This large volume, possibly one of the first large books published in Chester, is probably unique. It is the only known surviving copy of Randle Holme's Academy of Armory which contains Book III in its entirety. The work was intended to consist of four books, each focusing on different aspects of heraldry, but following the printing of the thirteenth chapter of the third book Holme was unable to print the rest of his work even though he had – as stated in his passage to the reader following the final chapter – completed the manuscript. This manuscript, along with three other copies of the book, is now held in the British Library.

This volume, although containing the only known printed copy of the final chapters of Book III, is itself imperfect. None of the six remaining chapters of the book contain their opening page which, when compared to the rest of the book and the manuscript, would have contained an illustrative table and a dedicatory inscription to a subscriber. It appears that these missing pages were never printed (they do appear in the manuscript), or disappeared soon after their publication. An inscription in a copy of the book owned by Thomas Grenville (1755-1846) states that he almost purchased this copy, but upon seeing that the remainder of Book III was missing pages, he preferred to go for a less incomplete volume, albeit one without the additional chapters.

The book itself is intended to be a comprehensive guide to heraldry in the seventeenth century but there are numerous occasions when Holme diverges from his topic and occasionally fabricates associations with heraldic objects. These digressions, although irrelevant to the book provide an extremely useful insight into the manners, customs, clothing and everyday lives of people in seventeenth-century Cheshire and are invaluable to the study of mid seventeenth-century culture and society.

Adapted from: Randle Holme, The Academy of Armory (Roxburghe Club edition, no. 144), 1905.