Quarto. [16], 201pp, [1]. With numerous woodcut vignettes, and a volvelle consisting of two overslips stitched to Cc3v. Eighteenth-century calf-backed marbled boards, contrasting red morocco lettering-piece and further morocco spine-label with date of 1610 and an armorial device (of Capel Hanbury-Leigh) to the foot of spine. Rubbed, with cracking to joints and chipping to head of spine, some loss of marbled paper to boards. Apart from the author's name having been inscribed to the title, and occasional marking, the unpressed text-block itself is in a remarkable state of preservation.

A crisp copy of English Catholic antiquary and historian Edmund Bolton's (b. 1574/5, d. c. 1634) first full-length published work, an exploration of the conventions of heraldry in four books in the form of a dialogue between two knights, Sir Eustace and Sir Amias, handsomely illustrated throughout with woodcut vignettes, mostly of coats of arms.

Prefaced by several approbations, including those of William Segar (see item 101), Garter King of Arms, and William Camden, Clarenceux King of Arms, perhaps the two most unusual elements of this work - part of a canon of published studies of the intricacies of heraldry printed in the Elizabethan and Jacobean age - are the inclusion of information regarding pre- conquest American armorials, from Mexico and Peru on pages 44-47, and the use of a volvelle consisting of two overslips, allowing the reader to rotate the position of five cinquefoils within an escutcheon, to page 198.

Provenance: Capel Hanbury-Leigh (1776-1861), of Pont Y Pool Park, Monmouth, with his gilt armorial device to foot of spine.