Original prints from copper plates engraved by Jean Baptiste Barbé from Rubens's artwork. Commissioned by the Society of Jesus in 1605/1606 and first issued in 1609. The present edition apparently printed from the same blocks except for changed t.p. date, a new official portrait of the saint, and added plate no. 80 which depicts Loyola's canonization in 1622. Cf. facsim. ed. with title Vida de San Ignacio de Loyola en imágenes of the 1609 issue, with introd. study by Antonio M. Navas Gutiérrez (Granada, 1992/3).
Engraved t.p. is followed by plate with portrait and plates 1-80 printed from blocks ca. 145 x 98 mm; the engraved/printed area includes 2 to 6 lines of explanatory text (anon., perhaps N. Lancicius?) also the sequential numbering.