![Wacław Potocki, A Collection of the Coats of Arms of the Nobility of the Polish Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania [1696]](https://gcp-la8-storage-cdn.lot-art.com/public/upl/2/Waclaw-Potocki-A-Collection-of-the-Coats-of-Arms-of-the-Nobility-of-the-Polish-Crown-and-the-Grand-Duchy-of-Li_6adf36bf44ce9-full-64575900_1793013440-6adf36c09daa3.jpg "Wacław Potocki, A Collection of the Coats of Arms of the Nobility of the Polish Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania [1696]")
Wacław Potocki, A Collection of the Coats of Arms of the Nobility of the Polish Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania [1696]
Title: A Collection of the Coats of Arms of the Nobility of the Polish Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a Showcase and Perspective of Old-World Virtue [...], as well as the Antiquity of Houses and the Lineage of Families [...] briefly and concisely described in verse by Wacław Potocki of Potok, cupbearer of Kraków.
Author: Wacław Potocki (1621–1696) [poet, cupbearer of Kraków, author of *The Account of the Chocim War* and *The Garden of Epigrams*]
Publisher: At the Printing House of Mikołaj Alexander Schedel, I.K.M. Ord. Typographer, Kraków 1696.
Year of publication: 1696.
Format: 31 cm (2°).
Volume: 741 pp.; pp. 1–2, 4–6, and 16–17 are missing; should be: [7]k., 741 [actually 751] pp.
Binding: Contemporary leather binding.
Wacław Potocki’s verse armorial, published in Kraków in 1696, the year of the author’s death, by the printing house of Mikołaj Aleksander Schedel, typographer to His Royal Majesty. Apart from this work, only two of Potocki’s shorter works were published during his lifetime. As the title suggests, the author describes, “in short, concise verse,” the coats of arms of the nobility of the Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the antiquity of the houses, and the lineage of the families, while recalling events from the histories ofindividual families. The text includes woodcut illustrations of the coats of arms; the section devoted to Pogoń opens with an engraving of the coat of arms of the Grand Duchy.
The volume opens with the printer’s dedication to Princes Jakub, Aleksander, and Konstanty Sobieski, as well as the author’s dedication to “lovers of the Fatherland,” the soldiers of the royal army. On the reverse of the title page is a woodcut of the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Poland, featuring Janina Sobieska on the Eagle’s breast, and in the introductory section, an allegory titled “Antemurale Christianitatis Polonia.” The volume includes a register of noble coats of arms.
There are numerous pagination errors: page 149 is followed by page 140; pages 323–324 are labeled as 233–234; and page 525 appears after page 527. In all cases, the curators confirm the continuity of the text.These errors are typical of this edition. The National Library describes the complete piece as [7] k., 741 [actually 751] pp. and notes, among other things, the repeated pagination of pp. 140–149 and pp. 233–234 following p. 322 (Estreicher XXV, pp. 177–178). The National Library also distinguishes several variants of the edition (A–D), differing, among other things, in the vignette on p. 33 (an angel or a rose) and the placement of the signature letters.
Wacław Potocki was born around 1621 in Wola Łużańska near Biecz, into an Arian noble family. When a Sejm resolution of 1658 ordered the Arians to convert or leave the country, he bitterly converted to Catholicism. Among other positions, he served as a municipal judge in Biecz and as a cupbearer in Kraków. He left behind a vast body of work: *The Chronicle of the Chocim War*, a collection of over two thousand works titled *The Garden of Epigrams*, *Moralia*, and romances in verse. Most of these works were not published until the 19th and 20th centuries. He died in Luźna in 1696.
*"Poczet herbów"* has been reprinted in a facsimile edition with a monograph by Dariusz Dybek (Warsaw, 2008), and its individual cycles are now being published in critical editions. The original Kraków print from 1696 is a must-have for collectors of Polish antiquarian books, heraldists, genealogists, and lovers of Old Polish poetry.
The period binding is worn and has losses. The binding is held together by stitches. Traces of repairs on the first dozen or so pages; pages with missing margins; frayed page edges. A note on the endpaper.
Catalog ID: 6773-31-S-Y
Title: A Collection of the Coats of Arms of the Nobility of the Polish Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a Showcase and Perspective of Old-World Virtue [...], as well as the Antiquity of Houses and the Lineage of Families [...] briefly and concisely described in verse by Wacław Potocki of Potok, cupbearer of Kraków.
Author: Wacław Potocki (1621–1696) [poet, cupbearer of Kraków, author of *The Account of the Chocim War* and *The Garden of Epigrams*]
Publisher: At the Printing House of Mikołaj Alexander Schedel, I.K.M. Ord. Typographer, Kraków 1696.
Year of publication: 1696.
Format: 31 cm (2°).
Volume: 741 pp.; pp. 1–2, 4–6, and 16–17 are missing; should be: [7]k., 741 [actually 751] pp.
Binding: Contemporary leather binding.
Wacław Potocki’s verse armorial, published in Kraków in 1696, the year of the author’s death, by the printing house of Mikołaj Aleksander Schedel, typographer to His Royal Majesty. Apart from this work, only two of Potocki’s shorter works were published during his lifetime. As the title suggests, the author describes, “in short, concise verse,” the coats of arms of the nobility of the Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the antiquity of the houses, and the lineage of the families, while recalling events from the histories ofindividual families. The text includes woodcut illustrations of the coats of arms; the section devoted to Pogoń opens with an engraving of the coat of arms of the Grand Duchy.
The volume opens with the printer’s dedication to Princes Jakub, Aleksander, and Konstanty Sobieski, as well as the author’s dedication to “lovers of the Fatherland,” the soldiers of the royal army. On the reverse of the title page is a woodcut of the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Poland, featuring Janina Sobieska on the Eagle’s breast, and in the introductory section, an allegory titled “Antemurale Christianitatis Polonia.” The volume includes a register of noble coats of arms.
There are numerous pagination errors: page 149 is followed by page 140; pages 323–324 are labeled as 233–234; and page 525 appears after page 527. In all cases, the curators confirm the continuity of the text.These errors are typical of this edition. The National Library describes the complete piece as [7] k., 741 [actually 751] pp. and notes, among other things, the repeated pagination of pp. 140–149 and pp. 233–234 following p. 322 (Estreicher XXV, pp. 177–178). The National Library also distinguishes several variants of the edition (A–D), differing, among other things, in the vignette on p. 33 (an angel or a rose) and the placement of the signature letters.
Wacław Potocki was born around 1621 in Wola Łużańska near Biecz, into an Arian noble family. When a Sejm resolution of 1658 ordered the Arians to convert or leave the country, he bitterly converted to Catholicism. Among other positions, he served as a municipal judge in Biecz and as a cupbearer in Kraków. He left behind a vast body of work: *The Chronicle of the Chocim War*, a collection of over two thousand works titled *The Garden of Epigrams*, *Moralia*, and romances in verse. Most of these works were not published until the 19th and 20th centuries. He died in Luźna in 1696.
*"Poczet herbów"* has been reprinted in a facsimile edition with a monograph by Dariusz Dybek (Warsaw, 2008), and its individual cycles are now being published in critical editions. The original Kraków print from 1696 is a must-have for collectors of Polish antiquarian books, heraldists, genealogists, and lovers of Old Polish poetry.
The period binding is worn and has losses. The binding is held together by stitches. Traces of repairs on the first dozen or so pages; pages with missing margins; frayed page edges. A note on the endpaper.
Catalog ID: 6773-31-S-Y
