Published in Jean Jacques Boissard’s ‘Bibliotheca sive Thesaurus virtutis’ (1627) was a portrait of Johannes Schöner (1477-1547) by Theodor de Bry, engraved in 1597. Schöner was a German polymaths whose pursuits included astronomy, astrology, mathematics, cartography and the priestgood. He was a pioneer of globe, producing and selling terrestrial and celestial spheres at his workshop in Bamberg. It was with Schöner’s encouragement that Nicolaus Copernicus published his ‘De revolutionibus’.

De Bry’s portrait shows the distinctively bearded Schöner, wearing billowing robes and seated at a desk. On the surface before him is an open book, quill and ink, and unfurled scroll on which his dates of birth and death are given. An ornately decorated arch above the portrait identified the subject by name, while there are a further two lines of Latin below.