Jan Brant, the father of Rubens’s first wife Isabella, was one of the leading humanists of his time. The inscription on the spine of one of the books is a reference to a commentary he published on an edition by Caesar that brought him great recognition. After studying law in Leuven, Orléans, and Bourges, he travelled to Italy and Germany before finally settling in Antwerp as a lawyer. He bequeathed his portrait to his grandson Albert Rubens who, like himself, had embarked on a legal career.