Recueil de la diversité des habits (A Collection of the Various Styles of Clothing), François Desprez, 1562
paper, h 146mm × w 85mm More details
This is the very first costume book, with more than a hundred images of clothing from around the world. Below each figure are four lines of verse describing the country’s outfits or related customs. This was an age of unprecedented overseas exploration. Europeans were especially fascinated to see and read about inhabitants of the so-called New World, such as the Brazilian woman with her child 1.
