Album amicorum of Jean le Clercq
Contributors: Tournes, Jean de, 1504-1564, printer; Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 A.D. or 18 A.D.
Published: 1576
Language: fre; grc
Number of pages: 98
Subjects: Social life and customs; Heraldry; Courts and courtiers; Devices (Heraldry); Clothing; Nobility
Description: An album amicorum belonging to Jean le Clercq of Tournai, a Belgian student at the University of Douai. The album features portraits and armorial devices of le Clercq's relations and friends, many with inscriptions in Latin or Greek. A dedication leaf with an eight-line Latin epigram dated "Douai MDLXXVI Johannis Le Clercq Tournacensis" is included at the end. The leaves have been sewn into an incomplete proof of the second edition of the French translation of La M©♭tamorphose d'Ovide, Figur©♭e (A Lyon : Par Ian de Tovrnes, 1564) with engravings by Bernard Salomon.

Among the identified subjects appearing in the album are Stephanus Broelmanus Agrippensis, age 22 (1576); Girolamo Le Clercq, age 21 (1577); and Philippi Le Clercq, age 18 (1585). The portraits are accompanied by 32 heraldic paintings, some presented by female figures in contemporary dress or by angels. The families whose arms are depicted comprise a broad selection of the nobility and gentry of the Southern Netherlands, and include the arms of Nicolaas Rockox (ca. 1560-1640), mayor of Antwerp and patron of Peter Paul Rubens; and representatives of the families of de Gast, Bersaques, Defarnacques, de Stoppelaer, Liot, Bernard, de Glas, Pety, Bouzain, de Flameg, Bangouart, Wyt, Landau, Mozelle, and others.
Notes: The album consists of approximately 98 unnumbered leaves, some blank, with 35 containing manuscript entries or illustrated miniatures, including 32 gouache paintings (one is on vellum), and one drawing in ink.

Open for use by qualified researchers.

Text of Metamorphoses is in French; inscriptions on inserted pages are in Latin, with one also including a motto in Greek.

Bound in contemporary full calf with spine banded in five compartments; gilt arabesque ornaments on front and back covers and gilt floral ornaments on spine.