Iconographie ou Vies des hommes illustres du XVII. siècle, écrites par M. V**. Avec les portraits peints par le fameux Antoine Van Dyck et gravées [sic] sous sa direction. Tome premier. Contenant les vies des princes, ducs, comtes, généraux, &c. [- Tome second. Contenant les vies des peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs, architectes et autres artistes].

2 vol., folio: [4]-ii-[2]-106-[2], [4]-130-[2] pp.; 125 pl. (dampstaining throughout, some spotting and soiling).

Contemp. provisory marbled paper covers (sl. rubbed). Under 17th-c. vellum portfolios.

Second revised and augmented edition. Nice copy of the last edition "aussi soignée que possible" (Mauquoy-Hendrickx) containing 125 engr. portraits (with 5 folded pl.: Philip IV of Spain, Isabella of Bourbon, Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano, Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, and François Villain, Bishop of Tournai), incl. the magnificent "unfinished" etchings of i.a. Erasmus and Pieter Brueghel the Younger. Sort of reprint, with text, of the collection of 124 portraits of princes and especially painters given between 1690 and 1721 by the Verdussen brothers. Martin van den Enden published the very first edition of this portrait gallery in the 1630s, when it consisted of only 80 plates. Gillis Hendricx added 20 more to form his "Centurie" which appeared in 1645-1646.
Ref. Mauquoy-Hendrickx, M. - L'iconographie d'Antoine Van Dyck. Catalogue raisonné. Brussels, Palais des Académies, 1956, pp. 72-74. - Id., Seconde éd. revue et augm. Brussels, KBR, 1991, pp. 46-48. - Antoon Van Dyck & Antwerpen. Exhib. cat., Antwerp, Plantin-Moretus, 1991, p. 48. - Funck, p. 406. - New Hollstein, Guide to the catalogue, p. xlii. - STCN.
Prov. "EB" (unidentified modern bookpl.).