The Accedens of Armory

Item Details

London, Richard Tottel, 1576

Very good

Third edition of this famous heraldry title. [7], 135, [2] leaves. With both full page plates and the folding plate at the rear  present and clean. Elaborate woodcut title page plus numerous heraldic illustrations throughout. 19th century sheep, rebacked some time ago, spine with gilt devices and red morocco gilt lettering label. Old and inoffensive paper repair to verso of title (which also bears what appears to be a contemporary ownership signature). Very good.

"The Accedens of Armory is a heraldic treatise, completed by the London draper Gerard Legh in December, 1562. It gained an audience immediately and went through six editions, the last being printed under James I in 1612. While it was in print, Legh’s Accedens was the most important English work on heraldry. Its discussions of the blazon of cote armour and the role of armory in defining gentle identity were widely read, copied, and debated, and, despite the publication of several other volumes on the topic, the Accedens dominated the field until it was supplanted by John Guillim’s more comprehensive and systematicA Display of Heraldrie, first printed in 1610" (from the introduction of the Critical Edition of Gerard Legh's The Accedens of Armory).

ESTC S108418.