The list of 'Armories' by Dürer, as printed by Bartsch in vol. vii. of the _Peintre-Graveur_, gives us some twenty examples, any of which may have been used as book-plates. Some idea as to whether or not an early armorial plate is really a book-plate may, however, be gained by taking its measurement. A very large engraving should be regarded with suspicion, though not necessarily rejected as a book-plate on account of its size. Sir Wollaston Franks possesses a magnificent book-plate, measuring no less than 14 × 10 inches, which is at this moment still fulfilling its original functions. This is certainly the largest example yet discovered. It has been known to collectors for some time in what was believed to be a perfect state, but the copy just mentioned shows that what was thought to be the whole was in reality only a portion of the design, since it lacked the elaborate framework, which is richly embellished with weapons and ensigns, as well as with musical instruments of every description. This book-plate belonged to Count Maximilian Louis Breiner, a distinguished official of the Emperor of Austria in Lombardy. A striking feature in it is the introduction, above the arms of the owner of the plate, of those of Austria, surmounted by the imperial crown, supported by a couple of cherubs. Both the design and engraving are the work of Giuseppe Petrarca, who probably produced them during the closing years of the seventeenth century. [Illustration] Quite in a distinct style from the other German book-plates mentioned is that figured opposite, which may be dated about the year 1530. It is interesting from its owner, one Paulus Speratus, an ardent preacher of the Lutheran doctrine at Augsburg, Württemberg, Salzburg, and Vienna, and afterwards Bishop of Pomerania, who proved himself ready to undergo suffering in the cause he imagined to be right. He was born in 1484, and died in 1554. The shading in the arms is very peculiar, expressing as it does, on the first and fourth divisions of the shield, _argent_ and _vert_ at a period, as we have seen, long anterior to the use of lines or dots to express the metals or tinctures in heraldry. An explanation is no doubt to be found in the fact that the artist only intended to represent some light colour in the shaded parts, in the same way as in the second and third divisions of the shield he desired in the thickly inked parts to represent _sable_. The book-plate is now preserved in a copy of the Psalms translated into Russian by Francis Skorina, and printed at Wilna about the year 1525. The peculiar inscription on this book-plate is referred to on p. 166.