Itinerarium ab Hispania

1521

De Beer Itb 1521 L

Marcellus Silber

This rare edition of a journey by the theologian Jacobus Lopis Stunica (d.1531) through Spain, including his trip from Toledo to Rome, contains what may be the oldest printed coat of arms owned by Special Collections. The title-page, printed in 1521, is the author’s own coat of arms, belonging to the noble Spanish family Zúñiga. In 1212, this family was involved in the Battle of Navas de Tolosa, when a stockade composed of the Black Guard chained themselves together to form a human defence of Caliph Mohammed al-Nasir. Stunica continued the family tradition, depicting a chain with eight links in his arms. The printed motto translates as ‘Virtue is the only nobility’.