Prima [et Secunda] pars Promptuarii iconum insigniorum à seculo hominum, subiectis eorum vitis, per compendium ex probatissimis autoribus desumptis.

[d] (Latin for 'The First [and Second] Part of the Storehouse of Images of the More Notable Men from the Beginning of Time, with Their Biographies Subjoined, Taken in Abbreviated Form from the Most Approved Authors.

Originally released in Latin, French, and Italian editions, the book features portrait engravings in a medallion format, arranged in a primarily chronological order from Old Testament figures and Greco-Roman deities through mid-16th-century contemporaries.

Rouillé's aim was to distill complex histories into standardized imagery and concise narratives, so that the past was made accessible for a general audience.

[11] The Prima pars catalogs figures from the pre-Christian era, documenting their major biographical events through dual dating systems: Anno Mundi ('in the year of the world'), derived from Genesis's creation narrative, and Ante Christum natum ('before Christ [was] born'), equivalent to the BC designation.

[10]: 238 [12][13] Opening with a portrayal of Adam and Eve as elderly figures,[2]: 190  the Prima pars documents Old Testament personalities, including patriarchs, prophets, and monarchs such as Abraham, Noah, Jeremiah, Nimrod, and Ahab.

The section incorporates various pagan deities and mythological figures—among them Janus, Osiris, Theseus, the Minotaur, the Amazonian Queens, Vesta, Romulus, and Helen of Troy—demonstrating the Renaissance humanist integration of classical and Judaic traditions.

[5]: 101 [10]: 238 [2]: 197 The Pars secunda covers figures from the Christian era through the mid-16th century, spanning the post-Christ Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, and Rouillé's contemporary period.

The work then presents Christ in an enlarged medallion distinguished by a cross-shaped halo, incorporating both Hebrew text and the Latin inscription Christus Rex Venit in Pace, Deus homo Factus est ('Christ the King came in peace, God became man').

[2]: 196  The biographical scope includes Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pilate, most Roman emperors, Attila the Hun, the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the early Ottoman sultans, and post-classical literary figures such as Dante Alighieri.

Holy Roman Emperors from Charlemagne through Charles V are represented, alongside contemporary royals including Edward VI of England, Margaret of Valois, and Catherine de' Medici.

[1]: 73  Rouillé's adoption of the medallion portrait format derived from the 1517 publication Illustrium imagines ('Images of the famous') by Italian Renaissance humanist Andrea Fulvio, which presented 204 busts of historical figures engraved in the style of ancient coins.

[15]: 700,702  In the preface of Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum, Rouillé acknowledges including fictitious images of individuals said to have lived before the biblical Flood or prior to the invention of painting and engraving, wryly noting that this choice helped him avoid accusations of circulating counterfeit currency.

He admits to exercising artistic license in creating these portraits, while emphasizing that they were based on physiognomic interpretations of the subjects' deeds, customs, personalities, and presumed geographical origins.

[15]: 700  Some of the engravings appear to have been either modeled after or created in collaboration with the Dutch painter Corneille de Lyon, as evidenced by stylistic similarities in certain contemporary portraits, such as that of Margaret of Valois, Duchess of Berry.

[9]: 365  The 1577 French edition demonstrates a historiographical shift through its expanded inclusion of Renaissance humanist scholars, with an emphasis on legal and medical theorists such as François Douaren and Andreas Vesalius.

Its influence stemmed partly from Rouillé's skillful integration of heterogeneous source materials and his selection of portrait subjects that departed from established iconographic conventions of the period.

[10]: 263–264 A contemporary response from within the Lyonnais publishing industry to Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum emerged in 1559 with Jean de Tournes's Insignium aliquot virorum icones ('Images of Some Notable Men'), a derivative work using a nearly identical medallion portrait format.

De Tournes, a leading figure in the regional publishing scene alongside Rouillé, introduced this publication at a reduced price point, offering a more limited selection of biographical portraits than Promptuarium Iconum Insigniorum.

[5]: 93  Julian Sharman, the 19th-century author of The Library of Mary Queen of Scots, described Rouillé's work as "not one of much numismatic interest"; however he added that the portrait book had been "pronounced to be one of the marvels of early wood-engraving".