised bands and visible stitching at the tail (rubbed, spine slightly concave, closure cords missing, minor worm damage especially at the joints and spine, no loss at the flap hinge, binding partially unstitched in the middle of the book block). Armorial of the principal families of Europe, illustrated with numerous coats of arms drawn in the margins in pen by the same hand. It begins with the sovereign houses of Spain, followed by the “Seventeen provinces belonging to the Catholic King of Spain and Belgian Gaul,” England, Scotland, and Ireland. Next come much more detailed sections: France, with the peers and other great families presented by province; Hainaut (peers, barons bearing banners in times of war, seigneuries, towns); Flanders, Holland, Zeeland, and other provinces of the Northern Netherlands; and finally, the princes and barons of the Empire, including those of Brabant and Liège. Enriched with 2 ff. (flyleaves) of coats of arms, one of which is by another hand from the same period.