Georgette de Montenay Emblem Book 1619. 

Size: 7 1/8 x 5 in. 
This book by Georgette de Montenay is titled "Stamm Buch Darinnen Christlicher Tugenden Beyspiel /Einhundert auszerlesener Emblemata mit schonen Kupffersticken gezieret", which means "A Family Book Containing Examples of Christian Virtues / One hundred exquisite emblems decorated with beautiful copperplate engravings", and this edition was published in 1619 by Johann Carl Unckels, a bookseller in Frankfurt near the Main River.
The book has been beautifully rebound and has four raised bands, a maroon label with gilt lettering, incised borders on the front and rear covers, blank endpapers, the title page, a three-page preface dedicated to the nobility, then a three-page preface by the publisher, a full-page engraving of Georgette de Montenay and a page honoring her for writing this book with Christian emblems, six pages by Georgette de Montenay paying homage to Jeanne D'Albrecht (the Queen of Navarre), then three pages by the author to the readers, two more pages praising the author, then a long two-page verse to the reader explaining that the book is not meant to hurt people, but to guide them in making good choices, two more pages thanking the author again for her birth and honoring the female sex high praise for the times and saying that the whole Bible is represented in the emblems in this book, and even though emblems have been printed before, the ones here surpass the ones in Scripture, then two more pages in English commend the author for her nobility and her brains, a page in German thanks all those who helped in making this book and not to despise them, and the first emblem and verse finally begin on page 34 and the emblem itself depicts the Queen of Navarre, a leader in the French Protestant movement the author dedicated the whole book to her the book is 446 pages long, and all the engraved emblems, text and verses are present.
Each emblem is composed of a motto, a picture, and a poem, de Montenay worked with the engraver Pierre Woeiriot, and her book was the first emblem book to use incised engravings rather than woodcut illustrations.
The book was originally written in French, there are eight lines of verse to go with each emblem and the eight lines are repeated in Latin, Spanish, Italian, German, English and Belgian. (The title page says the verses were repeated in Dutch - Niderlandischen versen - but if you look at the actual verses, they were done in Belgian Belgice - not Dutch.) And the book was written in this polyglot style to attract readers from all over Europe, not just from France.
There are names printed in old script in the margins on two pages (74 and 188) and a hand-written message in old script on a blank endpaper at the rear (the message is in French), and that's a detailed description of the book.
People thought the first edition came out in 1571, but researchers at the Royal Library in Copenhagen found a copy that was published in 1567 and had been languishing in the hands of her publishers, Jean Marcorelle and Philippe de Castellas, since 1561. The delay occurred because of religious turmoil at the time, which made publication unwise; in 1584 a bilingual edition was published in Zurich, using the same set of copper engravings, but each French verse was accompanied by a Latin one, and in 1602 another edition of this bilingual version was published in Heidelberg, follow followed by the polyglot edition published in Frankfurt-am-Main in 1619. The same illustrations were used in all four editions, so the plates needed to be moved from one city to another -from Lyons to Zurich to Heidelberg, then to Frankfurt. The 1571 copy was titled "Emblemes ou devises chrestiennes" and later morphed into the Stamm Buch title of 1619.
Georgette de Montenay (1540-1581) was a French writer of the Renaissance. Born to a family of nobility, she lost her parents at the age of eight. In 1562, she married Guyon de Gout, a Frenchman, and lived with him in Saint-Germier, Gers, she became a lady-in-waiting to Jeanne d'Albret, the Protestant Queen of Navarre, and an intriguing aspect of de Montenay's life is that she was a Huguenot and Protestant and married to a devout Catholic.
De Montenay's book is a milestone in the history of emblem books because it was written by a female member of the Calvinist faith, she was the first woman to author an emblem book, and in her foreword, she claims the book represented the first collection of Christian emblems, but there were earlier emblematic works, such as Claude Paradin's "Devises heroiques" published in Lyons in 1551 and 1557. De Montenay is also one of three women to obtain a royal privilege in her own name in the 16th century (and not, as was most often the case, in the name of the publisher).
Pierre Woeriot de Bouzey (1532-1596?) was a French engraver from Lyon who started out as a goldsmith, somewhere between 1566 and 1571 he illustrated the "Emblemes ou devises chrestiennes" with allegorical engravings instead of traditional engravings, and the book was the first to make extensive use of the heart motif in religious emblems.
The book measures 7 1/8 x 5 inches wide and is in great condition. The binding is tight and the pages are rather clean, with occasional offset and just a couple of brown spots here and there, slight rubbing on the edges of the spine, a hole near the margin on page 255, and that is basically it for blemishes.
The book is rare. We found only five copies in Special Collections around the world for the 1619 edition, according to WorldCat (the University of Birmingham in England, the University of Mainz in Germany, the University of Sydney in Australia, the University of Amsterdam and Koninklijke Biblotheek in the Netherlands), an edition from 1571 is going for $30,400 and a copy from 1619 is going for $8000 on the rare book website we use (and that copy is missing both boards and has taped tears and other condition issues), one from 1584 sold at Christie's in 2015 for $4000 and a later copy from 1620 sold at Bonham's for $7300, we're keeping the opening bid low to get the bidding going, and a chance to own the first emblem book by a woman.

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