Theatrum Virtutum

As the titlepage above suggests, 'Theatrum Virtutum' (The Theatre of Virtues) was something of a homage to the learned and widely respected catholic bishop and papal envoy during the Counter-Reformation, Stanislaus Hosius (1504-1579).

"He did more for the preservation of the Catholic religion in Poland than all the other Polish bishops combined. He was withal, a man of prayer, mortification, and great liberality towards the poor. Both clergy and laity looked upon him as a saint."

I presume this (latin) sketch album by Tomasz Treter from ~1588 was the draft for an engraved publication under the same title that was released soon after. Most information online is in Polish, a language which is as easily understood in the original as it is in the resultant gobbledegook from online translation. I daresay I would have passed over this work if it were in the published form, but there is something elegant about the ink and wash drawings that caught my eye. All the text is very neat and there is an index laying out the location of all the virtues in the (60-odd) pictures; no doubt it was a presentation album, although the 19th century bookplates don't provide any assistance.

• 'Theatrum virtutum ac meritorum D[omini] Stanislai Hosii S[anctae] R[omanae] E[cclesiae] presb[iteri] card[inalis], , maiori penitentiarii et episcopi Varmiensis' is online at the wonderful National Digital Library of Poland (note the thumbnail icon up the top).
• A small amount of information in english about a recent translation of the work into Polish.