Rhinoceros (after Durer) on a shield. From Schrenck von Nozing (or Notzing) 1603 translated edition: Der Aller Durchleuchtigisten vnd und Grossmächtigen Kayser Königen und Ertz-hertzogen, Fürsten und anderer treflicher berühmbter Kriegsshelden warhafftige Bildtnussen.
Jacob Schrenck von Nozing was the secretary of Archduke Ferdinand, who compiled this catalogue of the Archduke’s collecton of armour. One of the plates ilustrates a leather shield or roundel of Gian Giacomo de’ Medici, then kept in Archduke Ferdinand’s Schloss Ambras. The shield was transferred to Vienna in 1806 and is now preserved Imperial Armouries, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. The illustrations are attributed to Dominic de Coster. One of the plates, unnumbered in 1601, plate 42 in 1603, shows Johannes Jacobus Medices with a shield with the figure of the rhinoceros. The explanatory text on the following page is a biography of the duke and does not mention the animal.
