Omnium virtutum christianarum exemplo Dauidis : pastoris, militis, ducis, exsulis ac prophetae longe praestantissimi nobis adumbratarum speculum purum ac pellucidum, omnibus & singulis piè ac Christianè vivere volentibus perutile ac necessarium : quod etiam figuris Aeneis perpulchris ac artificiosis adornatum
A Latin emblem book on the life of King David, written by Benito Arias Montano with engravings after Johann Theodor de Bry, printed at Frankfurt in 1632 by William Fitzer for devout Latin-reading readers. The small horizontal plates stage biblical episodes as late-Renaissance battle and court scenes: plumed helmets, scale armor, pikes held in dense rows, prisoners and corpses in the foreground, walled towns and rocky hills behind, all built from fine cross-hatching usable as figure groups, crowd silhouettes and landscape backdrops.
