Abbrege' methodique des principes heraldiques, ou du veritable art du blason.Lyon, Coral/du Perier, 1661. 11o. Full leather, worn top spine end. Paper somewhat browned. Exlibris Daniel de Bruin. (18)+III+(9) pages. Illustrated with a folding engraving of the coronation of Charles King of Naples and Sicily in 1165 by Cardinal Raoul de Chevriers and 10 full page engravings of coats-of-arms and woodcuts in the text. Some water staining in the first few pages. Claude-François Ménestrier (9 March 1631 - 11 January 1705) was a French heraldist, a member of the Society of Jesus [Jesuit], and attendant of the royal court. Ménestrier was born in Lyon. He produced numerous books on heraldry, and was one of the greatest authorities on heraldry of his age. Ménestrier was the professor of the colleges in Chambéry, Vienne, Grenoble, and Lyon. During 1669-70 he intended to travel to Germany and Italy, but only reached Paris and lived there to his death. He was the most widely known heraldist of his time, and from 1611 he was in close correspondence with Philipp Jakob Spener, the founder of the German scientific heraldry who refused the merely symbolic interpretation of arms. Ménestrier maintained that we can know the essence of heraldry only from the sources from the age of living heraldry, but he was also influenced by the heraldic view of his age. Thus, his researches were abortive. This attractive book is dedicated to Claude Joseph and Leonard Francois de Chevriers, two French noblemen. The 'epistre' contains a genealogy of their family. H146