La Description du royaume de Poloigne et pays adjacens, avec les statuts, constitutions, moeurs et façons de faire d’iceux, par Blaise de Vigenère [...]

Blaise De Vigenère (1523–1596) was a French diplomat, cryptographer, translator and alchemist, who served as a secretary to Henry Valois. His book about the Kingdom of Poland was published in the year when Henry Valois was elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. It aimed to inform French society about the country that Henry Valois was to rule. It was not an original work, but compiled from the works of Sebastian Münster, Maciej Miechowita, Jan Herburt and Sigismund von Herberstein. Some original aspects of the book should be mentioned: the family tree of Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania, and a title page engraving of a very rare coat of arms of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with fleurs-de-lis.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album ARS LIBRI (2022). Compiler Algimantas Muzikevičius, text authors Algimantas Muzikevičius, Rolandas Gustaitis

Blaise De Vigenère (1523–1596) was a French diplomat, cryptographer, translator and alchemist, who served as a secretary to Henry Valois. His book about the Kingdom of Poland was published in the year when Henry Valois was elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. It aimed to inform French society about the country that Henry Valois was to rule. It was not an original work, but compiled from the works of Sebastian Münster, Maciej Miechowita, Jan Herburt and Sigismund von Herberstein. Some original aspects of the book should be mentioned: the family tree of Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania, and a title page engraving of a very rare coat of arms of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with fleurs-de-lis.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album ARS LIBRI (2022). Compiler Algimantas Muzikevičius, text authors Algimantas Muzikevičius, Rolandas Gustaitis