Jacob de Bie

He only finished and published the book on de Croÿ's ancient coin collection in 1615 in Antwerp under the title Imperatorum Romanorum numismata aurea a Julio Cæsare ad Heraclium continua serie collecta Et Ex Archetypis Expressa (A continual series of gold coins of the Roman Emperors from Julius Cesar to Heraclius collected and expressed through the originals).

[4] Not long after losing his employment the Archdukes Albert and his consort Isabella, who were the then joint governors of the Southern Netherlands, appointed the painter Otto van Veen as the waerdeyn ('warden') of the revived Brussels Mint.

Firstly, they wanted to find a decent position for their beloved but ageing painter, and merely followed what had previously been done in 1572 when the great sculptor and medalist Jacques Jonghelinck had been made waerdeyn of the Antwerp Mint.

Secondly, they needed to put at the head of the Brussels Mint a competent person, since they were then involved in launching a new series of coins as part of a general monetary reform.

Otto van Veen who knew of Jacob de Bie's interest in ancient coins offered him the position of maître particulier at the Brussels Mint.

Jacob de Bie accepted the position, but he soon found himself in trouble because he was blamed for the low quality of the coins produced.

Due to his passion for coins, he had bought old stocks of numismatic books written by Hubert Goltzius together with an original and unpublished manuscript by the same author.

Jacob de Bie managed to publish the unpublished manuscripts of Goltzius, but he was bankrupted by the small print run and its poor quality.

[7] In 1636 de Bie published another book called La France métallique, contenant les actions célèbres tant publiques que privées des rois et des reines remarquées en leurs médailles d'or, d'argent & de bronze.

One side of the jeton would bear the arms of the country or the portrait of its ruler, while its reverse would show an allegorical representation of the event.

[2] The Iconologia of Ripa was a highly influential emblem book based on Egyptian, Greek and Roman emblematical representations, many of them personifications.

A few books (including an illustrated one) published in Arnhem a few years later refer to a Jacob de Bie paying the expenses for printing it or designing it.

His earliest known works are the prints he contributed to the Vita, passio et Resvrrectio Iesv Christi published by de Bie's master Adriaen Collaert in 1598.

This was a series of prints depicting the life of Christ, based on illustrations by the Flemish painter and draughtsman Marten de Vos.