Album amicorum, Humbertus Johannes Mauritius Czernin

Ms. album amicorum (liber amicorum) written and illuminated in Rome and Siena, Italy; Paris, France; and Brussels and Louvain, Belgium, in 1646-1648.
Decoration: 5 full-page miniatures on vellum bound-in or pasted on stubs; at least 4 miniatures on paper; 4 pen and ink drawings; 3 armorials in pen and ink (one with wash); 1 wax seal imprssion, gilt, on paper (pasted in); 1 pencil drawing of moated fortifications; 1 inscription without arms; 47 fully emblazoned achievements of arms, most with scrolls bearing mottoes and inscriptions, many with floral and other embellishments.
The subjects of the 5 full-page miniatures on vellum are as follows: 1. fol. 11r: A ship with a sail with the monogram IHS and the legend 'In hoc signo vinces' and the arms of Czernin on the stern pennant, green trees growing from barren rocks with the legend 'col tempo', a naked male figure leaping into the sea with the legend 'immergar aut emergam', and an Icarus-like figure flying near the sun with the legend 'nil linquere inausum'. Below is the name of Czernin, 'Libri Possessor' -- 2. fol. 33r: Cupid on his quiver, paddling with his bow, the legend 'nil obstat amor' on his mantle, a ship behind, a woman on shore to left, the arms of Lazansky suspended from a tree -- 3. fol. 54r: A trophy of weapons, armour, banners with the arms of Schaffgotsch, etc, with a battle scene behind -- 4. fol. 66r: A lion tied to a tree, a mouse running down above him, a ruined castle behind in a landscape, arms at bottom right -- 5. fol. 145r: The Pont-Neuf in Paris, by moonlight, the 1614 statue of Henri IV (destroyed at the Revolution) at left, cityscape behind, a man robbed and shot at centre, another apparently thrown over wall at left. The subjects of the miniatures on paper include: 1. fol. 36r: A woman in black, purple and white lace, carrying a fan bearing arms with two anchors (Tronck?) -- 2. fol. 58r: A young man on a wheel above a globe, holding a shield with the arms of Herberstein, with the legend "Plus Una Tribus" -- 3. fol. 118r: Fortuna, with one foot on a winged globe,her mantle a sail bearing the arms of Orignym -- 4. fol. 155r: A woman in lace and a man flanking the arms of Beineburgk (signed I.G.R.). The subjects of the 4 pen and ink drawings (all seemingly in the same hand, one signed "Joan: Bartholo: fecit") are as follows: 1. fol. 44r: Jupiter above on his eagle, hurling thunderbolts, Phaeton below falling from the chariot of the horses of the sun, after being granted the boon of driving them by Apollo (left) -- 2. fol. 48r: Actaeon, transformed into a stag after being seeing the naked goddess Diana, is siezed by hounds -- 3. fol. 88r: A man wearing a feathered hat, seated at a table covered by a carpet, playing a lute, a violin on the table -- 4. fol. 129r: Jupiter on his eagle, bearing thunderboards flies above a realistically depicted (unidentified, probably Central European) walled city on a river.--Cf. Christie's.
Texts: Inscriptions and mottoes inscribed by the friends of Humbertus Johannes Mauritius Czernin.
The manuscript contains inscriptions and mottoes from members of numerous, mostly noble, families of German, Austrian, Bohemian, Hungarian, French, Flemish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian and English origin, including Friedrich Maximilian, Margrave of Baden, and members of the Saurau, Herberstein, Lodron, Nachodt, Starhemberg, Zierotin, Klenowa, Khevenhüller, Lazansky, Mansfield, Schaffgotsch, Liegnitz, Palffy, Löbl of Greinburg, Wratislaw, Nesselrode, Sintizig, Billehé, van der Tuyn, Rindtsmaul, Sprintzenstein, Jöchlinger, Walsky, z Zabussa (?), Seeau, Origny, Hardenreidt, Teufel, Dietrichstein, Wilkin, Howora de Leippa, Hörwarth de Hohenburg, Burckau, Kerckerinck de Burgh, Beineburgk, Friis (Magnus, Danish), Gurland, Gedde (Brostrop, a Norwegian student of mining), Meyssone, Budde, Horn (Bogislas) and Rimbolt families. The inscriptions and mottoes are mainly in Latin, German, French and Italian, but include one in Czech (fol. 28r). At least one of the Bohemians (Czenko Howora de Leippa) was the son of one of those dispossessed for siding with the Winter King, Frederick, defeated by Imperial forces at the Battle of the White Mountain (Bila Hora) in 1620.
Collation: Oblong octavo.