The designs of Cesare Vecellio from the book Costumes Anciens et Modernes

The drawings of Cesare Vecellio from the book “Costumes anciens et moderns”, in the Didot edition of 1859. The original edition, entitled “De gli habiti antichi, et moderni di diverse parti del mondo” is dating back to 1590 and it is the most famous of what can be called “appereance atlas”, books illustrated with images and descriptions of the clothes worn by men and women of different social classes in the various countries of the world: a gallery of costumes that allowed the reader to know the local people of those time, according to their rank. The sixteenth century was the period of maximum flowering of this kind of publications: at that time the discovery of the new worlds urged the curiosity of Europeans, eager to know the customs of the populations of overseas lands.

You can see a selection of images from The designs of Cesare Vecellio from the book Costumes Anciens et Modernes.

The images shown on the left is forbidden even partial reproduction in any medium.