25. Cardinal Richelieu's portrait gallery. Heince & Bignon. 1655.

The Royal Library owns a large number of works from the 1600s and 1700s containing lavish copper engraved illustrations. The new technique that replaced woodcuts, did not only offer new possibilities of more detailed depictions, but also allowed for dimensions that almost put it on a par with paintings on canvas.

A striking example where an entire art gallery is reproduced and presented in book form, is Les Portraits des hommes illustres francois qui sont peints dans la galerie du Palais Cardinal de Richelieu. The work was published eight years after the death of Richelieu 1642. 'Editor' was M. de la Colombière, and the texts were provided by various poets, i.a. Urbain Chevreau.

The 27 illustrations are engraved by royal engraver Francois Bignon after drawings by Zacharie Heince who was of Swiss origin, but lived in Paris. The latter had some years previously made his name within the genre through his depiction of the principal characters at the conclusion of peace after the Thirty Years' War: Voicy les portraicts au naturel ... de messieurs les plénipotentiares assemblez à Munster et Onasburg pour faire la paix générale (Paris, 1648).

Works like these were collector's items and came to The Royal Library through the private libraries that from Frederik III in the 1600s to Thott and Suhm in the 1700s were incorporated more or less en bloc. The large and heavy magnificent works, where one feels that 'the book' as practical medium, has been taken to its uttermost limit, have often suffered particularly hard from being taken out and used in public libraries.