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[Illustration]
[Illustration:
GEOFROY
TORY
PAINTER AND ENGRAVER:
FIRST ROYAL PRINTER: REFORMER
OF ORTHOGRAPHY
AND TYPOGRAPHY UNDER
FRANÇOIS I.
AN ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE
AND WORKS, BY AUGUSTE
BERNARD, TRANSLATED BY
GEORGE B. IVES.
[Illustration]
THE RIVERSIDE PRESS: MDCCCCIX
]
[Illustration:
[Illustration] ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS IN THE YEAR 1909,
BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN CO., IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT
WASHINGTON. [Illustration]]
[Illustration]
PRINTERS' PREFACE.
[Illustration]
Bernard's _monograph on Tory was first published in_ 1857, _when M.
Bernard was already a recognized authority on the history of typography.
In_ 1865, _after an interval devoted largely to a search for further
information concerning Tory_, _and for probable examples of his work as an
artist_, _a second edition of the book appeared_, _enlarged by more than
one-half_, _arranged more systematically_, _and embellished with several
additional engravings of designs which are_, _in the author's opinion_,
_attributable to Tory. The Iconography, which forms the third part of this
revised edition, did not appear as such in the first edition, although a
small part of the material it contains may be found scattered through that
edition. It now occupies more space than the Biography and Bibliography
combined. The new arrangement necessitated more or less repetition where,
as in many instances, the same book is referred to by M. Bernard in more
than one section of his work; and this repetition sometimes reveals
discrepancies between the different descriptions. Where such discrepancies
have been discovered by him the translator has endeavoured to correct
them, generally, in the absence of an opportunity to inspect the volume in
question, assuming that the description in the bibliographical section is
more likely to be trustworthy; in a number of cases, however, inspection
of title-pages themselves, or of reproductions thereof, has enabled him to
correct numerous minor errors in transcription._
_The kindness of the late Mr. Amor L. Hollingsworth, in lending his fine
copy of the first edition of 'Champ fleury,' made it possible to collate
therewith M. Bernard's numerous extracts from that rare and interesting
book, and to ensure entire accuracy with respect to them._
_As M. Bernard writes certain printers' names in different ways, the
translator has assumed that the names are printed differently in different
books, and has not attempted to make them uniform. Such names are Dubois_
(_Du Bois_), _Lecoq_ (_Le Coq_), _Galliot_ (_Galiot_). _The few notes
supplied by the translator are inserted in square brackets._
_The translations of Tory's various Latin effusions, including the
complete text of the little brochure called forth by the death of his
daughter Agnes, were made by Mr. J. W. H. Walden of Cambridge. The Latin
originals will be found at the end of the book, in Appendix X._
_Since such authorities as M. Bernard and M. Renouvier differ as to the
ascription to Tory of many of the designs mentioned in this work, it
seemed the wiser course to choose for illustration only such subjects as
are described by the author, without questioning the soundness of his
reasoning or the infallibility of his deductions. The only exception is
the beautiful design reproduced on the first page of the Index. This is
taken from Robert Estienne's folio New Testament_ (_in Greek_) _of_ 1550,
_where_, _with two other similar decorations_, _it occurs in conjunction
with the friezes and floriated Greek letters reproduced elsewhere in this
volume_. _They are unsigned, but all are indubitably from the same hand.
Although they are not mentioned by M. Bernard, it seems incredible that he
should never have seen them._
_The printer of this volume has had more than ordinary good fortune in
literally stumbling upon most of the designs here reproduced. The pressure
of other work has prohibited systematic research, and the originals of
these illustrations were nearly all discovered while he was engaged
upon other matters. Many were found in the Harvard Library, some in the
reference library of the Riverside Press, some in auction rooms, and some
in booksellers' catalogues. The only exception is the series of borders
from the Hours of_ 1524-25, _which were expressly photographed from the
copy in the library of the British Museum._
_That so much has come to hand in so haphazard a way is but an additional
proof of Tory's industry and versatility. There seems to be almost no
limit to the work which may fairly be credited to him, and M. Bernard
hardly exaggerated when he said that there was scarcely an illustrated
volume of any importance issued in Paris during the first half of the_
XVI _th century in which the artist of the Lorraine cross did not have
a hand. Hours and Classics, Bibles and Testaments, Mathematical and
Medical works--all bear evidence to his prolific pen and graver, and
were time disregarded, the preparation of this volume might be almost
indefinitely prolonged. Incomplete as it is, however, it is hoped that it
will measurably fulfill the desire expressed by Mr. A. W. Pollard nearly
fifteen years ago, in the first issue of 'Bibliographica.' Speaking of
Bernard's monograph, he said_, _'It would be pleasant if some French
publisher would bring out a new edition worthily illustrated_, _for in_
1865 _the modern processes of reproduction were not yet invented_, _and
the few and poor woodcuts in M. Bernard's book give no just idea of the
artistic powers of Tory_, _whose illustrated editions are so difficult to
meet with that M. Bernard's admirable commentary loses half its value for
lack of a proper accompaniment of text.'_
_A word regarding the method of reproduction of these illustrations may
not be out of place here. More was aimed at than mere photographic copies,
which are in many ways inadequate. It was thought desirable to make the
decorations an integral part of the typographic treatment of the volume
and to preserve when practicable their original relations to the type. To
attain this end, more perfect printing plates were necessary than could be
obtained directly from the old editions. The designs, therefore, were all
redrawn with the greatest care over photographs of the originals, and from
these drawings photo-engravings made, which were afterward perfected by
hand when the forms were on the press._
_Notwithstanding some inevitable slight divergences of line, this
method preserves with far greater faithfulness the spirit and effect
of the original prints, and the result is more truly a facsimile than
a direct photographic copy would have been. Both drawing and engraving
of Tory's designs were exquisite, and as a rule they were beautifully
printed, especially by Colines and Robert Estienne. Some of them,
however, suffered at the hands of inferior printers. Imperfections and
irregularities due to the carelessness or unskilfullness of the printer
are readily discernible, and in the reproductions in this volume have been
eliminated. The preservation, by this treatment, of more of the beauty and
interest of the originals is sufficient justification for departing to
this extent from the usual methods of facsimile reproduction._
_Following the French fashion, the Table of Contents and List of
Illustrations are printed at the end of the volume._
G. B. I.
B. R.
_January_, 1909.
[Illustration:
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
TO THE SECOND
EDITION.
[Illustration] ]
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE
SECOND EDITION.
[Illustration]
The first half of the sixteenth century was with respect to printing
(as with respect to the other arts) a period of renovation, not in the
matter of processes of execution, which remained about the same as in
the fifteenth century, but in the matter of the make-up of books, which
was entirely revolutionized. Typographical arrangement, appearance of
the letters and ornaments, everything, even to the cover, was changed
almost at the same time, or, at all events, within a very few years. At
that time printing gave over the servile copying of manuscripts, which
had at first served it as models, and adopted special rules, better
adapted to its method of execution. For instance, it relegated notes to
the foot of the pages, calling attention to them by marks of reference,
instead of placing them at the side of the text, as had previously been
the custom, at the cost of an enormous amount of labour, without benefit
to the reader. It also abandoned the use of red capitals,[1] which, by
increasing the labour twofold, made books expensive, and replaced them
by floriated letters, which were quite as distinctive, but were set up
and printed with the text. This style of ornament, so favourable to
artistic results, developed rapidly, and soon extended from the letters
to the illustrations, which began to be introduced in books in constantly
increasing numbers. Under the general impulsion of the Renaissance,
engraving was transformed: instead of the coarse woodcuts, of the
so-called criblé style, in which the background was black sprinkled with
white dots,[2] and the design stamped in white, as with a punch, engraving
in relief came into vogue, just as we have it to-day, identical in form,
although the processes have been perfected. A similar revolution took
place in the matter of letters: the gothic or semi-gothic characters,
which had hitherto been used, were replaced by roman characters of a novel
shape, borrowed from the monuments of antiquity (then studied with great
ardour), which continued in use until the Revolution. Lastly, the covers
of books also underwent a transformation brought about by the force of
events: the parchment rolls used by the ancients had been succeeded,
during the Middle Ages, by bound volumes, of a shape more convenient
for reading; these volumes, of which those who were fortunate enough to
own any never owned more than a very small number, being intended to be
arranged on the library shelves in such wise as to present one side to
the visitor's eye, were adorned with numerous ornaments of various sorts
on that side, so that they could easily be distinguished. Later, these
ornaments were omitted and the title of the book substituted, in huge
black or gauffered letters. But the invention of printing soon caused
that device to be abandoned. As the increasing numbers of books made it
impossible to give up so much space to them, they were arranged side by
side on the shelves, care being taken to print the title in gold letters
(so that it might be more legible) on the back of the book, which was the
only part of it in sight. This innovation compelled the doing away with
raised decorations, especially those in precious stones or in metal, which
would have torn the books that stood next them. Thereafter leather binding
came into general use; the gauffering on the sides was continued for some
time; but in the sixteenth century this in turn was replaced by gold
tooling 'à filet,' and the transformation was complete.
* * * * *
The man who contributed most largely to the threefold evolution I have
described was Geofroy Tory, a man who is hardly known to-day,[3] despite
all his talents, although he received in 1530, as reward of his labours,
the title of king's printer, which François I had never before bestowed
upon any one. I say that Tory is hardly known to-day; in truth, it is,
in his case, equivalent to being unknown, to be known, as he is, only
as a publisher. Some few scholars, to be sure, are aware that he was a
printer; but the fact is so little known that his biographer has denied
it.[4] As for his noblest title to fame, that of engraver, nobody is aware
of it; and yet we owe to Tory the resuscitation of engraving in France.
As the historian of typography,[5] I have thought that it was for me to
describe with special care one of the fairest jewels in his crown. Such
is the purpose of the work here presented, wherein will also be found, in
connection with the honour paid to Tory by François I, some information
concerning the first royal printers, and a list of those officers from the
beginning down to the extinction of the office in 1830, three centuries,
year for year, after its creation. François I is, in truth, entitled to
be considered the creator of the office of king's printer, for prior to
his reign we find but one typographer who bore that title, while, from
François I down, the series of king's printers was not again interrupted.
The appointment of Pierre le Rouge, on whom the title was bestowed in
1488,[6] may be creditable to Charles VIII, but it was without result. The
honour of having made of the eminently literary post of king's printer
a permanent office reverts of right and naturally to the prince who has
been called the Father of Letters. In truth that prince, as we shall see
hereafter, was not content with a single printer; he had several at once,
with distinct functions, and appointed successors without loss of time to
such as retired or died during his lifetime.
But, I repeat, the principal purpose of my work is to make Tory known as
one of the most skilful engravers we have ever had. Of course I cannot
forget that he was the learned editor of the 'Cosmographie du Pape Pie
II,' the 'Itinéraire Antonin,' etc.; the publisher, of rare taste, who
put forth the Hours of 1525, 1527, etc.; the accomplished printer of
the 'Sacre de la Reine Eléonore,' and the distinguished philologist of
'Champ fleury,' to whom, as we shall see, we owe the invention of the
orthographic forms peculiar to the French language.[7] But what has
especially attracted me in Tory is his work as an engraver. In that
rôle he was without predecessor or rival, for those persons who may be
represented as such may have been his pupils, nothing more. Jean Duvet
alone might quarrel with this limitation; but, although he was Tory's
contemporary, he was not his teacher; for Tory had gone for his schooling
in the art to the very fountain-head, to Italy, before Duvet produced
anything. As for Jean Cousin, de Laulne, du Cerceau, Léonard Gauthier, and
the rest, they did not come until after Tory. The honour of revivifying
the art of engraving in France belongs to Tory alone, bestriding two
centuries, the fifteenth and sixteenth; indeed, some of his productions
are pure gothic. This I propose to demonstrate in the third part of my
book, after I have, in the first part, narrated the general facts of
our artist's life, in which we may observe also the development of a
revolution in the matter of philology; for Tory was a devoted partisan of
the classic tongues before he became one of the sturdiest champions of the
French language.
In order to emphasize the importance of the orthographic reform achieved
by Tory, I have usually followed the orthography of the time in my
quotations from ancient works. It is an anachronism, to be sure, but it
is of no consequence when the reader is forewarned. I have also felt at
liberty to correct now and then, without calling attention to them, the
typographical errors found in the texts quoted.
I will not conclude without thanking publicly those persons who have
kindly assisted me in my researches concerning Tory. I have had occasion
to mention their names in the course of my work, but that is not enough:
I beg them to accept in this place the assurance of my gratitude. There
are two to whom I am especially grateful, for they have considerably
augmented my store of documents: they are MM. Achille Devéria[8] and
Olivier Barbier, of the Bibliothèque Impériale: it is owing to their kind
communications to me that the list of Tory's artistic works will be found
not far from complete.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: This term, which is wrongfully used in printing today
to denote all majuscules, was formerly employed only for the initial
letters of _chapters_. It was in this sense that Schoeffer used it when
he said, in 1457, that his Psalter was _venustate capitalium distinctus_
[distinguished by the beauty of its capitals]; also Chevillier, when he
wrote in the _Origine de l'Imprimerie de Paris_ (page 32), that the books
of the first printers of Paris had no 'capitals,' the chapter initials
being left blank, to be made by the illuminators. M. Crapelet, taking the
word in its present meaning, concluded therefrom that the books of Gering
and his associates were without majuscules; and he thereupon attributes
the introduction of roman letters in Paris to Josse Bade, in the sixteenth
century, but he is altogether wrong.]
[Footnote 2: [_Criblé_, lit. sifted.]]
[Footnote 3: I retain the phraseology of the first edition of my book,
published in 1856; but the fact is that, thanks to that publication, Tory
is no longer in the same plight. His books have become formidable rivals
to those of Vostre, Vérard, etc. One of his Books of Hours sold recently
for more than 3000 francs. [Note to 2d edition, 1865.]]
[Footnote 4: See _La Biographie Universelle_, article 'Tory,' by M. Weiss,
City Librarian of Besançon.]
[Footnote 5: See my book, entitled: _De l'Origine et des Débuts de
l'Imprimerie en Europe_; 2 vols., 8vo, 1853.]
[Footnote 6: In the imprint of the _Mer des Histoires_, 2 vols., folio,
completed in 1488 (1489, new style), we read: '_Imprimee par Maistre
Pierre le Rouge, libraire et imprimeur du Roy_'; but he assumed the latter
title only once, and in my opinion it was the result of a misapprehension.
He seems in fact to have been king's bookseller only; at all events he
assumes that title in the _Heures à l'Usage de Rome_, which he published
in 1491. In any case, his assumption of the title does not prove that he
received royal letters patent, as all the other printers did, as we shall
see later.]
[Footnote 7: Tory also essayed a reform in Latin orthography, but it was
less happily conceived, and did not succeed.]
[Footnote 8: Alas! since this preface was first printed, we have had the
misfortune to lose the eminent artist whom I have named. [Note to 2d
edition.]]
[Illustration:
PART I.
BIOGRAPHY.
[Illustration] ]
[Illustration]
GEOFROY TORY
PAINTER AND ENGRAVER: FIRST ROYAL PRINTER: REFORMER OF ORTHOGRAPHY AND
TYPOGRAPHY UNDER FRANÇOIS I.
PART I. BIOGRAPHY.
[Illustration]
Less than twenty years after the introduction of printing at Paris, there
was born at Bourges a child of the people, destined to impart to French
typography a vigorous artistic impulsion, or, to speak more accurately, to
work therein a genuine revolution. Geofroy Tory[9] was born in the capital
of Berry, about 1480, of obscure, middle-class parents, as he himself
tells us.[10] Everything seems to indicate that he first saw the light
of day in the faubourg of Saint-Privé, to this day the abode of humble
vine-dressers. How, in that most lowly condition of life, he succeeded in
acquiring the degree of education which he afterward exhibited, it is hard
to say. However, it is proper to remember that Bourges was at that time a
metropolitan and university city, where there were several schools, both
ecclesiastic and lay. We may well believe that, having, at an early age,
aroused the interest of some patron by virtue of his fortunate natural
endowments and his intelligence, he was admitted to the schools attached
to the chapter, where he learned the first elements of grammar. We shall
soon find him dedicating the first fruits of his labours to a canon of the
metropolitan church of Bourges, who seems to have been, at that time, his
Mæcenas.
Once master of the first rudiments of grammar, Tory perfected himself
by following the curriculum of the university, where, as we learn from
himself, he had for his teacher a Fleming named Guillaume de Ricke,
otherwise called 'le Riche' in French and 'Dives' in Latin; and for a
fellow disciple under this Ghent-born master, a certain Herverus de
Berna, from Saint-Amand, who afterward wrote a panegyric of the Comtes de
Nevers.[11]
Tory then went, to finish his literary education, to Italy, whither he
betook himself early in the sixteenth century. He sojourned principally
in Rome, where he attended most frequently the famous college called
La Sapienza,[12] and in Bologna, where he attended the lectures of the
celebrated Filippo Beroaldo, who died in 1505.[13] Tory returned to France
a little before that event, and established his domicile in Paris, which
he always loved henceforward as one loves one's native city,[14] and where
he began his literary career.
The first work of his of which we have any knowledge is an edition of
Pomponius Mela, which he prepared for the bookseller Jean Petit; it was
printed by Gilles de Gourmont because it required the use of some Greek
type.[15] This book was dedicated by Tory to his compatriot Philibert
Babou, at that time valet de chambre to the king. The dedicatory epistle
is dated Paris, the VI[16] of the Nones of December, 1507; but the
printing of the book was not completed until January 10, 1508 (new
style).[17] Several articles in this volume, which were written by Tory,
are signed by the word CIVIS, which he had adopted for his
device. That patriotic designation was well suited to a descendant of
those Bituriges who strove vainly at Avaricum[18] to defend the autonomy
of Gaul against Cæsar. In any event it is interesting to find, three
hundred years before Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a man, justly proud of his
learning, which he owed entirely to himself, clothing himself in that
title of citizen, which was formerly held in such honour in the provincial
cities, and especially in Bourges, whose name Tory never fails to append
to his own: 'Geofroy Tory de Bourges.'
This erudite production and the patronage of Philibert Babou were perhaps
responsible for Tory's appointment to the office of regent, otherwise
called professor, of the College of Plessis, where we find him installed
in 1509. It was there that he edited for the first Henri Estienne the
'Cosmographie du pape Pie II.'[19]
The dedication of this book, addressed by Tory to Germain de Gannay, canon
of the metropolitan church of Bourges, and recently appointed Bishop of
Cahors by King Louis XII,[20] was dated at the College of Plessis, on the
VI of the Nones of October,[21] 1509. Tory's edition (the third according
to him) contains forty-one quarto sheets of text, and is accompanied by
a map of the old world. The 'avis au lecteur,' also written by Tory, is
signed, according to his custom, with the word CIVIS. In the
following year, in collaboration with a compatriot and fellow pupil,
Herverus de Berna, Tory published a short Latin poem on the Passion,
written by his former teacher, Guillaume de Ricke. In this wise he
acquitted his debt of gratitude.[22] Shortly after, Tory published for the
Marnef brothers an edition of Berosus, who was then much in vogue, thanks
to the fabrications of Annius of Viterbo. This book, the preface of which
is dated May 9, 1510, went to no less than three editions, to say nothing
of those issued by other publishers.[23]
In the same year Tory published for the same booksellers a small
volume of miscellanies, under this title: 'Valerii Probi grammatici de
interpretandis Romanorum literis opusculum, cum aliis quibusdam scitu
dignissimis.' It was probably printed by Gilles de Gourmont, for we find
in it his unaccented Greek type.[24] This volume, which contains twelve
octavo sheets, has two engravings on wood--the mark of the booksellers on
the title-page, and a Roman portico a little farther on. There are also a
few small cuts engraved on metal in one of the articles. The dedicatory
epistle, dated at the College of Plessis the VI of the Ides of May (May
10), 1510, and addressed by Tory to two compatriots, who had probably
been his fellow pupils, is signed by his device, the word CIVIS.
The dedication begins thus: 'Godofredus Torinus Bituricus ornatissimos
Philibertum Baboum et Ioannem Alemanum Iuniorem, cives Bituricos, pari
inter se amicitia conjunctissimos, salutat.' Babou and Lallemant were at
this time two important personages in Bourges: the former was secretary
and silversmith to the king, the other, mayor of the city. We see that
Tory had acquired valuable connections in his native place, despite his
modest origin. Among the extracts from ancient authors in this book he
interspersed several pieces of verse of his own composition.[25]
Finally, in the same year, Tory issued an edition of Quintilian's
'Institutiones,' carefully collated by him with several manuscripts.
This work was undertaken at the request of Jean Rousselet, Seigneur de
La Part-Dieu, near Lyon, and an ancestor of Château-Regnaud, Maréchal de
France. This Rousselet, who died in 1520, belonged to one of the wealthy
Lombard families which had settled at Lyon long before; they made, as
we see, a noble use of their wealth. His real name was Ruccelli. He had
married a young gentlewoman of Bourges, Jeanne Lallemant, daughter of Jean
Lallemant, Seigneur de Marmagne, a school friend of Tory, whom I have
already had occasion to mention. Doubtless it was this connection which
brought Tory into relations with Rousselet. The text is preceded by the
following dedicatory letter:
_Geofroy Tory of Bourges to Jean Rousselet, devoted lover of
letters, long life and happiness._
Never, I think, most illustrious Jean, will you omit or cease to
have the aspiration of nobly justifying, both by your character
and by your good deeds, the great hopes which your relatives and
your country have of you. That you might benefit the State by
your counsel also, you made it your interest that I should emend
Quintilian and have him printed as handsomely as might be. After
carefully collating a large number of manuscripts, I industriously
set to work and, by eliminating almost countless errors, I made a
single manuscript of considerable accuracy. This, in accordance
with your orders, I sent from Paris to Lyon. I only hope that the
printers will not introduce other, new, errors. Farewell, and love
me.
Paris, at the College of Plessis, the third of the Calends of
March.[26]
This book, which forms a large octavo volume, unpaged, printed in italic
type, and in which we find some most attractive Greek type, with accents,
was finished on the VII of the Calends of July (that is to say, June
25), 1510. The printer's name does not anywhere appear, and the place of
printing (Lyon) is mentioned only in Tory's letter.[27]
I know of nothing of Tory's dated in 1511[28]; but that does not prove
that he produced nothing in that year, for it is certain that about that
time he published several works which have not come down to us. In fact,
he tells us in his 'Champ fleury'[29] that he has 'caused to be printed
and put before the eyes of worthy scholars divers little works in Latin,
both in verse and in prose.' Now we know of nothing of his in verse prior
to 1524, except what we find at the end of the 'Valerius Probus' of 1510,
and of Guillaume de Ricke's 'Passion.' Moreover, the absence of any
publication by Tory in 1511 may be explained by the confusion incident
to his retirement from the College of Plessis and his installation at
the College Coqueret, which seems to have taken place in that year, but
concerning which I have no other information than the imprint on two books
published by him in the following year.
The first work edited by Tory in 1512 was an architectural treatise
entitled: 'Leonis Baptistæ Alberti Florentini.--Libri de re ædificatoria
decem,' etc.; a quarto volume of 14 preliminary leaves and 174 leaves of
text. This book was printed by Berthold Rembolt (whose mark it bears on
the first page), at the joint expense of that printer and the bookseller
Louis Hornken, whose mark is at the end of the book. The dedication,
which is addressed to Philibert Babou, and dated at the College Coqueret
on the XV of the Calends of September (August 18), 1512, informs us that
Tory received the manuscript of the book from his friend Robert Dure,[30]
principal of the College of Plessis, who gave it to him four years
earlier, when Tory himself was professor at the same college. As always,
this dedication is signed CIVIS. A note on the last page but one
informs us that the printing was finished on August 23, 1512.[31]
The second work put forth by Tory in 1512 was the 'Itinerarium Antonini.'
It was the second book that he prepared for Henri Estienne, in whose
establishment it has been said[32] (erroneously, I think) that he filled
the post of corrector of the press. However that may be, the dedication,
addressed by Tory to Philibert Babou, is dated at the College Coqueret
the XIV of the Calends of September (August 19), 1512. Tory says to Babou
that he had dispatched a copy of the manuscript of this book to him at
Tours four years before (that is to say, in 1508), but that the person to
whom it was entrusted for delivery to him had given it, in his own name,
to somebody else. This time, in order not to be defrauded of the fruits
of his labours, he had caused the work to be printed from his own copy,
having carefully collated it with a manuscript lent him by Christophe de
Longueil.[33] The volume is a sexto-decimo, remarkable for the beauty of
its execution. The copy in vellum which I have seen at the Bibliothèque
Nationale is still redolent of the fifteenth century. We find in it
certain verses of the Burgundian Gérard de Vercel in honour of Tory, which
prove that the latter was even then in some repute as a scholar, and as
a printer, too; for the author contrasts him with the wretched printers
of the day. The preliminary matter, by Geofroy Tory, is signed by the
word CIVIS, printed in red. At the end of the volume the same
word reappears in a very curious monogram composed of the letters CIVS
so arranged that we can read the word CIVIS in all directions.
Therein we may detect thus early Tory's taste for ciphers and devices, a
taste to which he afterward gave free rein, in his 'Champ fleury.'
[Illustration]
At this epoch occurs a momentous event in Geofroy Tory's life. On August
26, 1512, he became the father of a daughter, who was christened Agnes.
I do not know the date of his marriage, but it was at least as early as
1511. A document of much later date, to which we shall have occasion to
refer hereafter, informs us that his child's mother was named Perrette
le Hullin. There is reason to believe that she, like her husband, was of
Bourges, as the name of Hullin was common there at that time. Soon after
the birth of Agnes, perhaps just at the opening of the term of 1512, Tory
entered the College of Bourgogne as regent, or professor of philosophy.
His lectures, which were continued for several years, were attended by a
large number of hearers, if we may believe a poetical epitaph composed in
laudation of him and published by La Caille.[34] Tory himself seems to
refer to this professorship in his 'Champ fleury,'[35] but I have been
unable to find any record of it, because, presumably, the new direction
in which he was then turning his faculties required a certain time of
preparation.
This is what happened: Tory, whose activity was very great, did not
confine himself to his professorship,[36] but set about learning drawing
(probably under the instruction of Jean Perreal, of whom I shall have
occasion to speak again), and also engraving, for which he had a special
bent. This apprenticeship, with the duties of his professor's chair,--for
Tory drove art and philosophy side by side, as the epitaph just quoted has
it ('philosophiam simulque artem exercuit typographicam'),[37]--engrossed
him completely for three or four years; but at the end of that time,
being far from content with his attempts at printing and engraving, or
too enthusiastic to be satisfied with a partial result, he determined to
study classic forms and outlines in Italy itself, of which country he
had retained such agreeable memories that he speaks of it constantly.
Consequently he abandoned his professorship and started south again. It
was on this journey that he visited the Coliseum 'more than a thousand
times,'[38] that he saw the theatre of Orange,[39] and the ancient
monuments of Languedoc[40] and of other places in France and Italy,[41]
which he cites as his authorities on every page of his 'Champ fleury.'
Tory does not give the precise date of this artistic journey; but it is
established by a passage in his book, where he informs us that he saw the
'Epitaphs of Ancient Rome' printed in that city.[42] Now this book of
Epitaphs can be no other than the collection published by the celebrated
printer Mazochi, under the title: 'Epigrammata sive inscriptiones antiquæ
urbis,' folio, dated 1516, but preceded by a license from the Pope, of
1517.[43] This hint of Tory's is doubly valuable to us, for it not only
tells us the date of our artist's second journey to Italy, but reveals
his predilection for typography. As we see, he was already studying the
printing art with interest.
On his return to Paris, about 1518, Tory, who was not a wealthy man, was
obliged to think about turning his talents to account, in order to earn
his living. His principal resource seems to have been the painting of
manuscripts, otherwise called miniature; but, whether because he did not
find sufficient work of that sort, or because he considered another branch
of art more useful, he soon gave his entire attention to engraving on
wood, in which he speedily acquired considerable celebrity. About the same
time, Tory also joined the fraternity of booksellers, following a custom
then quite general among engravers,--a custom which their predecessors,
the miniaturists, had handed down to them, and which was continued down to
the eighteenth century.[44] In truth, it was not unnatural that those who
decorated books should sell them, or, if you prefer, that those who sold
them should decorate them. It was one way of earning more money. Desiring
to signalize his début in the career of a bibliopole in a noteworthy way,
Tory undertook to engrave for himself a series of borders 'à l'antique,'
which he intended for a book of Hours,--a sort of book that was very
profitable at that time, because of the great amount of work which it
required; but the task was a long one, and he was obliged to work for
different printers in the mean time. One of the first who employed him was
Simon de Colines. Colines, who became a printer in 1520, as a result of
his marriage to Henri Estienne's widow, commissioned Tory to design marks,
floriated letters, and borders for the books that he published in his own
name; he also entrusted him, I think, with the engraving of his italic
type, which he soon began to use in conjunction with the roman type that
he had from his predecessor.
But Tory's active mind could not be content with a single occupation.
He was a patriot first of all, as his device proves. And so, far from
allowing himself to be engrossed by his memories of the literary and
artistic treasures of Italy, he began to study with ardour the monuments
of his mother tongue, not only in those books printed in French--very few
as yet--which he had at hand in his shop, but also, and especially, in
divers fine manuscripts on parchment confided to him by 'his good friend
and brother, René Massé, of Vendôme, chronicler to the king,' whose
merits, entirely forgotten in our day,[45] he warmly extols.[46]
Now, while studying that same French tongue, so decried by the scholars
of his time, Tory discovered therein beauties which required only a
little cultivation to make of it the finest language in the world. From
that moment our Berrichon, hitherto a partisan of the classics, shook off
entirely the yoke of Greek and Latin, and thought only of the means of
making French take precedence everywhere.
'I see,' he says, 'some who choose to write in Greek and in Latin, and
yet cannot speak French well.... To me it seems, with submission, that
it would better beseem a Frenchman to write in French than in another
tongue, as well for the profit of his said French tongue, as to adorn his
nation and enrich his native language, which is as fair and fine [belle
et bonne] as another when it is well set down in writing.... When I see
a Frenchman write in Greek or in Latin, I seem to see a mason clad in
philosopher's or king's garb, who would fain recite a mask on the stage of
La Baroche[47] or in the confraternity of La Trinité, and cannot pronounce
well enough, as having too thick a tongue; cannot bear himself well, nor
walk fittingly, insomuch as his legs and feet are unwonted to the gait of
philosopher or king. Who should see a Frenchman clad in the native dress
of a Lombard, which is most often long and scant, of blue linen or of
buckram, methinks that Frenchman would scarce jest at his ease without
soon slashing it and taking from it its true form as a Lombard dress,
which is but very rarely slashed, for Lombards do not often work havoc
with their belongings. However, I leave all this to the wise guidance
of learned men, and will not burden myself with Greek or Latin save to
cite them in due time and place, or to talk with such as cannot speak
French.'[48]
Tory had found his vocation at last. He resolved to establish the
superiority of his mother tongue in a special book, illustrated by
engravings by his own hand, and intended particularly for printers and
booksellers, who were in a position to distribute it so rapidly with the
aid of their connections.
But while he was engaged in his studies, a terrible catastrophe fell upon
him without warning, and caused him to forget his new projects for some
time. His daughter Agnes, of whom he had conceived the most brilliant
hopes, was taken from him on August 25, 1522, at the age of nine years
eleven months and thirty days, that is to say, ten years less one day.
Entirely absorbed by his grief, Tory wrote a short Latin poem upon the sad
event. This poem, dedicated, like most of his other books, to Philibert
Babou, was not published until February 15, 1523 (1524, new style). In
this little work, consisting of two quarto sheets, are contained some most
interesting details of Tory's life. We learn here, for example, that he
had grounded his daughter Agnes, young as she was, in Latin and the fine
arts.
'Desiring to instruct me in the Ausonian tongue, and also to render me
accomplished in the polite arts, he, like a most affectionate father,
teaching me night and day, himself laid the foundations, sweet and ample,
for my life.'[49]
Farther on, he makes his daughter speak thus, from the depths of the urn
in which she is supposed to repose:--
MONITOR
Who made for you this urn set with brilliant gems?
AGNES
Who? My father, famed in this art.
MONITOR
Your father is certainly an excellent potter.
AGNES
He practises industriously every day the liberal arts.
MONITOR
Does he also write melodies and poems?
AGNES
He does. He also blesses with sweet words this lot of mine.
MONITOR
Yes, the skill of the man is wonderful.
AGNES
Hardly has any land produced so famous a man.[50]
We learn from this that Tory was not only a scholar, which we already
knew, but an artist of great merit. Who knows? it may be that we had in
him the making of a Benvenuto Cellini. What more was necessary that he
should reveal himself as such? Very little--perhaps the falling in with a
wealthy Mæcenas. In fact, we find these lines in another piece of verse in
the same collection:--
WAYFARER
He is certainly well deserving of some Mæcenas.
GENIUS
Few are the Mæcenases who live in the French world. No one
to-day either encourages the liberal arts by appropriate gifts
or undertakes to encourage them in any way. Uprightness and fair
virtue are in no esteem. So powerful is the sway of unhappy Avarice.
Treachery, deceit, and vice are in the ascendant. Virtues are put in
the background, and every form of wretched evil creeps abroad.
WAYFARER
What, therefore, does he who is trained by the charming Muses?
GENIUS
He takes pleasure in being able to live in his own house.
WAYFARER
He ought to go with hurried step to the courts of kings.
GENIUS
He does not care to, because he has a free heart. Your potentates
sometimes take pleasure in looking at songs, but what then? They
requite them with nods. Golden songs, drawn from the high heavens,
they should reward with jewels and with pure gold. But, frivolous as
they are, they instead foolishly give their grand gifts to fools,
spendthrifts, and rogues.[51]
* * * * *
Alas! this depiction of the vices of society is not peculiar to the
sixteenth century. The world is very old, and it changes little. If Tory
were living in our day, it may be that he would use even darker colours;
for, after all, he was appreciated in his own time, and perhaps he would
die of hunger to-day. As we see, he was not fond of cooling his heels in
the antechambers of the great, and lived peacefully in his own house; but
honour came there to seek him. Unluckily it was a little late, as will
appear hereafter.
At the end of the poem is the design reproduced on the next page, wherein
we see for the first time the famous 'Pot Cassé' [broken jar] which Tory
adopted thenceforth as the mark of his bookshop; together with the device
'non plus,' which he used thereafter instead of the word 'civis.'
Tory subsequently offered, in his 'Champ fleury,' a very confused
explanation of his Pot Cassé, doing his utmost to connect it with the
ordinary events of life; but everything tends to prove that it owes its
origin to the death of Agnes. This shattered antique vessel represents
Tory's daughter, whose career was shattered by destiny at the age of
ten. The book secured by padlocks suggests Agnes's literary studies; the
little winged figure among the clouds is her soul flying up to heaven. The
device 'non plus' suggests the desperate grief of Tory, who seems to say:
'I no longer [non plus] care for anything'; or, more laconically: 'There
is nothing more for me'; after the example of Valentine of Milan when he
found himself in a similar situation.[52]
[Illustration]
Luckily, time, which deadens all sorrows, even those which seem likely
to endure for ever, assuaged Tory's grief. Before his funeral poem saw
the light, he had returned to his beloved studies, and they had restored
tranquillity to his mind. This is proved by the following passage from his
'Champ fleury,' in which he tells us how, on January 6, 1523 (or 1524,
according to our method of computing time), that is to say, eighteen
months after he lost his daughter, the idea of that curious book came
to his mind. We are glad to recognize once more therein the patriotic
Berrichon who had taken for his device the word 'civis.'
'In the morning of the day of the feast of Kings,'[53] he says, '... which
was reckoned M. D. XXIII, the fancy came to me to muse in my bed,
and to move the wheel of my memory, thinking on a thousand petty conceits,
both serious and merry, whereamong I bethought me of a letter of ancient
form, which I not long since made for the house of my lord the treasurer
of the wars, Maistre Jehan Groslier, counsellor and secretary to the king
our sire, lover of goodly letters and of all learned persons, of whom also
he is greatly beloved and esteemed, as well on this side as the other of
the mountains. And while thinking of that said antique letter there came
of a sudden to my memory a pithy sentence of the first book and eighth
chapter of Cicero's "Offices," where it is written: "Non nobis solum nati
sumus, ortusque nostri partem patria vendicat, partem amici."[54] Which is
to say, in substance, that we are not born into this world for ourselves
alone, but to do service and pleasure to our friends and our country.'[55]
Such was the origin of 'Champ fleury.' Here follows the composition of
that work, as the author himself gives it to us, in the form of a table of
contents, at the beginning:[56]--
'This whole work is divided into three books.
'In the first book is contained the exhortation to establish and ordain
the French language by fixed rule, and to speak elegantly, in good and
soundest French.
'In the second is treated the invention of antique letters, and the
proportionate coincidence thereof with the natural body and face of the
perfect man. With several happy inventions and reflections upon the said
antique letters.
'In the third and last book all the said antique letters, in their
alphabetical order, are drawn and proportioned in height and width
according to their proper formation and required articulation, both Latin
and French, as well in the ancient as in the modern fashion.
'In two sheets at the end are added thirteen different sorts of letters,
to-wit: Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French,--and these latter in four sorts,
which are: "cadeaulx," "forme," "bastarde," and "torneure." Then follow
the Persian, Arabic, African, Turkish, and Tartar letters, which have, all
five, one and the same type of alphabet. After these are the Chaldaic,
the "goffes," which are otherwise called "impériales et bullatiques,"
the "phantastiques" letters, the utopian letters, which one may call
"voluntaires," and, lastly, the floriated letters.[57] With instructions
for making ciphers of letters for golden rings, for tapestries,
stained-glass windows, paintings, and other things, as may seem best.'
I will say nothing here of the first book, the excellence of which has
recently been pointed out by M. Génin,[58] who is much better versed in
the subject than I, and who has at the same stroke exculpated the French
from the charge that has been brought against them of having allowed
themselves to be anticipated by foreigners in the careful study of their
language. I will simply call attention to the fact that Tory wrote shortly
before Rabelais, who did not hesitate to borrow from him his criticism of
the 'skimmers of Latin,'[59] who were then changing the French language
on the pretext of perfecting it. The harangue of the Limousin orator,
which is found in the sixth chapter of the second book of 'Pantagruel,' is
copied verbatim from Tory's epistle to the reader.[60] Rabelais has simply
added to it some obscene reflections which did not enter our author's
mind. Tory ends with a pathetic appeal to those who are interested in
the mother tongue, whose excellence he is never tired of extolling. 'O
ye devoted lovers of goodly letters!' he cries, 'God grant that some
noble heart may give itself to the task of establishing and ordering our
French tongue according to rule! By that means would many thousands of
men set themselves to using often goodly words. If it is not established
and ordered, we shall find that the French tongue will be in great part
changed and ruined every fifty years.'[61] This patriotic prayer was soon
granted. As we know, the sixteenth century did not lack great geniuses,
who set the French language in order and brought it to a great degree of
perfection. Indeed, some most expressive words, the disuse of which Tory
deplored,[63] reappeared. For instance, 'affaissé' and 'tourbillonner,'
which in his time had been replaced by periphrases, returned into use;
many others deserve the same honour and perhaps will receive it some day.
The second book of 'Champ fleury' is, I apprehend, only a paradox; but
that paradox is maintained by arguments so ingenious, that one lacks
courage to condemn it. Tory holds that the shapes of all the roman capital
letters are derived from the different parts of the human body, which he
looks upon as the type of the beautiful; and he makes a most admirable use
of wood engraving to explain his idea. Moreover, if Tory was mistaken,
we must acknowledge that he did not fall into the error inconsiderately.
Indeed, I believe that he had for confederate his friend Perreal, to whom
we may attribute the greater number of the designs on wood in the second
book, judging from those in the third, which are directly attributed to
him by Tory, as we shall see hereafter. However that may be, Tory seems to
have studied his subject for a long time, not only on ancient monuments,
but on modern ones as well, and in the works of contemporary authors who
had turned their attention to the shapes of letters. His judgement of
these latter is as follows:--
'Frère Lucas Paciol, of Bourg Saint Sepulchre, of the order of Frères
Mineurs, and a theologian, who has written in popular Italian a book
called "Divina proportione,"[64] and who has essayed to represent the said
antique letters, does not give a true account of them nor explain them;
and I am not surprised thereat, for I have heard from certain Italians
that he stole his said letters and took them from the late Messere Leonard
Vince [Leonardo da Vinci], who has of late died at Amboise, and was a
most excellent philosopher and admirable painter, and as it were another
Archimedes. This said Frère Lucas has caused his antique letters to be
printed as his own. In sooth they may well be his, for he has not drawn
them in their due proportions, as I shall show when I speak of said
letters. Nor does Sigismunde Fante, a noble of Ferrara, who teaches how
to write many kinds of letters, speak truly thereof.[65] Nor does Messere
Ludovico Vincentino.[66] I know not whether Albert Dürer writes justly
thereof,[67] but none the less he goes astray in the due proportion of
the figures of many letters, in his book on "Perspective."[68]... I see
no man who makes them or understands them better than Maistre Simon
Hayeneufve, otherwise called Maistre Simon du Mans. He makes them so well
and in proper proportions, that he satisfies the eye as well and better
than any Italian master on this side or the other of the mountains. He
is most excellent in the restoration of ancient architecture, as one may
see in a thousand excellent designs and portraits that he has made in the
noble city of Mans and in many a foreign city. He is worthy to be held in
honoured memory, as well for his upright life as for his noble learning.
And to this end, let us not fail to consecrate and dedicate his name to
immortality, naming him a second Vitruvius, a holy man and good Christian.
I write this with good will because of the virtues and great praise "which
I have heard said of him" by many great and humble good men and true
lovers of all goodly and honest things.'[69]
The eulogistic tone in which Tory speaks here and elsewhere[70] of Simon
Haieneuve leads M. Renouvier to think[71] that our artist may have learned
the art of drawing letters from the Mans architect; but it is a mistaken
supposition; the phrase in quotation marks proves that they had never
met. Moreover Tory, a little further on, claims most reasonably the
honour of having been his own master in this matter: 'I know no Greek,
Latin nor French author who gives the explanation of such letters as I
have described, wherefore I may hold it for my own, saying that I have
excogitated and found it rather by divine inspiration than by anything
written or heard. If there be any one who has seen it written, let him say
so, and he will give me pleasure.'[72]
We see that Tory does not beat about the bush concerning his theory,
which, although it was different from those of his predecessors, was
not on that account better than theirs.[73] However, let his opinion
concerning the original design of the roman letters be what it may, it is,
in my judgement, simply a sort of preface which we may pass over without
inconvenience. The real substance of his work is in the third book. But
he does not leave the second without returning once more to the charge in
favour of his mother tongue.
'I know,' he says, 'that there are many goodly minds who would willingly
write many excellent things if they thought they could write them well
in Greek or Latin; and yet they abstain for fear of making solecisms or
some other fault that they dread; or they choose not to write in French,
thinking the French tongue not good nor elegant enough. With all respect
to them, it is one of the most beauteous and graceful of all human
tongues, as I have shown in the first book by the authority of noble and
ancient authors, poets and orators, as well Latin as Greek.'[74]
To be accurate, I will say that this idea of the 'preëxcellence of the
French tongue,' which, a little later, was the subject of another special
work on the part of another famous printer, the second Henri Estienne,
was neither new nor original with Tory. No less than three hundred years
before, it had been set forth in honest French by an author who cannot
be taxed with patriotic illusions, for he was an Italian. This is what
Brunetto Latini wrote at the beginning of a sort of encyclopædia which he
prepared in the thirteenth century, under the name of 'Trésor':--
'Et se aucuns demandoit por quoi cist livres est escriz en romans selonc
le langage des François, puisque nos somes Ytaliens, je diroie que ce est
por deux raisons: lune, car nos somes en France, et lautre, porce que la
parleure est plus delitable et plus commune a toutes gens.'[75]
As I have said, the third book is the important part of Tory's work.
Laying theory aside, he there gives us the exact design of the letters
of the alphabet and the method of executing them. He does not overlook,
moreover, this essential fact--that the designer of letters and the
printer ought before all else to be grammarians in the ancient meaning
of the word[76]; and at the same time that he gives us the shape of
a letter, he instructs us as to its value and pronunciation. It is
at this point that Tory's book becomes especially interesting to us:
he passes in review the pronunciation in vogue in each of the French
provinces, or nations, as they were called then. One after another they
appear before us, with their special idioms, which have become mere
myths to-day,--Flemings, Burgundians, Lyonnaises, Forésiens, Manseaux,
Berrichons, Normans, Bretons, Lorrainers, Gascons, Picards, and even
Italians, Germans, English, Scotch, etc. His observations do not stop
at the somewhat mixed idioms of the men,[77] but extend to the more
individual language of the women. For instance, he informs us that
'the ladies of Lyon often gracefully pronounce A for E, as when they
say, "Choma vous choma chat effeta,"[78] and a thousand other like
expressions'; whereas, on the contrary, 'the ladies of Paris very often
pronounce E instead of A, as when they say: "Mon mery est a la porte de
Peris, ou il se faict peier"; instead of saying, "Mon mary est a la porte
de Paris, ou il se faict paier."'[79]
It will be noticed that in this particular the 'ladies of Paris' succeeded
in perpetuating their pronunciation in part, for we do not now say
'paier.' They had equal success in many other cases. For example, it
seems to be due to them that the final S of the plural is not pronounced
except under exceptional circumstances[80]: as, for instance, when it is
followed by a word beginning with a vowel; for, speaking of the cases in
which that letter is elided in Latin, Tory expresses himself thus: 'The
ladies of Paris for the most part observe this poetic figure of speech,
dropping the final S in many words, as when, instead of saying: "Nous
avons disne en ung iardin, & y avons menge des prunes blanches et noires,
des amendes doulces & ameres, des figues molles, des pomes, des poires &
des gruselles," they say and pronounce: "Nous avon disne en ung iardin,
& y avon menge des prune blanche & noire, des amende doulce & amere, des
figue molle, des pome, des poyre & des gruselle."' The thing that seems
especially offensive to Tory is that they make the men join them in this
faulty pronunciation. 'This fault,' he says, 'would be pardonable in them,
were it not that it passes from woman to man, and that there is entire
absence of perfect pronunciation in speaking.'[81]
Moreover, if we are to credit Tory, the provincials have also, in certain
cases, succeeded in establishing their pronunciation, as we may conclude
from the following passage, relative to the letter T: 'The Italians
pronounce it so full and resonant that it seems that they add an E
thereto, as when, for and instead of saying: "Caput vertigine laborat,"
they pronounce: "Capute vertigine laborate." I have seen and heard it
pronounced so in Rome at the schools called La Sapienza, and in many
another noble place in Italy. Which pronunciation is no wise held or used
by the Lionnois, who drop the said T, and do not pronounce it any wise
at the end of the third person plural of verbs active and neuter, saying
"Amaverun" and "Araverun," for "Amaverunt" and "Araverunt." In like manner
some Picards drop this T at the end of some words in French, as when
they would say: "Comant cela, comant? monsieur, c'est une jument," they
pronounce: "Coman chela, coman? monsieur, chest une jumen."'[82] We see
that the Picard pronunciation has prevailed in this instance, for we no
longer pronounce the final T at the end of the words 'comment,' 'jument,'
and the like.
Tory did not content himself with setting forth the state of things
existent in his day: he suggested improvements, almost all of which have
been sanctioned by usage. For instance, at the beginning of the sixteenth
century, the pronunciation was very difficult to grasp for lack of
accents; he proposed to supply them. 'In our French language,' he says,
'we have no symbol of accent in writing, and it is on account of this lack
that our language is not yet established nor submitted to fixed rules,
like the Hebrew, Greek and Latin. I would like that it should be, as might
well be done.... In French,' he says farther on, 'as I have said, we do
not write the accent over O vocative, but pronounce it full, as when we
say:
'O pain du ciel angelique,
Tu es nostre salut antique.
'In this lack of accent we have an imperfection, which we ought to remedy
by purifying and subjecting to fixed rule and art our language, which is
the most graceful language known.'[83] Elsewhere he suggests replacing
elided letters by an apostrophe, which had not then been done in French.
'I say and allege these things in this place to the end that if it should
happen that one had to write in antique letters verses where the S must
disappear, one may write them honestly and purposely without using the
said letter, ... and place a hooked point over the place where it should
be.'[84] In another place he emphasizes the necessity of the cedilla,
which we find in French manuscripts from the thirteenth century, but which
typography had not as yet adopted. 'C before O,' he says, 'in French
pronunciation and language, is sometimes hard, as in saying "coquin,"
"coq," "coquillard"; sometimes it is soft, as in saying "garcon," "macon,"
"françois," and other like words.'[85]
Tory could hardly overlook the matter of punctuation, that most essential,
and even in our day so sadly neglected, branch of orthography; but as he
had only 'antique' letters to deal with, he presented only three sorts of
punctuation marks, without going into details as to their use, which, in
truth, if we may judge by his own book, was not as yet fully settled. The
comma, for instance, which has so much to do with the clearness of the
sentence, is frequently there inserted in a far from rational way.
[Illustration]
I have said above that Tory had adopted about 1523, for the mark of his
bookshop, the Pot Cassé represented in the engraving placed at the end of
his poem on his daughter's death. To make it more appropriate for that
purpose, he subjected it to various modifications. At first we find it
alone, as in the accompanying cut, on the cover,[86] or on the back,[87]
of a number of octavo books bound at his establishment. Other bindings, in
quarto, exhibit the broken jar with the drill (_toret_).[88]
Afterward, Tory placed the jar on a closed book, and still later he
modified the design by the introduction of other additions.[89]
Finally, we have Geofroy Tory's device, or mark, definitively constituted
in his 'Champ fleury,' thus:[90]--
'Behold,' he says, 'my declared device and mark, drawn as I have cogitated
and conceived it, imparting moral meaning thereto, to give friendly
admonition to the printers and booksellers beyond the mountains[91]
to practise and employ themselves in goodly inventions and delectable
execution, to show that their wits have not been always useless, but eager
to serve the public weal by labouring to that end and living uprightly.'
Then follows his explanation of this mark,[92]--an explanation which does
not invalidate that suggested above.[93] In truth, all that Tory says here
in general terms may be applied to his daughter Agnes.
[Illustration: MENTI BONAE DEVS OCCVRRIT.
SIC, VT. VEL, VT. NON PLVS.]
'In the first place, there is herein an ancient jar, which is broken,
through which is passed a toret. This said broken jar signifies our body,
which is an earthen jar. The toret signifies Fate, which pierces and
passes through weak and strong. Beneath this broken jar there is a book
secured by three chains and padlocks, which signifies that after our body
is broken by death, its life is closed by the three fatal goddesses.[94]
This book is so firmly closed that there is no man who may come to see
anything therein, except he know the secret of the padlocks, and above
all of the round padlock, which is locked and signed by letters. Even so,
after the book of our life is closed, there is no man who may in any wise
open it, except it be he who knows the secrets, and he is God, who alone
knows, before and after our death, what has been, what is, and what will
be our fate. The foliage and flowers in the said jar signify the virtues
which our body may have in itself during its life. The sun-rays which are
above and beside the toret and the jar signify the inspiration that God
gives us by impelling us to virtue and worthy acts. Near the said broken
jar it is written: "Non plvs," which are two monosyllabic words, as well
in French as in Latin, signifying that which Pittacus said long since in
Greek: ΜΗΔΕΝΑΓΑΝ,[95] "nihil nimis." Let us not say, let us
not do aught beyond measure or beyond reason, except it be in the last
necessity: "aduersus quā nec Dij quidē pugnant."[96] But let us say and
let us do "Sic. vt. vel. vt." That is to say, as we ought, or as little
wrongly as we may. If we seek to do well, God will aid us, and therefore
have I written above: "Menti bonæ Deus occurrit," that is to say, God goes
out to meet the desire to do good, and gives it aid.'
I believe that we should see in the toret an 'enseigne parlante,'
alluding at once to Tory's name and to his various professions. The way
in which the name of the instrument was pronounced, its shape, resembling
that of a T, and, lastly, its use by the engravers, were doubtless the
considerations that led Tory to adopt it. But let us not subtilize too far.
Tory was not content with giving us his symbol in 'Champ fleury': he
engraved on the first page of that book, that is to say, in the place
of honour, what would be called to-day the blazonry of his artistic
acquirements,--in other words, a collection of all the tools that he used.
Unfortunately, he did not feel called upon, as in the case of his mark,
to supply an explanation, deeming the matter clear enough; whereas, in
our day it has become rather difficult, because of the changes that have
taken place in the customs of artists, to state the exact use of some of
the tools. The order in which they are arranged, however, may assist us,
to a certain extent, in identifying them. An exact reproduction of this
engraving, the initial letter of the first page of the text of 'Champ
fleury,' is given at the beginning of this section.[97]
The first series of tools, suspended in the first arabesque, embraces
a pair of compasses, a rule, and a square: these are the fundamental
instruments of art and of geometry. In the second arabesque, if I am
not mistaken, we find an 'échoppe' and a burin, engravers' tools; in
the third, a writing-case (or 'galimart'), a pencil, and a knife, above
a book; these are the tools of the writer and the draughtsman. In the
fourth, we find an object which I take to be a small box of colours,
hanging from a case of brushes; these appertain to the painter. Tory was,
in fact, draughtsman, painter and engraver.
[Illustration]
I have already said that Tory was probably instructed in the art of
drawing by the famous Jean Perreal. He was on terms of the closest
friendship with that artist, who drew several of the vignettes in 'Champ
fleury,' if we may judge by the one positively attributed to him, which
is printed on the verso of folio 46. Geofroy informs us that this plate,
insignificant in itself (it represents two circles in which are the
letters I and K, modelled on the human body), was engraved from the design
of a friend of his, 'from that which a noble lord and good friend of mine,
Jehan Perreal, who is otherwise called Jehan de Paris, valet de chambre
and excellent painter to King Charles VIII, Louis XII, and François, first
of the name, made known and gave to me, most excellently drawn by his
hand.' Now this engraving is in all respects similar to those to be found
in the second book of 'Champ fleury.' Both in form and subject, it is
altogether different from those in the third book, in which Tory printed
it. Probably Perreal died while the work was on the press, and Tory, who
had not thought of naming him while he was alive, in connection with his
first drawings, did so after his death, by publishing the last souvenir of
this sort which he possessed from the hand of his friend, although it did
not fit perfectly with the subject; he laid, as it were, a flower on the
dead man's grave.[98]
We give this drawing also, as the only work which can be with certainty
attributed to Jean Perreal, and as a specimen of the engravings which
serve as a foundation for the reformation of the roman letters proposed by
Tory in the second book of his 'Champ fleury.'
From what I have said it will be seen that Tory's book required several
years of labour. Nor is one surprised thereat when one considers the great
number of engravings which it contains. But even without the engravings,
it will readily be understood that a work which necessitated so much
observation required a vast expenditure of time. Begun, as we have seen,
in 1523 (1524, new style), it was not finally completed until 1529, that
is to say, after six years of toil. However, Tory did not propose that
those years should be lost for art. Desirous to preach by example rather
than by precept, he determined to publish, in the interim, other books
wherein he might give utterance to his artistic taste. And he did in fact
print books of Hours, admirably executed, which, although in different
form, may fitly be compared to the Hours of Simon Vostre, who had acquired
so great a reputation in that typographical specialty. Tory received from
François I a 'privilége' (license) for this work, to run six years, dated
at Avignon, September 23, 1524.[99] This license to print[100] informs
us that Tory had 'made and caused to be made[101] certain illustrations
[_histoires_] and vignettes "a lantique" and likewise some "a la moderne,"
in order to have the same printed, and to serve _a plusieurs usages
dheures_,' and that to that end he had 'expended an exceeding long time
and incurred divers great expenses and outlays.'
The first book of this sort which he published, so far as I have learned,
is an edition in quarto of the Hours of the Virgin, according to the Roman
use, in Latin. It is a superb volume, printed by Simon de Colines, with
borders and illustrations 'à l'antique,' perfect in taste and execution.
The book was undoubtedly printed by Colines as a joint venture with Tory,
for there are copies in existence in the name of each. Those in the name
of Colines bear on the title-page the date 1524, and, at the end, that of
the 17th of the Calends of February (January 16), 1525; those in the name
of Tory (there are two varieties of these) bear but one date, 1525, and
that at the end. I shall speak of this book later, in detail.[102]
Two years later Tory published a new edition of the same Hours, in a small
octavo volume, also printed by Simon de Colines, in roman type, with
borders and illustrations of the same kind but much smaller.[103] The
printing was finished October 21, 1527. It is preceded by a new license
from François I, extending Tory's rights for ten years, not for this book
alone, but for the earlier one as well, 'for certain illustrations and
vignettes "a lantique" by him heretofore printed,' and in consideration of
the great outlay which his engravings had caused him to make. This license
is dated at Chenonceaux, September 5, 1526, and includes 'Champ fleury,'
the printing of which had begun, but which had not yet received its poetic
title, for it was still referred to as 'Lart et science de la deue et
vraye proportion des lettres.' In the same year Tory published an edition
in quarto of these same Hours, according to the use of Paris, printed by
Simon Dubois (Silvius). This book, in which we find again the license
of 1526, is printed in gothic type, with borders and illustrations of a
special style, called 'à la moderne.' The borders are arabesques formed of
plants, insects, birds, animals, etc. At the foot we see the F, crowned,
of François I, and the salamander; the L, crowned, of Louise of Savoy, the
king's mother; and the impaled shield of France and Savoy, etc. Of this
book also I shall speak in detail hereafter.[104] Finally, a little later,
at a time which I am unable to fix precisely, but prior to 1531, Tory
caused to be printed another book of Hours of the same description, that
is to say, with borders of plants, insects, birds, etc., but in a smaller
format--small octavo. I shall describe it in its place.[105]
These publications did not prevent our artist from giving his attention
to literature. While he was overlooking the impression of his Hours and
his 'Champ fleury,' he was preparing various works to which we shall have
occasion to refer hereafter. Generally speaking, they are translations
intended to enrich the French tongue; for Tory did not lose sight of his
patriotic purpose. All of these works were printed subsequently, save one,
perhaps--a translation of the hieroglyphs of Orus Apollo, which he gave
to a 'noble lord and good friend of his.'[106] It is not known whether
this translation was ever printed. There are many editions of Orus in
existence, but no one of them bears the name of Tory.
'Champ fleury' appeared at last in 1529. We have seen that this book was
conceived on 'the day of the feast of Kings, which was reckoned M.
D. XXIII,' that is to say, January 6, 1524, new style. The printing
was not completed until 'the XXVIII day of the month of April
one thousand five hundred XXIX,'[107] as we learn from the
subscription at the end; that is to say, it cost nearly six years of toil.
The following is an exact copy of the title-page as it appears in the
first edition:--
CHAMP FLEVRY. Au quel est contenu Lart & Science de la deue & vraye
Proportiõ des Lettres Attiques, quõ dit autremēt Lettres Antiques,
& vulgairement Lettres Romaines, proportionnees selon le Corps &
Visage humain.--Ce Liure est Priuilegie pour Dix Ans Par Le Roy
nostre Sire, & est a vendre a Paris sus Petit Pont a Lenseigne du
Pot Casse par Maistre Geofroy Tory de Bourges/Libraire, & Autheur du
dict Liure. Et par Giles Gourmont aussi Libraire demourant en la Rue
sainct Iaques a Lenseigne des Trois Coronnes.
It is gratifying to see here the name of the first printer in Greek
type in Paris. It was Gourmont himself who printed this learned book,
wherein we find some very interesting details concerning the Hebrew,
Greek and Latin letters, of which he exhibits models which have not
changed since that time.[108] The workshop of Gilles de Gourmont was
on rue Saint-Jean-de-Latran; but we see that in 1529 he had a bookshop
on rue Saint-Jacques, at the sign of the Trois Couronnes,--an allusion
doubtless to the three roses which adorned the chief, or top, of his
shield. This shop adjoined the church of Saint-Benoît on the north.[109]
As for Tory, he seems to have lived at this time on the Petit-Pont, 'next
to Hostel-Dieu.' It was there that he wrote his book, for he dates his
epistle to the reader thus: 'En Paris ce. XXVIII. Jour Dapvril
sus Petit Pont, a Lenseigne du Pot Casse.' He had, however, another abode
on rue Saint-Jacques, opposite the 'Écu de Bâle,' the sign of Chrétien
Wechel.
At the beginning of 'Champ fleury' is printed the license of September 5,
1526, already published in the two editions of the Hours of 1527, which
granted to Tory a ten years' right, not only for the Hours, but also for
'Champ fleury,' which was then being printed, but, as I have already said,
had not then received that graceful title. This license makes it clear
that as early as 1526 Tory was thinking of joining the brotherhood of
printers. He became a printer in fact soon after the publication of his
book, and proceeded to print several works of his own composition. I give
here a list of these various publications, in the order of their dates.
I. La Table de lancien philosophe Cebes ... Avec trente Dialogues
moraulx de Lucian ... translate de latin en vulgaire françois par
maistre Geofroy Tory de Bourges...[110]
The license is of September 18, 1529, for ten years. The printing was
finished October 5, 1529. It is a small octavo volume, in two parts,
with roughly executed borders on each page. There are twelve preliminary
leaves, containing a long list of errata, and two series of signatures,
the first running from A to T, the second from _a_ to _v_. The book was
for sale at the translator's shop, 'rue Sainct Iaques, devant lescu de
Basle,[111] a lenseigne du Pot Casse,' and at Jean Petit's on 'rue Sainct
Iaques, a lenseigne de la Fleur de lys.' There is nothing to indicate
where the book was printed; but as it is set in the type used for the
'Epitaphs' of Louise of Savoy, I am inclined to think that it came from
Tory's workshop. In that case it was the first book that he printed.[112]
The long list of errata would seem, in truth, to suggest a novice, and
would explain why no printer's name is given.
In the letter 'to the readers' at the beginning of this book, Tory returns
to the charge against the villains [_rufients_] who were changing the
French language on the pretext of perfecting it. There are some tirades
quite worthy of a place in 'Champ fleury.' He ends his preamble with a
curious passage which gives us an idea of his tastes. 'I believe that if
the ancient and noble painter Zeuxis of Heraclea, if Raphael of Urbino,
Michel Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci or Albrecht Dürer[113] should try to
paint philosophers and their various aspects, they could not paint them
so well nor so to the life as our Lucian paints them herein.' Lastly, he
informs the reader that he will soon make him 'another new gift';[114] and
he kept his promise by publishing the following work.
II. Summaire de chroniques contenans les vies, gestes et cas
fortuitz de tous les empereurs Deurope, depuis Iules Cesar iusques
a Maximilien dernier decede ... par ... Iehan Baptiste Egnace,
Venicien. Et translate de ladicte langue latine en langaige francoys
par maistre Geofroy Tory de Bourges.
An octavo volume, containing 16 leaves of preface, 99 of text, and an
index containing 13 leaves--128 in all. At the end, we read: 'The printing
of this book was finished at Paris the XIII day of April, M. D.
XXIX, for maistre Geofroy Tory de Bourges, who sells it at said
Paris, at the sign of the Pot Casse.' In Tory's preface, addressed 'to all
studious and true lovers of honest letters,' he says: 'I promised you of
late in the preface to the "Table of Cebes" that in a short space I would
make for you another new book.' It was in fulfilment of that promise that
he published the 'Summaire de Chroniques' of Egnasio.
The date of printing given above corresponds to April 13, 1530, new style;
for Easter fell in that year on April 15. Some bibliographers mention an
edition of this book of 1520; but it is an error, for the license is dated
1529. La Caille[115] says that the edition of 1529 was printed by Tory;
this is possible, but not certain. It may even be that it was printed by
Gourmont, for it is set in the same type used in 'Champ fleury.'[116]
There are three later editions of this book, printed by Charles l'Angelier
in 1541, 1543, 1544 (octavo); we shall speak of them hereafter. As for
the edition of 1529, I found it only in the library of M. Ambroise Firmin
Didot, who kindly allowed me to describe it. This copy is still in the
original binding, with the Pot Cassé.
But all these works did not cause Tory to lose sight of his great
patriotic idea. He did not confine himself to simple wishes for the
welfare of the French language. In default of the other 'noble hearts'
whom he invited 'to establish and order our language by rule,'[117] he
himself undertook that work. Rich in materials as he was, and with the
ardor with which he entered into everything, he soon completed his task.
The license to print the 'Summaire de Chroniques' includes a book by Tory
entitled: 'Les Reigles generales de lorthographe du langaige françois,'
which he proposed soon to put on the press. Was this book ever printed?
was it ever finished? These are questions which I am unable to answer,
for I have discovered no trace of it elsewhere; but so many other books
have disappeared that I should not be surprised to learn that this one had
undergone the same fate.
III. Hours (in Latin) according to the Roman use; sixteenmo, with
illustrations and borders; printed in roman type; finished February
8, 1529, which date corresponds to February 8, 1530, new style, and
proves that Tory had become a printer in 1529. Here is the exact
title of this book, which I shall describe in detail later:[118]
'Horæ in laudem beatissimæ Virginis Mariæ secundum usum romanum.' On
the last leaf are these words: 'Parrhisiis, apud Gotofredum Torinum
Biturigum. VIII. die febr. anno sal. M. D. XXIX.
Ad insigne Vasis effracti.'
IV. Ædiloquium ceu (_sic_) disticha partibus ædium urbanarum et
rusticarum suis quæque locis adscribenda. Item, epitaphia septem de
amorum aliquot passionibus, etc. Authore Gotofredo Torino Biturigico.
Paris, Simon de Colines, 1530;[119] italic type; 3 octavo sheets, with
license for two years. This book has, in the second part, seven charming
engravings on wood. I cannot understand why Tory did not print it, as he
was then a printer. May it have been because it was customary at that time
to print poetical works in italic type, and he had none in his printing
office? Copies of the book are preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, at
the Arsenal [two] and at Sainte-Geneviève. The copy in the Bibliothèque
Nationale is still in the original binding, with the Pot Cassé.[120]
Alluding to the first part of his book, Tory expresses himself thus in his
'avis au lecteur': 'There are certain eminent painters in this prolific
age, most gentle reader, who, by their drawings, paintings, and varied
colouring, depict the tribal gods and human beings, as also other things
of different sorts, with such exactness that a voice and a soul seem
the only things wanting to them; but here, most gentle reader, I offer
you, nearly in the manner of these painters, a house, which not only is
elegant and finished in its outlines and parts, but even speaks prettily
and describes itself part by part in a eulogy.'[121] It will be seen that
Tory's thoughts were still engrossed by art.
V. Science pour senrichir honnestement et facilement, intitulée
Leconomic Xenophon, nagueres translatee de grec et latin en langaige
francoys, par maistre Geofroy Tory de Bourges.--On les vend a Paris,
en la rue Sainct Iaques, devant lescu de Basle, et devant lesglise
de la Magdalaine, a lenseigne du Pot Casse.
Octavo, of 9 sheets; printing finished July 5, 1531.[122] On the back of
the title-page are these words: 'At the said sign of the Pot Casse are
also for sale Thucydides and Diodorus, with some other excellent books
translated from Greek and Latin into French. Likewise there are fine Hours
and Offices of Our Lady, large, medium and small, with illustrations and
vignettes "a l'antique."'
Were the Thucydides and Diodorus printed by Tory, as well as the large,
medium and small Hours? Possibly, but I have found no indication of it.
As for attributing the translations to him, that is out of the question,
for he says nothing of it in the dedication, addressed to Antoine du Prat,
Cardinal de Sens, etc., wherein he mentions the preceding works of the
same sort:--
'After the book of the Explanation of the antique letters, called
"Champ Fleury," which I put together in the French language, and the
"Table de Cebes," with thirty moral dialogues; likewise the "Summaire
de Chroniques," which I translated into our said language, to confer a
benefit on the studious, ... it seemed to me to be a worthy way of passing
my time to employ myself in translating the "Economic Xenophon" also.'
Tory does not mention here the 'Ædiloquium,' probably because that book
was in Latin, or, rather, because it was not printed at the time of the
composition of this dedication, which was in all probability written in
the first three months of 1531, then reckoned in the year 1530,[123] a
circumstance which, in my opinion, explains the date of the 'Ædiloquium.'
In fact, that book cannot have been printed before 1531, for the license
of the 'Economic Xenophon,' which includes the 'Ædiloquium' (to which,
by the way, it gives a sub-title, 'et Erotica,' which was rejected when
it was printed, as likely to give a false idea of the book), is dated
June 18, 1531, and extends Tory's rights to four years instead of the
two mentioned on the title-page of the 'Ædiloquium.' From all of which
I conclude that the last-named book was printed before the license was
obtained, but only a short time before, and while the application was
pending.
The license first mentioned[124] also concedes to Tory an extension of
four years 'for certain other books, illustrations and vignettes, to cause
to be printed the Hours and Offices of Our Lady, mentioned in two licenses
heretofore granted to him,' dated September 23, 1524, and September 5,
1526. Tory requested this extension of time because he was preparing to
reprint the Hours, as we see by the date of the following book.
VI. Hours according to the Roman use, quarto; published October
20, 1531, in Latin. This was a new edition of the Hours printed
in 1524-1525 by Simon de Colines. We find the same borders and
illustrations as before; but several engravings which had already
appeared in some of the earlier books just described are added. I
shall describe this book later. It seems to be printed from the
'Champ fleury' type, and bears the following title: Horæ in laudem
beatiss. Virginis Mariæ. Ad usum romanum. Parrhisiis apud Gotofredum
Torinum Biturigicum, regium impressorem.[125]
VII. Politiques de Plutarque, cest a dire: Civiles Institutions et
enseignemens pour bien regir la chose pu[blique] ... translatees ...
par maistre Geofroy Tory de Bourges. Dediees ... a tresilustre ...
François de Vallois, Daulphin de France.
Octavo, with 8 preliminary leaves, and 67 numbered leaves of text.
On the verso of leaf 67 we read: 'The printing of this book was finished
Saturday the XV. day of June, M. D. XXXII. by maistre Geofroy Tory de
Bourges, bookseller and king's printer, dwelling in Paris, opposite the
church of La Magdaleine, at the sign of the Pot Casse.'
Another edition was published at Lyon in 1534. We shall refer to it, as
well as to the earlier edition, hereafter.[126]
VIII. La Mouche de Lucian et la Maniere de parler et se taire [de
Volaterran].--Le tout [translaté] par maistre Geofroy Tory de
Bourges, imprimeur du Roy et libraire juré en luniversité de Paris.
On les vend a Paris, devant leglise de la Magdaleine, a lenseigne du
Pot Casse.
Octavo, 8 leaves; without date of printing or license, but printed by
Geofroy Tory himself, after February 22, 1533; for he assumes the title
of 'libraire juré'[127] of the University, which did not belong to him
until that day. Moreover he makes use in this book of the acute accent,
the apostrophe and the cedilla, which he never used, as we shall soon
see, until after the edition of Clement Marot, dated June 7, 1533. It was
therefore subsequent to that date, but prior to October of the same year,
that 'La Mouche' was published.[128]
* * * * *
In several of the works we have described, Tory assumes the title of
printer; in the last three he describes himself as king's printer,
and in one of them as a 'libraire juré' of the University. These last
two dignities he owed to the initiative of François I. That king, who
had never before conferred that honour upon any one, deemed it his
duty to make the author of 'Champ fleury' king's printer. In truth it
was natural enough to confer that title upon him who had displayed
so perfect an understanding of the art of typography, combined with
such a store of literary knowledge, and whose book caused a veritable
revolution in printing, no less from the technical and practical than
from the grammatical and philological standpoint; for there is one
fact which I have not as yet mentioned and which I am glad to set
down here: immediately after the publication of 'Champ fleury' French
typography began to include in its fonts of type accents, apostrophes and
cedillas,[129] the absence of which Tory deplored, and which he himself
used soon after, and before any other printer, as we shall see.
But the most noteworthy result produced by the publication of 'Champ
fleury' was the reformation of the old types. That book not only
contributed to the abandonment of gothic letters, but brought about the
remodelling of the old roman letters. Robert Estienne, among others,
re-cast at this time all those that had come down to him from his father,
the first Henri (or, to speak more accurately, from his father-in-law
Simon de Colines), and replaced them by types of a new shape, which
were cut, I think, by Tory (for his pupil, Garamond, seems not to have
been capable of doing it at this time), and which continued to be used,
almost without change, down to the time of the Revolution. It is in
this sense only that it can properly be said that Tory perfected the
types of Josse Bade; for I think that he did not cut any type for that
celebrated printer, who was established in Paris long before Tory turned
his attention to engraving, and who died in 1535, a few years after the
publication of 'Champ fleury,' without changing in any way his method of
printing. It was Tory too, doubtless, who cut Robert Estienne's italic
type; for it bears a strong resemblance to Simon de Colines's, which I
have already attributed to him.[130]
The sensation caused by Tory's book, in foreign countries as well as in
France, is evidenced also by the writings of his contemporaries. In Paris,
Antoine du Saix, author of the 'Esperon de discipline,' expresses himself
thus in an epistle in verse dedicated to his friends,[131] among whom
we find mentioned René Massé, also a friend of Tory, and several other
littérateurs of the time:--
Geoffroy Thory, qui divine as heu main
Pour figurer dessus le corps humain
La lettre anticque, ouyant que plume ay prise
Pour te imiter, ce bourgeon ne meprise,
Raisin sera, sil a temps de meurer [mûrir].
In London, Leonard Coxe, alluding to the grammar published shortly
after by his compatriot Palsgrave, exclaims: 'Learned Geofroy, he has
fulfilled the wish so often expressed in thy "Champ fleury," for here
we have the French language taught thoroughly, by virtue of rules duly
authorized.'[132]
Tory probably received the title of king's printer in 1530, but I do
not find that he assumed it earlier than 1531, and, failing documentary
evidence, I cannot accredit him with it at an earlier date. It was, I
fancy, his appointment which led the authors of the 'Art de vérifier les
dates' to say that 'François I established the Imprimerie Royale in Paris'
on his return from the Abbaye de Veyen, where he had espoused, on July 4,
1530, Eleonora, sister of the Emperor Charles V.[133] It is the fact that
at that time Tory was entrusted with several 'royal printings' concerning
this marriage of the king. Thus he published, March 16, 1530 (1531, new
style), a little work of Guillaume Bochetel, entitled: 'Le Sacre et
coronnement de la Royne, imprimé par le commandement du Roy nostre sire.'
It is a thin quarto of 12 leaves, printed with a certain sumptuousness,
and the license, signed 'de la Barre,'[134] is thus conceived:--
'We have granted to maistre Geofroy Tory, "marchant libraire, imprimeur,"
license to print the "Coronnement de la Royne," and all other printers are
forbidden to print it for one year,[135] upon pain of a discretionary fine
and of the confiscation of said book, etc. Done at Paris the tenth day of
March.' The consecration of the queen had taken place at Saint-Denis five
days earlier, March 5, 1530 (1531, new style).
A few days later Tory published another little book by the same author:
'Lentree de la Royne en sa ville et cite de Paris, imprimee par
commandement du Roy nostre sire.' Quarto, 24 leaves; same arrangement
as in 'le Sacre,' etc.[136] The license, dated at Anet, April 26, 1531
(Easter fell that year on April 9), gives Tory no other title than
'libraire,' but the omission is evidently accidental.[137] The volume
contains three pieces in Latin verse by Geofroy Tory, two addressed to
the queen ('ad reginam Leonorem'), the other to the French people ('ad
gentem gallicam'). On the verso of the last leaf are these words: 'The
printing of this book was finished Tuesday the ninth day of May M.
D. XXXI.' This book exhibits specimens of three different types
used by Geofroy Tory: a 'saint-augustin,' in which the text is printed,
a 'philosophie,'[138] and a brevier. In all these publications we find
Tory's borders and his broken jar, and these words at the foot of the
title: On les vend a Paris, en la rue Sainct Jacques, devant lescu de
Basle, et devant lesglise de la Magdaleine, a lenseigne du Pot Casse.'
It will be noticed that Tory had left his second domicile, on
the Petit-Pont, which was too small, doubtless, for his printing
establishment, and had settled in the heart of the Cité, almost opposite
the church of La Madeleine, which then stood very near the corner of
rue de la Juiverie and rue de Marmouzets. His new abode was on the site
of the old and famous Halle aux Blés de Beauce, in a house to which he
transported his sign of the Pot Cassé (which it retained for several
years), and which corresponds to the present number 16 rue de la Cité,
according to the evidence courteously furnished me by M. Adolphe Berty,
whose knowledge of old Paris is so thorough.[139] However that may be,
the first work in which to my knowledge Geofroy Tory assumes the title
of king's printer is a thin volume of two and a half quarto sheets, of
the same typographical arrangement as those last described, but printed
in different type, which seems to me to have been cut by Tory. It was
published on the occasion of the death of Louise of Savoy, mother of
François I, which occurred September 22, 1531. The contents consist of
Latin and French epitaphs composed in honour of the deceased, and it bears
on its first page the following title, bisected:--
'In Lodoicæ regis matris mortem epitaphia latina et gallica.--Epitaphes
a la louenge de ma dame mere du Roy faictz par plusieurs recommendables
autheurs.' Below this are these words: 'On les vend a Paris, devant
Leglise de la Magdaleine, a Lenseigne du Pot Casse.'
The license, dated at Paris, October 15, 1531, and signed de la Barre,
accords unequivocally to Tory the title of king's printer: 'We have
granted to maistre Geofroy Tory, merchant, bookseller and _imprimeur du
roy_, leave,' etc. On the last page, which, like the first, is enclosed in
a border, are the words: 'Printed at Paris at the sign of the Pot Cassé,
by maistre Geofroy Tory de Bourges, Marchant, Libraire et Imprimeur du
Roy. The XVII day of October M. D. XXXI.'[140]
What salary did Tory receive as king's printer? It is impossible for me
to say positively; however, if we may judge from what happened in 1538,
in the case of Conrad Néobar,[141] he probably received 100 'écus au
soleil'[142] per year, which, at the current valuation of 45 sous each,
would make 225 'livres tournois.' Indeed, that sum was paid in 1671, more
than a century later, to Pierre Le Petit, king's printer.[143]
If François I manifested his good will to Geofroy Tory in appointing him
king's printer, he manifested it even more signally by causing him to
be admitted to the brotherhood of 'libraires jurés' of the University,
with all the privileges appurtenant to that office.[144] For, in the
first instance, he simply made use of his prerogative; in the second he
imposed his will on the University: the number of 'libraires jurés,' which
was fixed at twenty-four, being full, François I created a twenty-fifth
membership in Tory's favour, and the University ratified that creation at
its sitting of February 22, 1532 (1533, new style), minuting, however,
that it was a gift of the King,[145] as if to imply that it was not to be
taken as a precedent. In fact, they returned to the number twenty-four on
the death of Tory, which unfortunately was not long delayed.
Farther on will be found a list of the works published by Tory as king's
printer, both for the king and for private individuals.[146] I will
mention here a single one, which is of some interest in connection with
the biography of our artist: the 'Adolescence Clementine' (of Clement
Marot), fourth edition, published by Tory June 7, 1533. On the title-page
is a note in these words: 'With certain accents noted, namely, on É
masculine different from the feminine, between words joined by synalephe,
and under Ç when it is pronounced like S, the which heretofore, for lack
of suggestion, has not been done in the French language, although it was
and is most essential.' This was the first work in which Tory applied the
orthographic system he had suggested in 'Champ fleury.'[147] The fact
is evident from the inexperience of the compositors, who made several
blunders in this very note.
This book, one of the rare copies of which is in the Bibliothèque
Nationale, presents still another interesting peculiarity. The
title-page is arranged in a different way from that in vogue at the
time. In the first three editions the first two words form four lines
of capitals of the same size and length, by virtue of the spacing:
LADOLE--SCENCE--CLEMEN--TINE. In the fourth edition they fill two lines
only (LADOLESCENCE--CLEMENTINE), but still in type of the same size,
contrary to the practice of other printers, who would have diminished by
at least one degree the size and length of the lines, without regard to
logic. They would probably have printed the title thus:
L A D O L E S
CENCE CLEMEN
tine
Tory's method of execution, which he borrowed from the arrangement of
ancient inscriptions, was less agreeable to the eye perhaps, but it was
more logical. It was a step toward the practice of the present day, in
which the size of the letters on a title-page is varied, but is made
consistent with the importance of the respective words. As will be seen,
Tory was, in everything, an initiator.
This book was the last one printed by Tory, to my knowledge. He probably
died shortly after, for we find that his wife was a widow on October 14
[1533], when she executed a lease for nine years of that part of the
Halle de Beauce occupied by her husband's establishment. This lease,
covering the whole house, was made in consideration of 122 livres 10 sous
tournois. The lessors were agents of the Chapitre Notre-Dame, and the
lessees, 'Martin Féret, baker, and Perrette Le Hullin, widow of Geofroy
Tory, in his lifetime bookseller and king's printer, living on rue de la
Juifverie in one of the wings [corps d'hostel] of the building hereinafter
mentioned' (the Halle de Beauce).[148]
Perrette Le Hullin continued for some time to carry on her husband's
various enterprises. Thus, she published in 1535 a remarkable work,
doubtless begun by him, by command of François I, to whom it is dedicated.
It certainly should be placed to the credit of Tory, although it does not
bear his name, but simply a mention of his sign: 'Au Pot Casse.' It is a
translation of Diodorus Siculus, of which I shall speak later.[149]
But the burden of so considerable an undertaking--printing-office,
bookshop, bindery,[150] engraving, etc.--soon compelled Perrette Le Hullin
to abandon a part of it. At the end of the year 1535 she transferred the
printing-office, the bookshop, and the bindery to Olivier Mallard, who
established himself on the same premises occupied by Tory, and under
the same sign of the Pot Cassé, as we see by a thin volume published
by him on January 19, 1535 (1536, new style), entitled: 'Copie d'une
lettre de Constantinople, de la victoire du grand Sophy contre le grand
Turc.--Paris, Olivier Mallard, à l'enseigne du Pot Cassé, rue de la
Juifverie.' Quarto, of 4 leaves; gothic type.[151]
Towards the end of 1536, Mallard published the 'Copie de l'arrest du grand
conseil donné à l'encontre du miserable empoisonneur de monseigneur le
dauphin,' etc. An octavo sheet printed in two signatures. On the verso of
the title begins the text of the decree, promulgated at Lyon Saturday,
October 7, 1536; then come several pieces by Jean Henon and 'a "dizain" by
the printer hereof in sorrow for the death of the Dauphin': ten wretched
lines, ending, by way of signature, with the words 'tout par moien,' of
which I have been unable to discover the anagrammatic significance. On the
verso of the last leaf we read: 'All booksellers and printers in the city
and provostry of Paris are forbidden to print or put on sale this present
"copie" within three months, on pain of confiscation thereof, and of a
fine, save only M. O. Mallard. Given at Paris this XVIII October,
1536.--I. MORIN.'
Thus we see that, even if Mallard was not as yet king's printer, he
was at least the official printer. I cannot give the exact date of his
appointment as king's printer; but he certainly held that office in 1537,
since in that year he published a little octavo volume in which he assumed
the title.[152] The book is entitled: 'De judiciis urinarum tractatus
exprobatis collectus authoribus, etc.--Excudebat O. Mallardus, bibliopola
ac impressor regius.--Anno Domini 1537, 8 id. Martii' (March 8).[153]
He also published in that year, in the same capacity, two works of Jean
Gillot:[154] 'De juridictione et imperio libri duo,' and 'Isagoge in juris
civilis sanctionem' (quarto), on the title-page of which, below the Pot
Cassé, are the words: 'Vænit O. Mallardo, regio typographo ac librario,
sub signo Vasis fracti.'[155]
It is probable that François I made no difficulty about accepting Tory's
successor as his printer; but he availed himself of Tory's death to
remodel the institution of king's printers. He restricted Mallard's
functions to the printing of French, and in the year 1538 appointed two
other king's printers, one, Conrad Néobar, for Greek, the other, Robert
Estienne, for Latin and Hebrew, as an essential complement to the 'Collége
des trois langues,' now the Collége de France, which he had recently
founded. We have not the document which conferred upon Robert Estienne
the title of king's printer; but we have proof that he held that title
in 1539. Maittaire declares, upon what evidence I know not, that Robert
was appointed on June 24 of that year. I am of the opinion that his
appointment was of earlier date, that is to say, that it goes back, like
Néobar's, to 1538, or, to speak more accurately, to the beginning of 1539.
In fact, we find him assuming the title of king's printer ('typographus
regius') in several works printed by him during that year. Furthermore,
I may mention the fact that, in a most interesting edict concerning the
printers of France, dated August 31, 1539, the king already refers to the
fact that he has 'of late created and ordained--in order to have a copious
supply of useful and essential books--royal printers in the Latin, Greek,
and Hebrew tongues.'[156]
We have not the letters patent of Robert Estienne, but we are more
fortunate in respect to Néobar, for we have the document by which he
was created king's printer for Greek.[157] This curious document, which
does so much honour to François I, well deserves to win oblivion for his
unlucky edict of proscription against printing, rendered January 13, 1535
(new style), which has been invoked against his memory several times in
recent years, although it was never put in execution. On Néobar's death in
1540, Robert Estienne succeeded him as king's printer for Greek, retaining
the title for Latin and Hebrew.
The king's fondness for the classics did not lead him to neglect the
French language: in 1539 he promulgated a celebrated ordinance, to the
effect that 'henceforth all decrees, etc., shall be pronounced, recorded,
and delivered to the parties concerned, in the mother tongue.'
In 1541, Olivier Mallard, who had acquired all of Tory's typographic
paraphernalia, published a book of Hours of the Virgin, in Latin, octavo,
with the borders 'à la moderne' to which I referred on page 25. It is
copied doubtless from the edition put forth by Tory about 1530, which I
have never been fortunate enough to see. Of the edition of 1541, I have
seen one copy on vellum, and another on paper. It consists of 23 octavo
sheets (signatures A to Y), and has on the title-page: 'Horæ in laudem
beatissim. Virginis Mariæ ad usum Romanum.' (Pot Cassé) 'Parisiis, apud
Oliverium Mallardum, sub signo Vasis effracti.--1541.'
In the following year Mallard published another edition of the Hours of
the Virgin, in quarto, like the one issued by Tory in 1531. I shall speak
of it in detail in its place.[158] Here I will simply say that the book
was finished in the month of August, 1542.
On the twenty-second of the same month, Mallard renewed the lease of his
quarters in the Halle aux Blés de Beauce, which lease had been given
nine years earlier to Tory's widow and Martin Féret, at a rental of 122
livres 10 sous, tournois. The rental was increased for Mallard, who had
to pay 130 livres, plus 4 écus d'or au soleil 'for the time of the said
leasing.'[159] Olivier Mallard did not long enjoy his lease, for he died
that same year. His last printing, according to La Caille, who writes
the name Maillard,[160] was a translation of the Dialogues of Plato, by
Simon de Valembert, published in 1542. I have been unable to find this
book in Paris, but I have seen another, probably of later date, at the
bookshop of M. Techener; it is entitled: 'Le livre de Ange Bologninus, de
la curation des ulceres exterieurs, traduit de latin en francoys.--Paris,
au Pot Cassé, en limprimerie de Olivier Mallard, libraire et imprimeur du
roy. 1542.' It is an octavo of four signatures. As the license is dated
December 1, this little book is probably the last one printed by Mallard,
as he was succeeded in the following year, as king's printer for French
works, by Denis Janot (one of the most skilful printers in Paris), as is
set forth in the letters patent, which will be found in Appendix VII.
Appendix VIII contains a complete list of the king's printers who lived in
Paris.
Mallard's typographical apparatus seems to have been acquired
by Jean Kerver, son of the first Thielman Kerver, living on rue
Saint-Jacques,[161] at the sign of the Gril ('sub signo Cratis'), who
printed several editions of the Hours in octavo, with the borders 'à
la moderne' used by Mallard in 1541. The sign of the Pot Cassé, which
Kerver did not need, was adopted by a bookseller of Chartres, named
Richard Cotereau, who seems also to have bought some of Tory's woodcuts
representing that mark. In fact I have seen one, which I have never seen
on any of Tory's books, in a book printed in Paris for Cotereau by Nicolas
Chrestien; it is: 'Le Coustumier de la baronnye, chastellenie, terre et
seigneurie de Chasteauneuf en Tymerays'; octavo, 1557. The title-page is
an engraving of the Pot Cassé, with the design reversed,[162] like that of
the title of 'Champ fleury,' but signed with the double cross; and beneath
are the words: 'Pour Richard Cotereau, libraire, demeurant à Chartres, en
la grande rue, à l'enseigne du Pot Cassé.'
Philippe Cottereau, evidently the son of Richard, and king's printer at
Blois, used the same mark. I have seen it on a small book printed by him
in 1603: 'Reglement pour l'instruction des proces qui se conduiront au
bailliage et siege presidial de Bloys.' Two octavo sheets.
It would seem, however, that the sign of the Pot Cassé, which remained
for some time longer on the Halle de Beauce, also remained on the house
originally occupied by Tory, on rue Saint-Jacques, for we find a printer
named Michel de la Guierche living at that sign. See, among other works,
'M. T. Ciceronis ad M. Brutum Orat.--Paris, apud Mich. de la Guierche, sub
signo Vasis effracti, in vico Jacobeo.' Quarto, without date, but with
documents of 1542 and 1543.[163] But the Pot Cassé itself does not figure
in his books.
Tory's widow seems to have retained his engraving establishment for
a considerable further time. Although engrossed by her numerous
undertakings, she found time nevertheless to have some of her husband's
books reprinted, and among others the 'Sommaire de Chroniques d'Egnasius,'
in 1541, 1543, 1544, for the bookseller Charles L'Angelier, and 'Champ
fleury,' in 1549, for the bookseller Gualtherot. I say that she had these
books reprinted, but I ought rather to say, perhaps, that she allowed them
to be reprinted, for there is nothing to suggest her coöperation in the
work. Literary property did not then exist.
In the new edition of 'Champ fleury,' which by the way no longer bears
that graceful title, the Pot Cassé does not even appear, although
the explanation of the mark is allowed to remain. It was doubtless a
bookseller's speculation.[164] However that may be, this reprint forms
an octavo volume of 160 leaves (the folio has 80), in addition to the
preliminary matter, of which there are 16 leaves (8 in the folio); it is
entitled: 'L'Art et Science de la vraye proportion des Lettres Attiques,
ou Antiques, autrement dictes Romaines, selon le corps et visaige humain,
avec l'instruction et maniere de faire chiffres et lettres pour bagues
d'or, pour tapisserie, vitres et painctures. Item de treize diverses
sortes et façons de lettres; d'avantage la maniere d'ordonner la langue
françoise par certaine regle de parler elegamment en bon et plus sain
langage françois que par cy-devant, avec figures à ce convenantes, et
autres choses dignes de memoire, comme on pourra veoir par la table, le
tout inventé par maistre Geoffroy Tory de Bourges.'
I have copied this long title at full length only to give myself an
opportunity to call attention to the progress that had been made by
French typography since the day when Geofroy Tory published his first
edition, and, indeed, as a result of that same publication. We find here
the accents, the apostrophe and the cedilla, upon the absence of which
the author had commented in 1529. So that we may say that the whole
grammatical portion of his book had become useless as a direct result of
the first edition of that book. This is a fact to which the editors of the
second edition paid no heed, as they allowed Tory's observations to stand
as they were written, while introducing into their text the novel signs I
have just mentioned. For instance, they repeat that _c_ has two sounds,
one hard, as in 'coquin,' etc., the other soft, as in 'françois,' etc.
But by adding the cedilla in the last word they destroy the sense of the
criticism made by Tory in 1529.[165]
It does not appear by whom the book was printed; we learn only on the
last leaf that it was finished August 26, 1549, 'pour Vivant Gualtherot,
libraire juré en l'Université de Paris, en la rue Saint-Jacques, à
l'enseigne de Saint Martin.'
In order to adjust Tory's woodcuts to the smaller format, they were
somewhat mutilated; indeed some of them were omitted altogether, among
the number those representing the Pot Cassé, which probably remained in
the possession of Olivier Mallard or his successors, and which it was
not deemed essential to have engraved anew for this reprint, for it was
executed as cheaply as possible, and as if for the purpose of utilizing
such woodcuts as remained at the disposal of Tory's widow.[166] The work
was subjected to some further modifications in this edition. For instance,
all dates were suppressed in the preliminary matter, which also was
arranged in a different order. Even the license granted by François I was
omitted as having become useless; but no change was made in the actual
arrangement of the work, nor was there a single addition or emendation.
Thus Tory, at his death, was able to flatter himself that he had
contributed materially to the improvement of his mother tongue, which he
loved so well. He died, as I have said, in 1533, and not in 1550, as is
erroneously stated in a poetical epitaph composed nearly a century after
our printer's death, by his compatriot, Nicolas Catherinot, at the request
and from the notes of Jean Toubeau, himself a printer of Bourges, and a
descendant of Tory, through his mother.
Here is the epitaph, as given by La Caille:[167]--
To Geofroy Tory,
Born at Bourges,
Educated at Paris,
Accomplished Scholar in both Latin and Greek,
Most devoted Lover of Letters,
Very expert Printer
And
Learned Author,
Inasmuch as he wrote elegant Distichs on the Parts of the House,
Composed some humorous Epitaphs in Latin in very ancient Style,
Translated Treatises of Xenophon, Lucian, and Plutarch
From Greek into French,
Taught Philosophy at Paris in the College of Burgundy,
Was the first Man to discuss seriously the Art of Printing,
Described the Forms of the Letters, or Characters, of the Alphabet,
Taught Garamond, Chief of Engravers,
Always performed the Duties of a good Man until he died
In the Year MDL:[168]
At the Instance
Of Jean Toubeau,
Likewise Printer and Author,
Mayor,
Alderman of Bourges,
Ambassador on very delicate State-matters
To the King and Council,
Great-great-grandson of the same Tory,
Heir of a famous Printing Establishment,
Nicolas Catherinot, noble Citizen of Bourges,
Counsellor of the King, and Senator, in the Metropolis of Bourges,
From his tender Years uninterruptedly to the present Day
Most closely associated with the Business of Printing,
Wrote this Epitaph, hastily and rapidly, at the End of November,
MDCLXXXIV.[169]
The only relic that we have of Tory to-day, outside of his books and
works of art, is a volume from his library, as his signature in the
genitive case indicates. It is a manuscript on vellum, containing the
orations of Cicero against Verres, in Latin. This volume was acquired,
presumably after Tory's death, by his patron Jean Grolier, who wrote his
motto at the end of the text: 'Joannis Grolierii Lugdunensis et amicorum.'
From the library of this illustrious bibliophile, the manuscript passed to
Colbert's library, then to the king's. It is preserved to-day [1857] in
the Bibliothèque Nationale. We give below a facsimile of Tory's signature,
which appears on the first flyleaf:--
[Illustration: God. Torini Biturici]
Tory made use of ten marks, besides the Pot Cassé that appears on his
bindings. We reproduce them all, although only two (nos. 5 and 10) are
signed.[170] Some of them were used by other booksellers after him, as we
have already seen.
[Illustration: 1]
[Illustration: 2]
No. 1
This mark is to be found in the borders of the Hours (quarto) of 1527.
(See page 37, supra.)
No. 2
This form of the Pot Cassé appears in the borders of the Hours (quarto) of
1524-1525, alike in the copies which bear the imprint of Tory and in those
printed by Simon de Colines. (See page 37, supra; also Part 2, § 2, no. 1,
infra.)
[Illustration: 3]
[Illustration: 4]
No. 3
This variation will be found on the first page of those copies of the
Hours (quarto) of 1524-1525 which bear the imprint of Tory. (See Part 2, §
2, no. 1 (2d and 3d), infra.)
No. 4
This appears on the title-page of 'Champ fleury.' (Silvestre, 'Marques
Typographiques,' no. 931.)
[Illustration: 5]
[Illustration: 6]
No. 5
This appears on folio 43 verso, of 'Champ fleury.' (Silvestre, no. 803.)
No. 6
This mark, which differs from no. 5 only in the absence of the cross of
Lorraine, appears on the last page of 'Champ fleury.' I am unable to
suggest any reason for the removal of the cross. (Silvestre, no. 171.)
No. 7
This mark is found only at the end of the little poem written by Tory
on the death of his daughter, which was published February 15, 1524,
new style. We have already referred to this poem on page 15; but it is
reproduced at length in Part 2, § I, no. 9.
[Illustration: 7]
[Illustration: 8]
No. 8
This mark, which differs from the preceding only in the omission of the
little figure in the clouds, appears on the last page of the Hours of
1524-1525 (those copies with Tory's imprint) in Latin. (Silvestre, no.
356.)[171]
[Illustration: 9]
No. 9
This mark appears on the title-page of the Hours (quarto) of 1527. It was
used by Jean Mallard, bookseller at Rouen, 1542.[172] (Silvestre, no. 604.)
[Illustration: 10]
No. 10
I have never as yet seen this mark in any book of Tory's; but I have
found it in books published by Richard Cotereau, bookseller at Chartres,
in 1557, and by Philippe Cotereau, bookseller at Blois, in 1603. (See
p. 41, supra.) The presence of the Lorraine cross is, it seems to me, a
sufficient proof that it should be attributed to Tory. (Silvestre, no.
929.)
We have already observed that Tory was not only a bookseller and printer,
but a binder as well. To complete the list of our artist's professional
acquirements an example of the toolings that he used to decorate the
covers of some of the volumes bound by him, is reproduced [on the cover
of the present volume.[173] The reproduction is from the cover of a copy
of the works of Petrarch, printed at Venice in 1525, and now preserved
in the Library of the British Museum.] The Pot Cassé, in its simplest
form, appears among the arabesques of this binding. Tory had also had
engraved a larger plate of the same, for use on the binding of quartos,
or, rather, of folios. The design is almost identical. Sometimes the
Pot Cassé is accompanied by the drill. This design appears on a copy of
Macault's translation of Diodorus Siculus, printed as late as 1536, 'au
Pot Cassé.' This beautiful volume, in M. Didot's magnificent library, is
sufficient proof that Tory's widow continued his various industries for a
considerable time.
It is hardly necessary to say that the same tools could, with some slight
additions, be used in binding volumes of all sizes, from the octavo up.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 9: I write these two names as our artist himself wrote them;
but it is a well-known fact that the orthography of proper names in the
sixteenth century was very uncertain. As to the family name especially,
Geofroy's ancestors and descendants wrote it indifferently _Toury_,
_Tory_, and _Thory_; but Geofroy never varied: he always wrote _Tory_ in
French, _Torinus_ in Latin (which should, strictly speaking, be translated
_Torin_). See further, on this subject, Appendix A.]
[Footnote 10: _Champ fleury_, fol. 1 verso: 'Combiem [_sic_] que ie soye
de petitz & humbles parēs, & aussi que ie soye pouure de biens caduques.']
[Footnote 11: See Part 2, infra, Bibliography, § I, no. 3.]
[Footnote 12: He mentions it on every page of his _Champ fleury_.]
[Footnote 13: We read in _Champ fleury_, fol. 49 verso: 'Come lexposent
tresingenieusemē & elegātemēt Philipes Beroal & Jehan baptiste le
piteable, ɋ iay veuz & ouyz lire publiquemt, il ya. xx. ans, en Bonoigne
la grace.' _Champ fleury_ was conceived in 1524, but was not finished
until 1526, the date of the license to print.]
[Footnote 14: See _Champ fleury_, fol. 6 recto.]
[Footnote 15: As to Gourmont's Greek type, see my _Les Estienne_, pp. 62
ff.]
[Footnote 16: Doubtless we should read IV (December 2), for there is no VI
of the Nones of December.]
[Footnote 17: See the description of the book in Part 2, § I, no.
1.]
[Footnote 18: [The modern Bourges.]]
[Footnote 19: Enea Silvio Piccolomini, commonly called Æneas Sylvius. See
Part 2, § I, no. 2.]
[Footnote 20: Germain de Gannay, Ganaye, or Gannaye, son of Nicolas and
brother of Jean, Chancellor of France, had become a counsellor in the
Parliament of Paris, on the resignation of Jean Jouvenel des Ursins, by
letters patent of 1485; appointed Bishop of Cahors, by royal letters
issued at Vienne in Dauphiné, August 14, 1509, in opposition to Guy de
Châteauneuf, who was chosen by election but yielded his claim to him, he
was consecrated May 4, 1511. In 1512 he inherited the property of his
brother the Chancellor, and did homage for the seigniory of Persan on June
18. He was translated to the bishopric of Orléans in 1514, and died in
1520.]
[Footnote 21: October 2.]
[Footnote 22: See Part 2, § I, no. 3.]
[Footnote 23: Ibid. no. 4.]
[Footnote 24: See my _Les Estienne_, pp. 62 ff.]
[Footnote 25: See Part 2, § I, no. 5.]
[Footnote 26: For Latin text, see Appendix X, _a_.]
[Footnote 27: See Part 2, § I, no. 6.]
[Footnote 28: One of the three editions of Berosus bears that date, but
our artist probably had nothing to do with that edition. [Note added by
the author after the book had gone through the press.]]
[Footnote 29: Fol. 1 recto.]
[Footnote 30: This principal of the College of Plessis is here called
Robertus Duræus Fortunatus. Du Boulay calls him simply Robertus
Fortunatus, in his _Histoire de l'Université de Paris_, vol. vi. p. 159.
Elsewhere he is called Dure (Duré?). In the index of the same volume, Du
Boulay, under the name of Robertus Fortunatus, refers to a list of the
principals of the College of Plessis, which he omitted to publish.]
[Footnote 31: See Part 2, § I, no. 7.]
[Footnote 32: _Biographie Universelle_, art. 'Tory.']
[Footnote 33: See Part 2, § I, no. 8 (p. 70).]
[Footnote 34: _Histoire de l'Imprimerie_, p. 100: _Siste,
viator,--et jacentes etiam artes colito.--Hic--Godofredus Torinus
Bituricus,--ubique litteris librisque clarissimus,--qui--Parisiis multos
per annos philosophiam--docuit maximo concursu,--in regio Burgundiæ
collegio,--simulque artem exercuit typographicam,--novam tunc ac recentem
brevi perpolitam--tamen reddidit.--Quisquis ad stadium animum applicas--et
inde quæris immortalitatem,--præcipuo cultori prius apprecare.--Amen._]
[Footnote 35: Fol. 49 recto.]
[Footnote 36: According to the _Biographie Universelle_, Tory joined the
fraternity of booksellers in 1512; but I have found no evidence of this,
and it seems to me most improbable.]
[Footnote 37: It was this sentence, no doubt, which gave birth to the idea
that Tory was a bookseller at the same time that he was a professor; but
it is evident that it refers to Tory's labours as an engraver, and not
to bookselling or printing properly so called, as Tory did not become,
successively, bookseller and printer, until later.]
[Footnote 38: _Champ fleury_, fol. 20 verso.]
[Footnote 39: Ibid. [Tory spells it 'Aurenges.']]
[Footnote 40: Ibid. fol. 19 verso.]
[Footnote 41: Ibid. and elsewhere.]
[Footnote 42: 'One may see many another example in the book of _Epitaphs
of Ancient Rome_, which I saw printed at the time I sojourned in said
Rome.' _Champ fleury_, fol. 41 recto. He refers to the same book again on
folios 48 recto and 60 verso: 'In the book of _Epitaphs of Ancient Rome_,
lately printed in said Rome, where I was then living.']
[Footnote 43: This book is the oldest printed collection of inscriptions.
Unfortunately, instead of being copied from the original monuments,
which still existed at Rome in such great numbers, these inscriptions
were simply reproduced from one of the manuscript collections which were
to be found in the libraries and some of which were themselves very
old. Mazochi's book had no sooner been published than the errors which
had found their way into it began to be pointed out to the printer. He
tried to correct them in a supplement which appeared in 1523, but his
corrections did not extend to all the inscriptions, which might still
have been restored by reference to the ancient monuments. A contemporary
scholar, whose name is not known, undertook to continue these corrections
on his printed copy, and his emendations were transferred to three other
copies. These annotations impart great value to these four volumes in the
eyes of epigraphists.]
[Footnote 44: During the first centuries of printing in France, all
engravers were also booksellers.]
[Footnote 45: He has an article in the _Biographie Universelle_, however.]
[Footnote 46: _Champ fleury_, fol. 4 recto.]
[Footnote 47: We say _Basoche_ to-day.]
[Footnote 48: _Champ fleury_, fol. 12 recto and verso.]
[Footnote 49: For the Latin text, see Appendix X, _b_.]
[Footnote 50: Ibid., _c_.]
[Footnote 51: See Appendix X, _d_.]
[Footnote 52: See Part 2, § I, no. 9.]
[Footnote 53: [Twelfth-day, or Epiphany.]]
[Footnote 54: Cicero says that he borrowed this maxim from Plato: _Ut
præclare scriptum est Platone._]
[Footnote 55: _Champ fleury_, fol. 1 recto.]
[Footnote 56: Ibid., verso of title-page.]
[Footnote 57: [As _Champ fleury_ is not among the works cited by French
lexicographers to illustrate the historical development of the language,
we search in vain for adequate explanation of some of the terms used
by Tory therein. Littré defines as follows such of these varieties of
letters as he includes in his dictionary: CADEAUX: _Grandes
lettres placées en têtes des actes ou des chapitres dans les manuscrits
en écriture cursive._--FORME: _Lettre de la belle écriture, des
belles éditions, par opposition à la lettre cursive._--BÂTARDE:
_Écriture ordinairement penchée, à jambages pleins, à liaisons arrondies
par le haut, et à tetes sans boucles._--GOFFES: _Nom donné à une
sorte de majuscules gothiques dans le commencement du XVI siècle._ See,
also, for some of these alphabets, _Pantographia; Containing Accurate
Copies of all the known Alphabets in the world_. By Edmund Fry. London,
1799.]]
[Footnote 58: See his introduction to Palsgrave's _Lesclaircissement de la
langue françoise_. See also Appendix II.]
[Footnote 59: [_Escumeurs de latin._ Rabelais's word is _escorcher_, to
flay.]]
[Footnote 60: One of the annotators of Rabelais (I do not now remember
which one, but his name is of little consequence[62]) maintains that Tory
intended to criticize in that epistle the author of _Pantagruel_, who
had introduced him in his romance under the name of Raminagrobis. There
is but one little flaw in this story, namely, that the dates are against
it: _Champ fleury_ antedates _Pantagruel_, by several years. This fact,
to be sure, does not prove that Rabelais did not make Tory a character
in his work; but what foundation is there, I ask, for attributing the
character of Raminagrobis to Tory? Simply the assertion of one of those
seventeenth-century scribblers of marginal notes who lived on the great
authors of the sixteenth as rats live on the most valuable manuscripts--by
nibbling at them. What possible connection is there between Raminagrobis,
canon and poet, whom Rabelais represents as dying about 1546, and Tory,
layman and prose writer, who died twelve years earlier? Does it not remind
one of the famous key to _Astrée_, of which I had occasion to prove, in
my monograph upon the d'Urfés, that not a word was true? Almost the same
course has been pursued with reference to the _Satire Menippée_, which has
in our own day been ascribed to persons who would be greatly surprised,
and far from proud of their alleged work. See what I had to say on this
subject in the _Revue de la Province et de Paris_ of September 30, 1842.]
[Footnote 61: _Champ fleury_, 'Aux Lecteurs.']
[Footnote 62: It was Pasquier, I think, who first gave currency to this
fable; and his opinion is the less admissible because he did not even know
Tory's name, but calls him 'Georges Toré.' See Baillet, _Jugements des
Savants_, vol. i, and Génin's introduction to Palsgrave, p. 10, note 4.]
[Footnote 63: _Champ fleury_, 'Aux Lecteurs.']
[Footnote 64: Folio, Venice, 1509; with 62 plates engraved on wood.]
[Footnote 65: In his book entitled _Thesauro de' scrittori_ (_Champ
fleury_, fol. 35 recto). I have not seen this book, but I have seen his
_Theorica et pratica ... de modo scribendi fabricandique omnes litterarum
species_ (Venice, Dec. 1, 1524; quarto). This work is divided into
four books and contains engravings not unlike those in _Champ fleury_.
M. Brunet mentions Fante's _Liber elementorum litterarum_ (Venice,
1514; quarto), which probably was the foundation of the _Thesauro de'
scrittori_, published by Ugo da Carpi.]
[Footnote 66: I do not know the title of his work, but I think that
the reference is to the book thus described in the Libri catalogue of
1859: _La Operina da imparare discrivere littera cancellarescha. Roma,
per invenzione di Lodovico Vicentino_, in quarto (1523). As for the
variant spelling of the author's name, which Tory calls Vincentino, it
is explainable; for we find in the Libri catalogue of 1857: _Ragola
da imparare scrivere varii caratteri di lettere, di L. Vincentino_.
(Venetia, Zoppino, 1533, in quarto.) I have also seen mentioned a work
of the same sort entitled: _Regula occulte scribendi seu componendi
cipharam itaquenemo litteras interpretari possit communes omnibus, inventa
et composita a domino Jacobo Silvestro sive Florentino_. (Rome, 1526,
quarto.)]
[Footnote 67: The doubt expressed by Tory is due to the fact that he was
unable to read the text of Dürer's work, which was published in German in
1525. The Latin translation was not published until 1532, and the French
still later.]
[Footnote 68: _Champ fleury_, fol. 13 recto.]
[Footnote 69: Ibid. fol. 14 recto.]
[Footnote 70: Ibid. fol. 41 verso.]
[Footnote 71: _Des Types_, etc., 2d part, 16th century, p. 166.]
[Footnote 72: _Champ fleury_, fol. 14 recto.]
[Footnote 73: It was the fashion, in that epoch of renascence, to treat
everything allegorically. Tory was not the only one who propounded a
theory to explain the shapes of letters.]
[Footnote 74: _Champ fleury_, fol. 24 recto.]
[Footnote 75: [And if any wonder why this book is written in Romance,
according to the language of the French, when we are Italians, I will
say that it is for two reasons: one, for that we are in France, and the
other, for that the speaking of it is more delectable and more common to
all people.] Prologue to the _Trésor_, published by M. Pierre Chabaille
(quarto; Imprimerie Impérial, 1863; p. 3). The second reason probably
explains why Marco Polo printed the narrative of his voyage in French.]
[Footnote 76: [That is to say, philologists.]]
[Footnote 77: [That is to say, the lines between the different dialects
are less clearly marked in the case of the men.]]
[Footnote 78: Although myself a native of Lyon, I confess that I do not
understand the meaning of these words, of which Tory, by a regrettable
exception, gives no translation. A friend of mine in that city, M. Ant.
Péricaud, thinks that the meaning is: 'Chômez-vous? Chômez cette fête.']
[Footnote 79: _Champ fleury_, fol. 33 verso.]
[Footnote 80: There are some provinces where the final S is still
pronounced. The English also have retained the custom, which is a
necessity with them because the article is invariable, so that the plural
cannot otherwise be distinguished from the singular.]
[Footnote 81: _Champ fleury_, fol. 57 recto.]
[Footnote 82: Ibid., fol. 58 verso. Again, as in note 5 on page 18, I
will call attention to the fact that the English, who are much more
French in this respect than is generally supposed, have retained the old
pronunciation. They sound the final T in words borrowed from us.]
[Footnote 83: _Champ fleury_, fol. 52 recto.]
[Footnote 84: Ibid. fol. 56 verso.]
[Footnote 85: Ibid. fol. 37 verso.]
[Footnote 86: I have seen this binding on an octavo copy of the
_Ædiloquium_ of 1530, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale and on the
_Sommaire de Chroniques de J. B. Egnasio_, of 1529, owned by M. Didot.
[The famous collection of M. Didot has since been dispersed.]]
[Footnote 87: Book of Hours of 1556, owned by M. Niel. This volume was
printed by the Kervers, who had bought Tory's old plant.]
[Footnote 88: I have seen it on the Hours of 1531, and the _Diodorus_ of
1535, which two volumes also are [1865] owned by M. Didot.]
[Footnote 89: [See nos. 1 and 2, on p. 45, infra.]]
[Footnote 90: Fol. 43 verso. Inadvertently, no doubt, this mark is
reversed on the first page of _Champ fleury_. Tory attached little
importance to the error, for the same engraving often appeared afterward.
It is not signed [with the double cross], like the one here reproduced.]
[Footnote 91: Here, and in numberless other passages in his books, Tory
alludes to Italy, of which he always retained a grateful memory.]
[Footnote 92: _Champ fleury_, fol. 43 recto.]
[Footnote 93: [See page 12, supra.]]
[Footnote 94: The Renaissance, at this time, was at its height.]
[Footnote 95: Read Μηδὲν ἄγαν.]
[Footnote 96: [Against which not even the gods contend.]]
[Footnote 97: [See page 1, supra.]]
[Footnote 98: This eminent artist, who has no article in the _Biographie
Universelle_, and who is not even mentioned in the _desiderata_ of the
_Notice des tableaux du Louvre de l'école française_, published by M.
Villot, did not die until about 1528, if my reckoning is accurate. We
can establish the fact of his existence so late as 1522 by the documents
published by M. de Laborde in his book on the Renaissance. I once owned
an original letter of Perreal, which shows him in full vigour in 1511.
That letter, which I presented to M. Alexandre Sirand, magistrate at
Bourg, has been published by him in his _Courses Archéologiques_, vol.
iii, p. 5, in connection with the church at Brou, in which Perreal was
deeply interested. The letter I refer to is dated November 15 (1511) and
addressed to Margaret of Austria (widow of the Duke of Savoy), to whom
Perreal offers his services as superintendent of the work of building
the church. That princess accepted his offer, as we see by her reply of
February, 1511 (1512 new style): 'Since Jehan Le Maire hath left us, we
choose to have no other overseer in our edifices at Brou than yourself.'
(See the work last cited.)]
[Footnote 99: La Caille, in his _Histoire de l'Imprimerie_, p. 98, gives
the date erroneously as September 28, 1584.]
[Footnote 100: See an extract from it in Part 2, § 2, no. 1.]
[Footnote 101: [_fait et fait faire._]]
[Footnote 102: See Part 2, § 2, no. 1.]
[Footnote 103: Ibid. no. 2.]
[Footnote 104: Ibid. no. 3.]
[Footnote 105: Ibid. no. 6.]
[Footnote 106: _Champ fleury_, fol. 73 recto.]
[Footnote 107: Several bibliographers, misled doubtless by the date of the
license, mention an edition of _Champ fleury_ of 1526; but there is none.
Not until 1549 was there an octavo edition, printed for the bookseller
Vivant Gautherot. I shall speak of it hereafter.]
[Footnote 108: See the description of _Champ fleury_, Part 2, §
I, no. 10.]
[Footnote 109: For Gourmont, see the _Notice historique_ which follows my
work entitled: _Les Estienne et les types grecs de François Iᵉʳ_.]
[Footnote 110: Gilles de Gourmont had just published Lucian's _Dialogues_
in Greek (quarto, 1528); but Tory's translation was made from a Latin
version. Although he knew Greek, he did not use it when he could avoid it.
As a general rule he translated from Latin versions such Greek authors as
he dealt with.]
[Footnote 111: This was, as we have seen, the sign of the famous printer
Chrétien Wechel; it was on the right as one ascends rue Saint-Jacques,
near the church of Saint-Benoît. The Pot Cassé was opposite.]
[Footnote 112: See a description of it in Part 2, § I, no. 11.]
[Footnote 113: [_Raphael durbin_, _Michel lange_, _Leonard vince_, _Albert
durer_, are Tory's versions of these names.]]
[Footnote 114: The description of the volume in Part 2 (p. 87 infra),
places this promise in the dedicatory letter.]
[Footnote 115: _Histoire de l'Imprimerie_, p. 98.]
[Footnote 116: See Part 2, § I, no. 13.]
[Footnote 117: _Champ fleury_, 'avis au lecteur.'--See also fol. 1 verso:
'And so I will write in French according to my own humble style and mother
tongue, nor fail, albeit I am of lowly and humble parents, and poor in
paltry goods, to give pleasure to the devoted lovers of goodly letters.
Herein it may be I shall seem a new man, for that no one has heretofore
been known to teach the fashioning and quality of letters by writing in
the French language; but, desirous to cast some light on our language, I
am content to be the first little pointer to arouse some noble mind which
shall put forth greater efforts, as did the Greeks and Romans of old, to
establish and ordain the French language by fixed rules for pronouncing
and speaking well. God grant that some noble lord may be pleased to
offer pledges and worthy gifts to those who shall be able to do this
well.'--François I himself was the noble lord referred to.]
[Footnote 118: See Part 2, § II, no. 4.]
[Footnote 119: As to this date, see no. v below, p. 31, and note 1.]
[Footnote 120: See Part 2, § I, no. 14.]
[Footnote 121: See Appendix X, _e_.]
[Footnote 122: This volume contains also: _Epistre du seigneur Elisee
Calense, natif Damphrate, quil envoya a Rufin ... translatee .... par
maistre Geofroy Tory de Bourges._]
[Footnote 123: The year 1531 did not begin until Easter Sunday, April 9.]
[Footnote 124: See, for other details concerning Tory's _Xenophon_, Part
2, § I, no. 15.]
[Footnote 125: Ibid. § II, no. 5.]
[Footnote 126: See Part 2, § I, no. 16.]
[Footnote 127: [_A libraire juré_ was a bookseller who had taken the oath
to follow the rules prescribed by the University.]]
[Footnote 128: See Part 2, § I, no. 17.]
[Footnote 129: The reform went even further than Tory suggested, for
orthographic accents were invented, which have no other purpose than to
distinguish words of the same sound but of different meaning; and therein
it disregarded logic, for it not only did not distinguish in this way
all words of the same sound (_son_, for example, which has three totally
different meanings, received no accent), but it placed accents on words
which had but one meaning,--_déjà_, for example; of what use is the grave
accent on the _a?_ Moreover, it placed accents in certain cases on words
which in other cases have none. Thus it wrote '_votre_ ami et le _nôtre_,'
and '_notre_ ami et le _vôtre_.']
[Footnote 130: See supra, p. 8.]
[Footnote 131: It is printed at the end of his book, which has some
similarity to Tory's. The full title is: _Lesperon de discipline pour
inciter les humains aux bonnes lettres_, etc. On the title-page are the
arms of Savoy, to indicate the nativity of the author, who was born in La
Bresse, which then belonged to the House of Savoy.]
[Footnote 132: See in Appendix II, the Latin verses printed on the verso
of the title of _Lesclaircissement de la langue françoise_, an English
work reprinted in 1852 at M. Génin's instance.]
[Footnote 133: This error has been made by many writers. The creation of
king's printer was so far from being identical with the foundation of the
Imprimerie Royale, that there continued to be functionaries bearing that
title even after the foundation of the Imprimerie du Louvre, in 1640, as
we shall see later (Appendix IX).]
[Footnote 134: Jean de la Barre, chevalier, Comte d'Étampes, counsellor
and chamberlain in ordinary to the king, first gentleman of his chamber,
and keeper of the provostry of Paris, granted the licenses to print at
this time.]
[Footnote 135: The license had no sooner expired than the work was
reprinted, as may be seen by a copy of an edition of 8 leaves, octavo, in
gothic type, dated 1531, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 136: See the description of these two opuscula in Part 2, §
III, nos. 1 and 2.]
[Footnote 137: A much stranger omission is that of de la Barre's
signature, which had to be added by hand to every copy, at the foot of the
license.]
[Footnote 138: [The _saint-augustin_ was a 13-point type, so called
because it was used in 1467 to print St. Augustine's _De Civitate Dei_.
The _philosophie_ was 10-point.]]
[Footnote 139: See his little book entitled _Les Trois Ilots de la Cité_;
octavo, 1860 (an extract from the _Revue Archéologique_).]
[Footnote 140: See Part 2, § III, no. 3.]
[Footnote 141: See Appendix VI.]
[Footnote 142: [The _écu au soleil_ was a coin issued under Louis XI and
Charles VIII, with a sun above the crown. The _livre tournois_ was worth
20 sous.]]
[Footnote 143: See Appendix VIII.]
[Footnote 144: Concerning the _libraires jurés_ and _non jurés_, see
Chevillier, _Origine de l'imprimerie de Paris_, part 4.]
[Footnote 145: [_Don du roi._] See Appendix III.]
[Footnote 146: See Part 2, §§ III and IV.]
[Footnote 147: This most necessary reform spread very rapidly. The year
had not ended when another Paris printer, Antoine Augereau, published a
small treatise on the subject, entitled: _Briefve doctrine pour deuement
escripre selon la proprieté du langaige françoys_. ['Brief instructions
for writing the French language properly.'] This curious work, which is
printed with the _Miroir de très chrestienne princesse Marguerite de
France_, in an octavo volume, 1533, informs us among other things that
the final E which requires the acute accent was at that time called
_masculine_, and that the word _feminine_ was applied to it when it did
not take the accent. These are, as we see, the terms used by Tory. Hence
doubtless the term _féminine_, which is still applied to-day, in French
poetry, to silent rhymes. (See Appendix V.)]
[Footnote 148: _Archives de l'Empire_, carton S, no. 18.--See also _Les
Trois Ilots de la Cité_, by M. Adolphe Berty, p. 15.]
[Footnote 149: See Part 2, § III, no. 6.]
[Footnote 150: The existence of Tory's bindery is proved by the numerous
bindings with the Pot Cassé, not only of books from that artist's presses,
to which I have already referred, but of books printed by others. I will
mention particularly a lovely book of Hours, octavo, on vellum, printed by
Herman Hardoin about 1527, and preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 151: Olivier Mallard the printer was probably a relative of Jean
Mallart the writer, whose name appears about the same time in the accounts
of François I: 'To Jehan Mallart, writer, for writing _unes heures_ [a
book of Hours] on parchment, presented to the king to be illuminated,
XLV livres as a gift, charged upon the _deniers de l'espargne à
l'entour du roy_.' (From a roll not dated, but _circa_ 1538, published by
M. de Laborde, _Renaissance des Arts_, vol. i, p. 924.) These Mallards
were probably of Norman origin, for there were about the same time several
booksellers of that name at Rouen. One of them, indeed, Jean Mallard, had
the Pot Cassé for his sign in 1542. He was probably a brother of Olivier,
who had authorized him to adopt that symbol. (See _Heures a l'usage de
Rouen_, octavo, gothic type, 1542.) I am indebted for this information to
the learned author of the _Manuel du Bibliophile normand_, M. Ed. Frère.]
[Footnote 152: It was this publication, no doubt, that led Papillon to say
that Tory died in 1536. (_Traité de la gravure sur bois_, vol. i, p. 509.)]
[Footnote 153: Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 154: 'Caussarum in suprema Parisiorum curia patronus.' This
mouth-filling phrase presumably means _avocat_ in the Parliament of Paris.]
[Footnote 155: Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 156: Crapelet, _Études pratiques_, etc., p. 48.]
[Footnote 157: In Appendix VI will be found [an English version of] M.
Crapelet's [French] translation. I have given the original text in my work
on the Estiennes, pp. 11 ff.]
[Footnote 158: See Part 3 (_Iconography_), under 1541 and 1542.]
[Footnote 159: The rent of these premises, which was only 16 livres in
1420, and 22 in 1498, was raised to 160 livres in 1551, to 200 in 1567,
and to 400 in 1605. (_Les Trois Ilots de la Cité_, by Adolphe Berty,
p. 15). It seems that the raising of rents in Paris is not a modern
invention.]
[Footnote 160: _Histoire de l'Imprimerie_, p. 110.]
[Footnote 161: His mother, Iolande Bonhomme, widow of Thielman Kerver,
first of the name, also lived on rue Saint-Jacques, at the sign of the
_Licorne_ (_Unicornis_).]
[Footnote 162: See p. 47 infra, no. 10.]
[Footnote 163: Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 164: In the preceding year, an analogous book was published at
Rome, under this title: _Libro di M. Giovanbattista Palatino, cittadino
Romano, nel quel s'insegna a scrivere ogni sorte lettera, antica et
moderna, di qualunque natione, con le sue regole et misure, et essempi: et
con un breve et util discorso de le cifre_, etc. Quarto, Rome, 1548; with
15 plates.]
[Footnote 165: It might perhaps be interesting to publish this book to-day
(it is now very rare), scrupulously following the first edition, as has
been done in the case of Palsgrave's _Lesclaircissement de la langue
françoise_.]
[Footnote 166: The floriated letters engraved by Tory which appear in the
course of the book, and of which the entire alphabet is given on the verso
of folio 78 of the first edition, are replaced in the second by letters of
an entirely different make.]
[Footnote 167: _Histoire de l'Imprimerie_, p. 99.]
[Footnote 168: It will be seen that I apparently had most excellent
grounds for saying in my first edition that Tory lived until after 1550.
Could one imagine that a historian of Berry, a townsman of Tory and
friend of Jean Toubeau, could blunder so stupidly concerning the date of
our artist's death? La Caille even makes him live until the close of the
sixteenth century.]
[Footnote 169: [For the Latin original, see Appendix X, _f_.]]
[Footnote 170: [Tory's signature referred to consists in the double, or
Lorraine, cross found on nos. 5 and 10.]]
[Footnote 171: See Part 2, § II, no. 2 (2).]
[Footnote 172: See p. 38, note 4, supra.]
[Footnote 173: One of our most skilful binders, M. Capé, used this design
in his bindings. An example may be seen on a copy of the Hours (quarto) of
1527 in the Bibliothèque Nationale.]
PART II.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
In the first part of this volume I have made cursory mention of some of
the books published by Tory, and especially of those which may be said to
offer some biographical information; in this part I propose to describe
in detail all the books to which he put his name in any capacity, and of
which we of to-day have knowledge. To make my description clearer I shall
divide these books into four sections, the titles of which will explain
themselves.
OMNIS TANDEM
MARCESCIT
FLOS.
[Illustration:
LE TRIVM
PHE-DAPOLLO
ET DESES
MVSES.
]
SECTION I.
WORKS WRITTEN OR ANNOTATED BY TORY.
1
POMPONIUS MELA, DE TOTIUS ORBIS DESCRIPTIONE. AUTHOR
LUCULENTISSIMUS, NUNQUAM ANTEA CITRA MONTES IMPRESSUS.[174]
(Mark of Jehan Petit.)[175]
Quarto, of 45 numbered leaves, plus 11 leaves of index; in all, 56 leaves,
or 14 sheets, arranged in 9 signatures of two sheets and one, alternately.
Signatures _a_, _c_, _e_, _g_, and _i_ have two sheets [16 pages] each;
signatures _b_, _d_, _f_, _h_, one sheet [8 pages] each.
The whole book is printed in roman type, except the first line of the
title-page, which is gothic, and a few Greek words here and there.
As we have seen, this book was for sale by Jean Petit, but it was printed
by Gilles de Gourmont, solely because of the Greek words just mentioned.
So Tory himself tells us in a note at the end of the text, folio 45:
'Curavi siquidem accuratissimo impressori dare, qui etiam primus apud
Parisios græcis caracteribus lotissimas addidit manus.'[176]
On the verso of the first leaf is a letter of the publisher, Geofroy Tory,
to his friend Babou, thus conceived:--
[Illustration:
BACCHVS
CERES ET
VENVS
SONT ICY
MENEZ CA
PTIFZ.
]
_Geofroy Tory of Bourges to Philibert Babou, citizen of Bourges,
very deserving treasurer and valet-de-chambre of the most serene
king of the French, humblest greeting._
On looking recently into Pomponius Mela, most illustrious Philibert, Mela
who is the most trustworthy of the writers on geography, I found him so
corrupt and so badly mutilated that
--Lo, before my eyes, in saddest plight,
The author seemed to stand and burst in tears.[177]
Virg. _Æn._ ii.
Lo, I say,
All black with dust and blood,--ah, sad, sad sight,--
By two-horse chariot dragged, his swollen feet
Torn through with thongs ...
How from the bottom of his heart he groaned.
_Id. Ibid._
In such words as these did he seem to complain: Am I, then, who described
so elegantly all those many lands, those many peoples, those islands,
rivers, straits, seas, and whirlpools, I who ventured so confidently upon
the description of the whole world, am I to remain thus maimed, thus
mutilated, thus disfigured?
--Ah me, how hacked am I,
How like that Hector who erstwhile brought back
... his squalid ... locks
All stiff with blood, and many a wound he got
About his country's walls. _Id. Ibid._
Unless some helping hand be stretched forth, I shall soon surely die.
In time Machaon healed the loathsome limbs of Philoctetes,
And Phillyreian Chiron gave to blinded Phœnix sight;
The god of Epidaurus, at a father's fond entreaties,
By Cretan herbs Androgeos brought again to realms of light.[1]
But verily I believe that
He who'll cure this pain of mine is certain of succeeding
In giving Tantalus the fruit that cheats his eager palm.
Yea, he the piercèd pails may fill, and heavy burden lighten,
The slender Danaïds endure, with ceaseless toil opprest;
From the bleak cliff of Caucasus unchain the fettered Titan,
And scare away the bird of prey that tears his mangled breast.[178]
I naturally said to myself on the spot: If I were Machaon, or Chyron, or
Æsculapius, I should be glad to remedy this matter. But what if I were to
make such slight effort as I can? Might I not be able to be of service?
Perhaps; at least, I should have tried, and I should have had this object
in view: to make him somewhat more free from faults.
And if my powers of song should fail--to dare were surely fame:
Enough that I have had the will; no higher praise I claim.
Proper. ii, _ad Musam_ (_ad Augustum?_).
I have accordingly added a very few annotations; provided with
which, under the protection of your name (for you are a devoted
admirer of letters and lettered men), under, as the saying is,
favourable auspices, let Pomponius Mela now go forth in greater
security than before. Farewell.
Paris, vj no. Decemb. MCCCCCVII.[179]
At the end of the text, on folio xlv, we find the following:[180]--
Here, then, you have, most illustrious Philibert, Pomponius Mela, purged
of the many errors in which he abounded. I took the trouble to put him
in the hands of a very careful printer, one who was, besides, the first
Parisian to give to the Greek characters a form of superior elegance. I
have been pleased to revise the text with special care and to add a very
few annotations, so that, when it should come into your hands, and later
on into the hands of the public, it might come in a more polished and
finished form. You, now, with Mela in hand, may, like Phiclus, who, as the
story goes, ran over the tops of the grain-fields without breaking the
ears, traverse and re-traverse, not only in security, but confidently and
resolutely, the whole world. If you wish to lay hold of tigers, swiftest
of animals, and to see from a safe vantage the catoblepas, if you wish
to meet dragons and wild beasts, Satyrs, Pans, and Silvani, if you wish
to see the Indians, 'the Britons, separated by a world between,' the
Sauromatae, the Africans, and all the peoples that lie between these,
and learn of their wonderful habits, then take but this world, I mean
Pomponius, many times in hand, and without doubt you will there be able to
see and to know them all as in no other way. Farewell and forget not yours
ever faithfully.
Paris, 24 December.
CIVIS.
_To Pomponius Mela._
Mela, the many errors in which you abounded have been cast forth;
few are the faults that remain with you. Better far and more perfect
in form do you stand forth now than formerly you did. This is the
accomplishment of my small hand.
_To Philibert Babou._
That my life for many years has been due to you, these two short
verses, Philibert, now testify. Whatever 'alpha' belonged to me in
my tender years, that your happy 'omega' wished to bear.
Ω
CIVIS.
At the end of the index, on the verso of the penultimate sheet, is a list
of errata beginning thus:--
[181] 'Since nothing is more difficult than to be wholly free from
error, it seems quite proper that I should, with the kind consent of the
reader, consider a very few of the very few mistakes of this book: thus,
for example, where "potuit" is found in the epistle, "possit" should be
written.'
This list also is signed 'civis.' Beneath it is a short poem entitled:
'Carolus Rousseus ad lectorem tetrastichon.' And on the recto of the last
leaf: 'In the year of the incarnation and of our salvation, 1507, the
tenth day of January,[182] this work was printed by Gilles de Gourmont,
and was very carefully revised by Tory of Bourges, at Paris.' (Mark of
Gilles de Gourmont.)
2
COSMOGRAPHIA PII PAPÆ IN ASIÆ ET EUROPÆ ELEGANTI
DESCRIPTIONE, etc. Paris, Henri Estienne [1509].
Quarto, of 152 leaves of text, preceded by 12 unnumbered leaves and a
folio cut representing the ancient world. On the second preliminary leaf
is Tory's dedicatory epistle to Germain de Gannay, thus conceived:
_To the reverend Father and Lord in Christ, Germain de Gannay,
bishop-elect of Cahors, Geofroy Tory of Bourges proffers most humble
greeting._[183]
I here present, most excellent prelate, in more accurate and emended
form than that in which he has hitherto been read, Pope Pius, an
author who, in his Description of Asia and Europe, is much to be
admired both for the dignity and for the singular worth of his
work. In looking for some one to whom he, in behalf of his book,
freshly issuing from the printing-office, might straightway most
devotedly offer his respects, some one select, devoted to letters,
and possessed of the highest virtue, I could think of no one more to
be desired, more worthy than you. That the Supreme Pontiff himself
should go to visit you, a most venerable bishop, seemed to me a
thing not without humour. That he, I say, who was a meritorious
writer of geography, and, as you will be able to see, of history
well deserving to be read, should come and embrace you, lover and
cultivator of every form of polite literature, I thought a thing
very appropriate. It was like setting the gem to the gold, or the
'encaustum,' that is picture drawn with fire, to the silver, it was
like conferring the palm upon the victor; and that most certainly
is nothing other than to join the good to the good, the glorious to
the glorious, the deserving to the deserving. But along with these
reasons there is still another reason why to you of all persons
this most illustrious work should very properly be dedicated: it
was at your instance and suggestion that I divided the work into
chapters and gave to its parts a more convenient arrangement.
That you first, and then that all other students and readers, may,
as was your wish, find and remember the parts of the earth, which
are many in number, and the things in them that are interesting
to know about, more easily and conveniently, I have divided the
book thus: the names of rivers, towns, places, rulers, and other
important matters I have put in separate chapters and marked with
marginal captions; these names are also all to be found, provided
with numbers, in the index. This little work of mine, therefore,
I dedicate to you, my lord, in deepest reverence and with sincere
feeling. It is certainly far from being what I should offer to so
reverend a father, but you, whose goodness and integrity, which are
perfectly evident to me, all praise in the highest terms, will, if
it so please you, take the book into your most pure hands and bestow
upon it the favour which you are accustomed to bestow upon works of
this kind. Farewell.
Paris, at the College of Plessis, 2 Oct., A.D. 1509.
Next comes a 'table,' which fills eleven leaves, on the verso of the last
of which we find the following note to the reader:--
_Geofroy Tory of Bourges to the Reader._[184]
You will find the words 'eruȩre, contendȩre, misȩre,'
and many others of the same sort, written with an _ȩ_ in the
penult: this was done in order that the perfect indicative, which
regularly has a long penult, might show its quantity (which
you are to utter in reading), as distinguished from that of
the present and past imperfect infinitive, which in the third
conjugation always shortens its penult. It is with pleasure that
I have imitated and adopted the very elegant and finished form of
writing which is used in the 'Psalterium Quincuplex,'[185] recently
published. You will also, though rarely, find this _ȩ_ used,
after the fashion of certain authors, for _æ_ in some words, and
similarly at times in the genitive and dative singular, and in the
nominative and vocative plural, of the first declension. I have
furthermore written designedly 'mistum' with an _s_ instead of an
_x_,--for 'misceo' makes its perfect 'miscui,' whence by analogy
'mistum,'--'intellego,' 'toties,' 'quoties,' 'litus,' 'opidum,'
'litera,' 'tralatum,' 'aliquando,' and other similar forms, which
are to be written according to ὀρθογραϕία, that is to
say, correct spelling. The word 'Turca' also, which many make in
the second declension, I have written in the first. I follow herein
with approval Michael Tarchaniota Marulus of Constantinople in his
lines addressed to Charles, King of France. These are his words:
'Invincible king, scion of the race of Charles the Great, whom the
holy prophecies of so many men, of so many gods, demand as the
vindicator of fallen justice and loyalty; whom here the sad Ausonian
land, there Greece with streaming locks, calls, and whate'er of Asia
and wealthy Syria the cruel Turk profanes,' etc.
In writing the accusatives 'plureis,' 'parteis,' 'omneis,'
'monteis,' in '_eis_,' I have believed that I was writing good
grammar and good Latin, following therein Priscian, book 7, the
chapter on the accusative plural of the third declension. This form
is valuable for distinguishing the accusative from the nominative,
and has been used by a thousand authors, of which great number it
is sufficient at present to cite as witnesses Sallust, Virgil,
and Plautus. Sallust, who used the first word also, says in the
Catilinarian War: 'Omneis homines qui sese,' etc. Virgil in the
first Æneid: 'Hic fessas non vincula naveis Ulla tenent....' Plautus
in the Aulularia: 'Quid est? quid ridetis novi omneis, scio fures
hic esse complureis.' I have been pleased to make this explanation,
good reader, so that you not only might know what pure speech is,
but also, both in reading and in speaking, might have pleasantly at
hand, like finger-posts, and might use, pure words. Farewell.
CIVIS.
On folio 152, after the errata, we read: 'Impressa est hæc Asiæ et
Europæ quam elegantissima historia per Henricum Stephanum, impressorem
diligentissimum, Parrhisiis, e regione scholæ decretorum, sumptibus
eiusdem Henrici et Ioannis Hongonti,[186] VI idus Octobris anno
Domini M. D. IX.[187]
3
DE PASSIONE DOMINICA CARMEN ELEGIACUM GUILIELMI DIVITIS, CIVIS
GANDAVENSIS, ARTIFICIOSÆ PIETATIS PLENISSIMUM.--_Item._
NENIA LACTANTII FIRMIANI VERBIS SALVATORIS NOSTRI E
CRUCE.--Mark of Josse Bade ('Prelum ascensianum').[188]
One octavo sheet, printed by Josse Bade, dated the 5th of the Ides of
March, 1509; that is to say, March 11, 1510, new style.[189]
On the verso of the title-page is this letter from Herverus de Berna (of
Saint-Amand-Montrond) to the young people of Bourges:--
_Herverus de Berna of Amand to the youth of Bourges, greeting._[190]
You are acquainted with Dives, our teacher, famed for his wisdom,
a foster-child of the Muses, who well deserves your gratitude. He
it is who introduced you to the Muses, Helicon, Phœbus' grove, and
Mercury, and from his school, as from the Trojan horse, have issued
men of education without number. His heart is in the Muses' glorious
service, and his memory, it seems to me, should be forever honoured
and kept green. He is reported, as the saying is, to have toiled
not only by the lamp of Aristophanes, but by that of Cleanthes as
well.[191] You do not doubt that he is deserving of praise for the
elegance of his song; whence it happens that there is a religious
poem of his written on the Passion of Our Lord,--a poem of such
brilliancy, such sweetness, such ornateness, that one could believe
it to be the work of the divine, rather than of a human, mind. I
do not doubt that, as a result of this fact, the same thing will
fall to his lot that usually falls to the lot of literary men:
as Claudian says, 'His presence will diminish his fame.'[192]
Not, however, without Theseus,[193] that is Tory of Bourges, my
fellow-student, a man of the old, and, as Plautus says, of the
Massilian, school,[194] one who combines sound learning with virtue,
have I wished Dives to issue forth into the world; again, I hope,
with favourable auspices, as the saying is. Farewell, with best
wishes.
From my house at Amand, 1 March.
Then follows the elegy by Wilhelm de Ricke, which has 140 verses and
occupies 4 leaves; on the verso of the last of the four is this dialogue
in verse by Tory:--
_Dialogue by Geofroy Tory of Bourges in praise of his teacher,
Wilhelm de Ricke of Ghent._[195]
_Speakers_: MONITOR _and_ LIBER.
M. Sacred book, who in song mourn Christ's Passion, now
speak: whose holy work can you be?
L. Whose work? Behold! Rich's work am I.
M. Well done! That Rich who to the people of Bourges has
given so many rich examples?
L. You judge rightly.
M. Rich truly has a wise heart.
L. No fitter name than this can be given him.
M. He it is who taught the people of Bourges to speak with
flowery tongue and to make facile verses with the mouth.
L. He not only taught them to speak and to weave song, but
he also gave them the power to see Christ's wounded body.
M. If one wished to see the arms of God fixed to the cross,
could even Rich grant him that to the life?
L. Should you desire to carry the cross of God, his cruel
wounds, the crown, hold me in hand, you will carry all.
M. May Rich's every prayer be ever happily granted, such
good he grants to pious hearts.
L. May he live and continue on earth through Nestorian
years, and after death gain the rich kingdom of Heaven.
CIVIS.
The little book comes to an end with the poem by Lactantius mentioned on
the title-page. It fills the third and second last leaves, and the recto
of the last, at the foot of which we read: 'Finis. Ex ædibus Ascensianis
ad v idus martias MDIX.' This date corresponds with March 11,
1510, new style.
M. Jules de Saint-Genois, librarian of the University of Ghent, writes me
as follows concerning his fellow-townsman, the author of the verses on the
Passion:--
'The name of the person in whom you are interested was not le Riche, but
de Rycke, in Flemish, which in the Latin rendering becomes Dives. This
is what Sanderus says of him in "Flandria Illustrata," 1, 386 (edition
Hagæ-Comitis, 1735): "Gulielmus Dives, vulgo de Rycke, Gandavensis poeta:
ejus exstat 'Carmen elegiacum de Passione Dominica,' artificiosæ pietatis
plenissimum, quod inter illustrium poetarum opera impressit Judocus Badius
Ascensius Parisiis."
'Valère André, too, devotes a few lines to him in his "Bibliotheca
Belgica" (Lovanii, 1623, p. 344): "Elegiam de Passione Dominica edidit
Antverpiæ cum Dominici Mancini, Phil. Beroaldi et aliorum similis
argumenti libellis, 1527, Mich. Hellenii typis."
'P. Hofmann Peerlkamp says in his "Liber de vita, doctrina et facultate
Nederlandorum qui carmina latina composuerunt" (2d edition, Harlem,
1838, p. 29): "Gulielmus Dives Gandensis floruit 1520. Scripsit 'Carmen
elegiacum de Passione Dominica,' artificiosæ pietatis plenissimum....
Hæc sæpius prodiit, addita etiam _Quatuor virtutibus_ Dominici Mancini,
Antverpiæ, a. 1562. Si vocabulum his illic excipias minus latinum, Carmen
est melioris notæ quam multa ejusdem temporis de hoc argumento."
'As for the edition which you mention, said to have been printed "in
ædibus Ascensianis," in 1509, the library does not own it; but Gulielmus
Dives' little poem is printed in "Dominici Mancini Poemata," Antverpiæ,
1559, 12mo.'
This is all that I have been able to learn concerning Guillaume le Riche
or de Rycke; we do not know how this burgess of Ghent became a professor
at Bourges. And yet the fact itself is not extraordinary, for, not long
after, about 1530, another Belgian, named Hanneton, gave instruction in
feudal law there.
Tory published also at the end of his edition of Valerius Probus [see
number 5, infra], the following Latin distich,--an enigma,--written by his
master:--
Dic age, quæ volucres gignunt animalia foetæe
Et præbent natis ubera plena suis?[196]
As for Herverus de Berna, Tory's fellow-pupil, I know even less of him.
All that I have been able to learn is that he published in 1543 a short
poem in praise of the dukes of Nevers, lords of Orval near Saint-Amand,
where Herverus was born, and of which he was then curé, if I read aright
his bombastic Latin. This is the title of the book, which was for sale at
the shop of Vivant Gualtherot: 'Panegyricon illustrissimorum principum
comitum Druydarum et Aurivallensium et Nivernensium, Hervero a Berna,
curione Amandino Allifero, auctore. Parisiis, 1543.' (I fancy that the
words 'curione Amandino Allifero' mean: curé of Saint-Amand-l'Allier, now
Saint-Amand-Montrond.)
The work is dedicated to a friend of the author, and perhaps of Tory as
well, named Nicolas Rocheus (La Roche?), described as 'Apollineæ artis
doctor eximius' in the dedicatory epistle, which is dated: 'Tumultuarie,
ex ædibus nostris Amandinis, kalendis ianuarii, 1542.'
4
BEROSUS BABILONENSIS, DE HIS QUÆ PRÆCESSERUNT INUNDATIONEM
TERRARUM; ITEM MYRSILUS, DE ORIGINE TURRENORUM, etc.
Quarto, Paris, 1510; with the small mark of the Marnefs (the
Pelican),[197] with the letters E. I. G.
This work, which was printed by J. Marchand, at the expense of Geofroy de
Marnef, bookseller and publisher, was prepared for the press by Geofroy
Tory, who placed at the beginning the following letter:--
_To the most distinguished Philibert Babou, Geofroy Tory of Bourges,
heartiest greeting._[198]
Last year, when I was attending to the printing of Pope Pius's
Cosmography, the idea occurred to me of thoroughly revising and
handing to the printer at an early date the Babylonian Berosus's
work on the 'Antiquities of the Kingdoms'; but, my mind at that
time taking another turn, I determined to postpone this work, for
the reason that I had a project of almost divine character on
hand; and indeed I should have postponed it for a long time,--as
the saying is, to the Greek Calends,--had not Berosus himself, so
to speak, and, what is and always will be of no little importance
to me, a number of my friends, daily whispering in my ear, as it
were, their prayers, demanded of me most earnestly that I should
print, along with Berosus, Myrsilus 'De origine Turrenorum,' Cato's
fragments, Archilochus, Metasthenes, Philo, Xenophon 'De æquivocis,'
Sempronius, Fabius Pictor, and Antoninus Pius's fragments of the
'Itinerarium.' There is a very avaricious class of human beings,
which, if it has a book--a book that is hard to find--consisting of
three or four short lines, straightway,--like the ants of India, or
the griffins, which are fabled to carry gold to a remote spot and
there keep watch over it, threatening with dire destruction any one
who attempts to touch it,--carries it off and guards it, and loading
it with chains and fetters, keeps it imprisoned like a miserable
captive. Such people ought to display their officious greed--the
greed of possessing something unique all to one's self--in company
with the ants and griffins, which other people avoid, rather than to
continue their incivility, or perhaps I should rather say immunity,
among human beings. We are born not alone for ourselves: we owe
something also to our friends, something to our country. Therefore,
that it may not seem to be my desire to extinguish the brilliant
light of a burning lamp, I the more willingly, under your name,
Philibert, most illustrious citizen of Bourges, send forth Berosus's
'Antiquities,' together with the other authors mentioned above, for
the common study of all, and I believe that I shall therein be doing
an act that will gain the gratitude, in some small measure, of my
country. Farewell.
Paris, at the College of Plessis, 2 May, 1510.
CIVIS.
Tory's letter is dated May 2, 1510; but the printing of the book was not
finished until the ninth of that month, as we see by the subscription of
the first edition; for there were at least three distinct editions in
Tory's name, to say nothing of a multitude of others issued by different
publishers. Annius of Viterbo, otherwise known as Jean Nanni, had recently
brought into fashion the fables of Berosus, which he attempted to palm off
as an ancient work; and scholars were still at odds as to the authenticity
of the book, the sale of which their discussions aided to maintain. Tory
seems to have taken sides with Annius of Viterbo, as he himself prepared
an edition of the supposititious Berosus, the preface of which we have
just quoted. We have said that there were three editions in his name. They
may be described thus:--
_First Edition_
Quarto; 28 leaves numbered in Arabic figures, and 4 preliminary leaves.
Folio 1 recto, title: 'Berosus Babilonicus, de his quæ præcesserunt
inundationem terrarum; item Myrsilus, de origine Turrenorum; Cato, in
fragmentis; Archilocus, in epitheto de temporibus; Metasthenes, de judicio
temporum; Philo, in breviario temporum; Xenophon, de equivocis temporum;
Sempronius, de divisione Italiæ; Q. Fab. Pictor, de aureo seculo et
origine urbis Romæ; fragmentum itinerarii Antonini Pii; altercatio Adriani
Augusti et Epictici.' Then comes the mark of the Marnefs, with the letters
E. I. G., and the words 'Le Pelican' in a scroll at the left. (No. 15 of
M. Silvestre's 'Marques Typographiques.')
On the verso of this leaf is Tory's letter, quoted above. Four unnumbered
intercalated leaves follow, containing the table of contents and a list of
errata.
Folio 2, recto: 'Berosus, de his quæ præscesserunt inundationem terrarum.'
The articles mentioned on the title-page follow, up to folio 28, where we
find these words:--
'Impressum est hoc opus Parrhisiis, in Bellovisu, per Joannem
Marchant, impensis Godofredi de Marnef, anno Domini 1510, septimo idus
maias.[199]--CIVIS.'
_Second Edition_
Quarto; 4 unnumbered preliminary leaves, and 30 leaves of text numbered in
roman figures; in all, 34 printed leaves.
On the first of the unnumbered leaves is the title, 'Berosus Babilonicus,'
etc. (as in the first edition), but with the following additional words:
'Vertumniana Propertii. Manethon.' Same mark as in the first edition, but
smaller.[200]
On the second leaf, Tory's letter. On the verso of this leaf the index
begins, and fills the two leaves following.
Folio i. 'Berosus,' etc. The text corresponds with that of the first
edition[201] to folio xxvii, where the additions begin.
Fol. xxvii, recto. End of the 'Altercatio.'
verso. 'Vertumniana Propertii.'
xxviii, verso. 'Manethonis, prima pars.'
Fol. xxx (not numbered), several pieces of verse [not mentioned on the
title-page], perhaps by Tory, but not signed:--
1. 'Ad reverendissimum ac religiosissimum Arturum Calphurnium, Sancti
Georgii de Nemore antistitem.'
2. 'Ad eruditissimum Nicolaum Corbinum, Vindocinensis plage judicem.'
3. 'Ad bonarum literarum vere amatorem amicum sibi fidelem Philippum
Morinensem.'
This edition, which seems never to have been described by any bibliophile,
is in the Bibliothèque Mazarine, and at Sainte-Geneviève. It was
undoubtedly published in 1511, but it bears no indication of its date.
_Third Edition_
Quarto; 6 preliminary leaves, unnumbered, and 51 leaves numbered in roman
figures, divided into ten signatures (A to K), containing alternately one
and a half and two leaves. In all, 57 printed leaves, and one blank.
On the first unnumbered leaf is the title: 'Berosus,' etc. (as in the
first edition), but with the following addition: 'Cornelii Taciti
de origine et situ Germanorum opusculum. C. C. de situ et moribus
Germanorum.--Anno Domini 1511.' Then follows a shocking imitation of the
mark of the Marnefs in the first edition. The gothic initials E and G are
changed to C and O, and the I, which in the other editions stands between
the E and the G, is omitted. The words 'Le Pelican,' in a scroll at the
left, are reduced to the three letters L, P, and A, the foreign artist
having been either unable or unwilling to read what was printed on the
copy put before him, which, it is true, may have been imperfect. The first
decorated letter, also, has been copied, in order to deceive the reader,
who, if we may judge from appearances, was assumed to be seeking the
edition prepared by Tory.
On the second leaf is the letter of the editor, from which the word
'civis,' Tory's device, has been omitted, the foreign printer apparently
not knowing its meaning. The four leaves following are taken up with the
table of contents.
Folio i of the text: 'Berosus,' etc. The text which follows corresponds
with that of the first edition down to folio xxxii (erroneously numbered
xxxiii), which ends with the word 'finis.'
On folio xxxiii recto, the work of Tacitus mentioned above ['Germania']
begins. Next, on folio xliii verso, a work in verse by Conrad Celtès,
the title of which is given above, and on folio xlviii, another work, in
prose, by the same author, with this title: 'Ex libro C. C. de situ et
moribus Norimberge, de Herciniæ silvæ magnitudine, et de eius in Europa
definitione et populis incolis.'
There is nothing to indicate where the book was printed; but everything
leads me to believe that it is a German counterfeit. My opinion is based
upon, first, the stupid imitation of the printer's mark of the first
edition; second, the omission of Tory's device at the end of the letter;
third, the additions, all of which relate to Germany; fourth, the fact
that two of the three known copies of this edition were recently to be
found in the same country. One belonged to Panzer, who has described it
in his 'Annales Typographiques'[202]; I do not know what has become of
it; a second copy was formerly in the library of M. Bunau,[203] whence it
passed to the Dresden Library; the third is in Paris, in the Bibliothèque
Nationale, which also possesses a copy of the first edition. It was by
comparing the two editions that I discovered the fraud committed by the
printer of the edition of 1511 with respect to the typographical mark.
The description of this mark given by Panzer, with that courteously
sent me from Dresden by the learned bibliographer Herr Graesse, before
I was aware of the existence of the copy of the third edition in the
Bibliothèque Nationale, had utterly baffled such bibliographical knowledge
as I possess. I sought a meaning for the letters inscribed on the mark
in the third edition; of course I could not find any. M. Brunet has
since produced a facsimile of this mark, in the fifth edition of his
'Manuel.'[204]
5
VALERII PROBI GRAMMATICI DE INTERPRETANDIS ROMANORUM LITERIS
OPUSCULUM, CUM ALIIS QUIBUSDAM SCITU DIGNISSIMIS, FŒLICITER
INCIPIT.--Mark: Marnef's E. I. G. (Silvestre, no. 974.)
Octavo; 6 printed sheets (signatures A to I). Paris, E. I. G. de Marnef
[1510]. This book was probably printed by Gilles de Gourmont, for we find
in it his unaccented Greek type. It contains two engravings on wood,--the
mark on the title-page, and a Roman portico farther on. There are also
some small cuts engraved on metal in one of the pieces; but none of them
have any artistic merit, and they cannot be attributed to Tory.
On the verso of the title is the following letter, addressed by Tory to
two of his old college friends, who were at this time personages of note:
the first, Philibert Babou, was secretary and silversmith to the king; the
second, Jean Lallemand, was Mayor of Bourges.
_Geofroy Tory of Bourges to the most illustrious Philibert Babou and
Jean Lallemand, the younger, citizens of Bourges, united in mutual
friendship, greeting._[205]
I owe to you, most estimable of men, the fruit of whatever toil
I may undertake--even purposely for your sakes--by night or day.
Behold! Since you in no slight degree practise and admire the
old school of morals, the school, that is, of respectability
and true worth, I now, under the protection of your names, ever
to be cherished by me, commit to print Probus Valerius, a most
diligent collector and accurate interpreter of the old writings and
abbreviations which appear, elegantly drawn, on the ancient coins,
tombs, and tablets; glad am I to be of even such small service to
my country, and hopeful that the slight revision to which I have
subjected the work will prove to have been as happily, as it has
been carefully, done. Permit, I beg, an author of exceeding merit to
come first of all into your hands, which are most fitted for every
excellence, and then to go forth brightly and cheerfully into the
hands of all other students. Farewell.
Paris, at the College of Plessis, 10 May, 1510.
CIVIS.
And at the end of the book is this other letter, which gives us to know
that the volume is a collection of fragments of ancient authors.
_Geofroy Tory of Bourges to the Reader, greeting._[206]
When I began, I believe under favourable auspices, to print Valerius
Probus, it occurred to me, not wishing a book of one or two codices
to be unsuitable as a manual, to print, along with Probus, several
articles well worth making the acquaintance of. I have added to
Probus, Priscian's treatise 'De ponderibus et mensuris'; likewise
Columella's 'Quemadmodum datæ formæ agrorum metiri debeant'; also
Georgius Valla's 'Figuras quæ sub dimensionem cadant'; and, further,
some dialogues, together with some enigmas, carefully collected,
as occasion allowed, from various authors. The enigmas I have
designedly left unexplained, so that, when you come to read them
(as Gellius says in book xii, ch. 6), you may sharpen your wits by
trying to puzzle them out.[207] Give your attention to them, I beg,
good reader, so that I may not, as Plautus enigmatically observes in
the 'Miles,' throw dust in your eyes. Farewell.
In addition to the pieces which Tory here mentions, there are many others
in this volume of miscellanies.[208] It contains also several pieces of
verse by Tory himself. Here is one which will give an idea of his literary
tastes:--
_Dialogue by Geofroy Tory, in which the City of Bourges is described
in the rôle of a speaking character._[209]
_Speakers_: MONITOR _and_ CITY.
MON. City, what is your name?
CITY. Bourges.
MON. Now, tell me, what mean those proud buildings that I
see?
CITY. Temples, houses, towers, divine palaces you see.
MON. Ah! they overtop the heavens with their piles. What
temple is that, I pray?
CITY. The Cathedral of St. Etienne, first of martyrs; it
overtops even the lofty marbles of the goddess Trivia.
MON. What is that single house which stands distinguished
for its red hearts? Was it built by the hand of Memnon?
CITY. This was built in an earlier time by the mortal
Jacques Cœur [Heart],[210] a man of wealth; him envy took from us.
MON. Say! what tower is that that is seen standing higher
than the lighthouse of Pharos? I am filled with wonder when I see it
fully.
CITY. When the mighty Ambigatus ruled the Celtic peoples,
in an earlier time, this great tower was built.
MON. Say, oh, say, that golden palace, is it the Capitol?
Answer; why do you not speak, Bourges? You who just now talked
with easy speech say nothing. Do you wish to become to me what
Harpocrates was of yore?
CITY. No, but, see you, this palace is to be approved for
its great art, because the world has not yet produced another like
it.
MON. What is this earth that yawns with such an opening?
CITY. It is the place where a tower was to be erected for
me.
MON. Have you not another as great as that?
CITY. I have. From two towers I get my name Bourges
[Biturix].
MON. By what name is it called in this time of ours?
CITY. The people name and call it 'the fosse of sands.'
MON. What river, what river have you to mention?
CITY. The Auron.
MON. Is it the one Cæsar mentions in describing the Gallic
Wars?
CITY. It is.
MON. Are there others?
CITY. There are two: they are the Voiselle and the Yèvre
herself, swarming with numberless fishes.
MON. What privileges have you?
CITY. The all-valuable privilege have I, and the hall, that
coin money.
MON. Is there nothing else?
CITY. Aquitaine calls me capital and receives her laws from
me.
MON. What divinities are with you?
CITY. There are Juno, Jupiter, and Pan, Vesta, Diana,
Ceres, Liber, and the Father himself.
6
QUINTILIANUS.
Such is the complete title of an edition of Quintilian's 'Institutes,'
produced by Tory, in 1510, at the request of Jean Rousselet, of Lyon.[211]
This is a large octavo volume, printed in italic (without pagination),
composed of 46 quarto sheets (signatures A to ZZv): there are several
passages in Greek type of excellent appearance, but without accents.
Undertaken at the request of Jean Rousselet, and printed at his expense,
this book probably was not put on the market. In fact it bears no
bookseller's nor any printer's name. We should not even know where it was
printed, were it not for the fact that the dedication, dated the third of
the Calends of March,[212] states that the manuscript was sent by Tory
from Paris to Lyon. At the end of the volume we find these words only:
'Impressum fuit hoc opus anno Domini M. CCCCCX, septimo calend.
Julii.' This date corresponds to June 25, 1510.
7
LEONIS BAPTISTÆ ALBERTI FLORENTINI ... LIBRI DE RE ÆDIFICATORIA
DECEM. (Mark of B. Rembolt.) Venundantur Parrhisiis, in Sole
Aureo vici Sancti Jacobi, et in intersignio Trium Coronarum, e
regione Divi Benedicti.
Quarto; 14 preliminary leaves and 174 of text (signatures A to Y). On the
last page is the mark of Louis Hornken, 'aux Trois Couronnes.' On the
second preliminary leaf is printed the following dedication:--
_Geofroy Tory of Bourges to Philibert Babou and Jean Lallemand, the
younger, most illustrious men, heartiest greeting._[213]
Everybody knows, most estimable of men, that our forefathers,
contented with their own goodness, practised in the olden times a
kind of architecture that had in it little art and little elegance.
Satisfied with mediocrity, they built and inhabited houses and
dwellings of no great cost or splendour. Matters have finally
reached the point that now, men's intelligence having somewhat
awakened, new buildings are everywhere being erected which have
considerable celebrity. In fact, beginning with the time when
the magnanimous King Charles VIII, who was the terror of all
Italy, returned, victorious and crowned with glory, from Naples,
architecture, certainly a beautiful art, began, not only in its
Doric and Ionic forms, but also in its Italian form, to be practised
with great elegance throughout this country of France. At Amiens,
at Gaillon, at Tours, at Blois, at Paris, and in a hundred other
well-known places, one may now see striking buildings, public and
private, in the ancient style of architecture. One may now, I say,
see many buildings of such beauty and so nicely carved that the
French actually seem, and are generally considered, to surpass,
not only the Italians, but also the Dorians and the Ionians, who
were the teachers of the Italians. Notwithstanding the brilliancy
of these performances and these artists, I have thought it best
to offer gratefully, and carefully to add, a contribution of some
worth. Leo Baptista Albertus, a writer on architecture who is
trustworthy and familiar with his subject, was lying stored away in
my house as if in his last sleep. It seemed to me that he thoroughly
deserved to be printed in France just at this time, for the delight
and benefit of other famous artists who are better than he. It
seemed to me, I say, that he thoroughly deserved to be printed,
and for this reason especially, that the ten books, of which
the whole work consists, have been divided into chapters. These
chapters were accurately and carefully arranged by Robertus Duræus
Fortunatus,[214] a man of education and culture, who was the Head of
his College of Plessis at Paris four years ago when I taught there,
and they were generously given to me by him to be copied. I copied
them, and I furthermore polished up the whole work and cleared it of
all the errors possible; I wrote the gist of the text on the margin,
and gave the work to the printer to be printed. Permit, I pray, most
distinguished citizens of Bourges, that this excellent work come
auspiciously into the hands of all good artists and students, and
that it be handled and read under the protection of your names ever
to be cherished by me. Farewell, you who are the support and the
most distinguished glory of your country.[215]
Paris, near the College Coqueret, 18 August, 1512.
CIVIS.
At the end of the volume (penultimate page) we read:--
'This most elegant and useful work on architecture of Leo Baptista
Albertus of Florence, a man of great distinction, was printed with great
accuracy at Paris at the Golden Sun in the street of St. Jacques, at the
expense of Master Berthold Rembolt and Louis Hornken, who live in the same
street, at the sign of the Three Crowns, near St. Benedict, A.D.
1512, 23rd day of August.'
8
ITINERARIVM PROVINCIARUM OMNIUM ANTONINI AUGUSTI, CUM FRAGMENTO
EIUSDEM, NECNON INDICE HAUD QUAQUAM ASPERNANDO.--CUM PRIVILEGIO, NE
QUIS TEMERE HOC AB HINC DUOS ANNOS IMPRIMAT.--Venale habetur
ubi impressum est, in domo Henrici Stephani, e regione Scholæ
decretorum, Parrhisiis.
Sixteenmo (printed as 16s.); 120 leaves (signatures A to T), plus 8
preliminary leaves. [1512.] Printed in black and red.
The volume begins with this dedicatory epistle:--
_Geofroy Tory of Bourges to Philibert Babou, most modest of men,
heartiest greeting._[216]
The 'Itinerarium,' most illustrious of men, which for many years
had lain in almost entire neglect, I first received four years ago
from a friend whom I must ever cherish, Christophe de Longueil,
who is beyond question a scholar of the highest standing in all
branches of polite learning. He gave it to me that I might make
a copy of it. It had occurred to me to send to you from Paris to
Tours a copy which, though written in my own hand, was not wholly
without elegance of form. I had given it to a man to bring to you
whose name I purposely spare, but he, regardless alike of both of
us and of his trust, quite shamelessly made a present of it to some
one else. Thus cheated of the fruit of my labour, I was preparing to
make for you another copy, when Longueil himself, who had formerly
brought the original from Picardy, and, as I have said, had given
it to me, having recently come to Paris from Poictiers, urged me
to have the work printed. This I have done, having arranged the
names of the towns separately and in order, and also added in the
proper places some matter taken from another manuscript. I have also
made an index, to facilitate the finding of the name of any town
or place in the whole work. Some perhaps will wonder at the style
of the work, and also occasionally in places at the Latinity. The
style, however, will receive sufficient approval from the student,
while the Latinity, in consideration of the early time in which the
work was written, will be condoned by the well-disposed reader. I
should have been disposed to make a number of emendations, using for
the purpose Ptolemy, Strabo, Dionysius, Mela, Pliny, Solinus, and
some others who are not at all to be despised, but out of regard
for the venerable author and in the desire to keep the manuscript,
which is very old, unchanged, I determined to make no alterations.
I am waiting for my friend Longueil to subject it some day to his
scrutinizing study, or for some Hermolaus to apply his exacting
file. One thing there is here which I shall not hesitate to touch:
the author's name in the manuscript was, in my judgement, wrong,
for it is written 'Antonius Augustus.' Hermolaus, a man of culture
withal, calls it in a number of places in his Corrections to Pliny,
'Antoninus.' Those who read will see for themselves. In the text
I have followed the manuscript itself; in the title of the book I
have followed Hermolaus. The fruit of my labour, such as it is, I
dedicate, as in duty bound, to you personally, in a spirit abounding
in gratitude. Accept it, I pray, with the favour with which you are
accustomed to accept all good things, and allow the studious to
pass, under your guidance, with this Itinerary in hand, through a
thousand famous cities. Farewell, most cultured patron of my studies.
Paris, near the College Coqueret, August 19, 1512.
CIVIS.
Then comes a letter from the publisher to the reader:--
_Tory to the Reader, greeting._[217]
In order, gentle reader, that you may be able to use this
'Itinerarium' to better advantage, you must be advised that whatever
you find marked with a red virgule was larger in number in the old
manuscript than in the other which is more recent. Words which had
a different reading in the recent manuscript have small red letters
printed above in the proper places. Whenever the sign (˄) occurs
between words, a word or number should be marked above or at the
side by the same sign. The sign 'mpm.,' so written, also frequently
occurs in the text, and signifies 'milia plus minus.' It was written
thus so that the reader might not be wearied by the frequent
repetition of the long form. In the index you will sometimes find
the letter _b_ alone, either following or between the page-numbers:
this signifies that the word in question is found at least twice on
the same page. Pay attention, therefore, and kindly see to it that
in case you notice any who are displeased with my work, you may
say to yourself with reference to them that Persian saying: 'that
they may see virtue, and pine away leaving it behind.' I write this
because at the time of printing there were some who, understanding
nothing of this sort, condemned the matter according to their usual
practice. Farewell and live long in happiness.
CIVIS.
Next to this comes a summary of the life of Antoninus, and, lastly, some
verses by the Burgundian Gérard de Vercel, in laudation of Tory and
against poor printers. Here are the verses:--
_Hendecasyllabic Poem of the Burgundian Gérard de Vercel, on poor
printers._[218]
Therefore hence, away therefore, profane hands of the inauspicious
throng of printers; your impure works be off; that by your forbidden
coming and impious front you may not stain and soil this heavenly
thing. Let no man fail to know: this volume is sacred.
Ah! vile and wretched printers, unskilled to put in print even the
trifles of the schools or old women's tales, why do you spoil arts
that are holy, and pollute with impure hand the laborious works of
the nine[219] sisters?
What do you not put forth from your office that is worthy to be cast
forth and buried where the refuse of the stomach is placed?
Therefore hence, away therefore, oh ye profane, ye vile and wretched
printers. Be this word enough: sacred is this volume, which our
Geofroy, our famous Geofroy, he, I say, of Bourges, taking pity
on Pius, unearthed from its Lethæan rust and sleep, employing the
guidance and assistance of his friend Longueil.[220]
The book is brought to a close by an 'avis au lecteur' thus conceived:
_Tory to the Reader, happiness._[221]
These few corrections, excellent reader, I beg you not to wonder at.
I have collected them, such as differ from the readings of the old
manuscript, so that you may be able readily to emend the book for
yourself. I should lay the burden of the errors on the printers, but
the art of printing has this natural peculiarity, that the smallest
book cannot be printed from beginning to end without some mistakes.
Farewell.
_Epigram to the Student by Tory._
If, reader, you are preparing to journey in a fixed course to a
hundred towns, to a hundred cities, if you desire to travel, better
instructed and on the direct road, to a hundred seaports with their
bays, then ever gratefully and carefully hold this little book in
your right hand ready to consult.[222]
9
GOTOFREDI TORINI BITURICI IN FILIAM CHARISSIMAM, VIRGUNCULARUM
ELEGANTISSIMAM, EPITAPHIA ET DIALOGI.--IN EANDEM ETIAM QUATOUR ET
VIGINTI DISTICHA UNUM ET EUNDEM SENSUM COPIA VERBORUM ET INGENII
FŒCUNDITATE PULCHRE REPETENTIA.
These verses of Tory on the death of his daughter Agnes form a small
volume of two quarto sheets (or eight leaves). The book is dedicated to
Philibert Babou; it was printed February 15, 1523, old style (1524), a few
days after Tory had conceived the idea of his 'Champ fleury' (January 6,
1524). The printer, who is not named, was Simon de Colines, then living
near the School of Law ('e regione scholæ decretorum').
On the last page appears a mark engraved specially for this little book,
for it includes a tiny winged figure ascending heavenward, which doubtless
represents the soul of Tory's daughter returning to God. This mark
reappears at the end of the Hours of 1524-1525, but minus the small figure
just mentioned.[223]
As we learn from the text, Agnes, who died August 25, 1522, at the age
of nine years eleven months and thirty days, was born August 26, 1512.
So that Tory was married at least as early as 1511. We know from another
document that his wife's name was Perrette le Hullin.
The only known copy of this little volume, the text of which I reproduce
in extenso, belonged [in 1865] to M. Joachim Gomez de la Cortina, Marquis
de Morante, who was so exceedingly kind as to send it from Madrid to
Paris, that I might examine it at my leisure. M. de la Cortina has
described it in the fifth volume of the catalogue of his library (Madrid,
1859; octavo). My only previous knowledge of it was derived from that
catalogue, although it was bought of M. Techener not more than ten years
ago, for 80 reals (20 francs).
_Tory to his Book._[224]
Go, book, to the sacred sanctuaries of pious poets; you are light,
polished, radiant, and neat. Splendidly arrayed you are, and
have nard, and roses, and saffron; the Latin goddesses, gracious
divinities, together with Phœbus. Be not afraid lest you do
not carry with you the favour of the gods; they will lift you,
laurel-scented, above the stars.
_Agnes Tory, sweetest and most modest of maidens, addresses the
wayfarer from her tomb._
Thou who passest with light foot, beloved wayfarer, stay thy step a
little; lo, I wish to say a few words to thee. Live in remembrance
of death, free from vices, and, if thou art wise, cast aside that
hope of life which thou cherishest. Thou art radiant with beauty
to-day, but, when the thread is cut, impious Fate hurries thee
straight on to nought. I know this by experience, for, lately but
a young girl of ten, I was suddenly snatched away. Like a rose I
bloomed, sharer in those virtues which are usually seen in tender
maidenhood. But yet I died, overwhelmed by the cruel fates, and now
I am food for the flesh-eating worms. Food for the flesh-eating
worms I lie, but not so wholly lifeless that I cannot speak the
truth to thee. I speak in the Latin tongue, and this is not strange,
fair friend, for I am to be named the daughter of a pious poet.
Desiring to instruct me in the Ausonian tongue, and also to render
me accomplished in the polite arts, he, like a most affectionate
father, teaching me night and day, himself laid the foundations,
sweet and ample, for my life. I should be accomplished in the
learning of the famous Muses, and I should sing beautiful songs in
pleasing measure; and then my sire would have given me fond kisses,
placing the laurel-wreath upon my head. O pitiful lot of human
beings! O hopes doomed to perish! On earth there is nothing that
can be lasting. Not only does death show herself face to face to
wretched mortals, but with silent step she steals upon them secretly
and unbeknown. Ah! beware, therefore, beware, thou who art doomed
to die, the world will certainly in a moment's time fall and crash
about thee. Thou, while thou still livest, while thou seekest great
honours, art with infirm and rapid step steadily approaching thy
doom. If thou departest satisfied with this one certain warning, and
if thou believest that I speak the truth, bestrew me with flowers,
violets and lilies, and nard. Pray for me too, if it please thee,
and weep. Me thou wilt cause by thy prayers to mount to the lofty
vault of Heaven, where is perpetual light, peace, and grateful rest.
This was the little that I wished thee to know. Live in remembrance
of death, thou who art destined soon to die. Farewell.
She died where she was born, at Paris, 25 August, A.D. 1522.
She lived nine years, eleven months, about thirty days; the hours
are known to none; God alone knows the minutes.
FATHER _and_ DAUGHTER, _Speakers_.
F. Food for the worms you lie, dearest daughter. Me you
leave in perpetual tears and weeping.
D. Dear father, spare your weeping and tears. It is all
over with me. Death carries away both young and old.
F. Nor can I refrain from terrible wailing. Alas! I should
have more rightly died before you.
D. Such was not the will of the heavenly fates. At your
death, believe me, you shall most certainly come to me.
F. In the meantime, with bended head, I will bring with
full hands violets and lilies to your tomb.
D. Add your prayers; through prayers I shall fly to the
high vault of Heaven. Pious prayers enable us to ascend to the lofty
stars.
F. It is as you say; and do you too, my daughter, pray for
your father; pray that he may rise with you to the glad Heavens.
D. To the glad Heavens you shall rise, free from bitter
cares, and with all the trouble of your mind removed.
F. You speak the truth, and so I will do. The good God
calls you to himself in Heaven? Dear daughter, farewell.
F. Alas! my sweet soul, you are dead.
D. Courage, father, no one is immortal.
_Twelve distichs to be inscribed on the twelve different sides of an
urn._
On the first side.
You wish flowers! violets! you wish lilies! garlands! cyperus! These
this earthen urn will give you, take them and be glad.
On the second.
In this urn the deceased maiden Agnes lies; in its centre breathes a
delightful odour.
On the third.
Here is Merriment, here Love too, Sport, and Virtue; and here the
Graces' selves, beings divine, with the Muses, sit and dwell.
On the fourth.
In this urn are marjoram and sweet-smelling cyperus; here are
violets, lilies, garlands, roses.
On the fifth.
Not alone does the maiden Agnes here abide, but, with Phœbus, the
Clarian goddesses themselves sit and dwell.
On the sixth.
Gold-leaf joined with gems, and green jewels, are kept with
everlasting flowers in this urn.
On the seventh.
Do you wish and long to become acquainted with Agnes' urn? See,
where the laurel grows upward to the lofty sky.
On the eighth.
Here lies in death Agnes of memory dear; she could already sing
tripping measures with tender voice.
On the ninth.
Here lies the maiden poet ten years of age, an honour to freeborn
song and maidenhood.
On the tenth.
If you wish to know where Agnes' ashes really lie, they are here;
hesitate not in your belief, but be assured.
On the eleventh.
Do you wish to hear Phœbus and the Muses' selves singing in sweet
strains? Approach this urn, and you will straightway hear.
On the twelfth.
A rising poet, deceased in tender years, lies here with
laurel-crowned maidenhood.
MONITOR _and_ AGNES, _Speakers_.
MON. Answer me a few questions, I pray, maiden poet.
A. I will, provided you ask but few.
MON. I will ask but few.
A. Ask.
MON. What is your mind in death?
A. Of gold.
MON. What is your body?
A. Of dust.
MON. What is your spirit?
A. Of air.
MON. Enough; calm repose and peace be for ever yours.
A. And yours in life a full measure of sweet health.
_Distichs hanging on written tablets from a laurel-tree near the
tomb and urn of Agnes._
On the first tablet.
Here lies a poet, image of distinguished virtue, noble and
illustrious type of nature.
On the second.
Here, with drooping quiver, lie the broken arms which freeborn Love
once used to carry.
On the third.
Pearl, crystal, magnet, and the green emerald gleam with the virgin
poet that lieth here.
On the fourth.
Here will be perpetual spring with various flowers as long as
flashing Phœbus drives his golden chariot.
On the fifth.
Here rest Comeliness and Sport, and Laughter, and Merriment; here is
Love, unarmed, with the laurel-crowned maid.
On the sixth.
Inside this urn is a treasure; touch it not, countless gems are
within it.
On the seventh.
As long as Phœbus shall fill the regions of the heavens with his
rays, here will be violets and flowers, here will be the anise.
On the eighth.
Here abide Love, and Sport, and Laughter, and Merriment, and Wit;
here abide the Muses and the Graces; here abides Apollo.
On the ninth.
Here dwells, with the honey-dropping Muses, a maiden destined to
receive glory and perpetual song.
On the tenth.
Here the earth is green, producing spontaneously marjoram-garlands,
and here it is damp and fertile with vernal dews.
On the eleventh.
Here violets, here flowers, here lilies, garlands, crowns grow
spontaneously, and spontaneously thrive.
On the twelfth.
Here Genius with cruel hand breaks in twain his standards, seeing
that the type of nature has perished.
MONITOR _and_ MAIDENHOOD, _Speakers_.
MON. Ho there! maiden, beauteous with your rosy face, what
do you here, weeping in deep distress?
MA. I am moaning.
MON. What is the reason for your moaning?
MA. The maiden Agnes, whose ashes this earthen urn beside
me holds.
MON. Whence comes this sweet odour to my nostrils?
MA. From the urn, an odour placed there by the Graces,
beings divine.
MON. What did they place there?
MA. Roses and cinnamon, balsam and nard, flowers and
violets, lilies, garlands, and saffron.
MON. Is there marjoram also in the urn, the cyperus with
oil of myrrh?
MA. There is in it every fragrant herb and pleasant odour.
MON. Does the urn, beautifully decked, wear a green crown?
MA. As is fitting and right, it wears a laurel-wreath.
MON. What is the reason?
MA. It contains the rejoicing Muses, who celebrate with
song the rites of the tender maiden.
MON. Do they sing alone?
MA. Alone? No. Phœbus Apollo in the centre tunes his lyre
and performs the mystic rites.
MON. What, then, do you mean, sweetest maid, by this great
moaning, and why do the divinities beside you sweetly sing?
MA. I will tell you the truth. I cannot but willingly weep;
so nobly gifted was she in intellect. But ten years of age, having
followed her father's precepts, she was even then a poet who could
sing in tripping measure.
MON. A mighty miracle of nature you recount to me.
MA. Nothing on this earth can be truer.
MON. Who are these whom I see standing here?
MA. Sport, Merriment, then Gesture, Honour, Virtue, and
festive Love.
MON. And these shattered arms that lie in great numbers
around the urn?
MA. The gods themselves carried them when they were whole.
MON. What will they do now that all these arms have been
thus broken?
MA. They will lament and weep and groan for all time.
MON. Shall you too weep?
MA. I shall weep in sorrow all my days.
MON. Have you a name?
MA. I have.
MON. What is it?
MA. Maidenhood.
MON. Dear one, farewell.
MA. Farewell, dearest Monitor, and forget not her who lieth
here and was once a beautiful maiden.
MONITOR _and_ AGNES, _Speakers_.
MON. Little poet, lying here, all-deserving of famous
praise, may I speak a few words with you?
A. You may.
MON. Who made for you this urn set with brilliant gems?
A. Who? My father, famed in this art.
MON. Your father is certainly an excellent potter.
A. He practises industriously every day the liberal arts.
MON. Does he also write melodies and poems?
A. He does. He also blesses with sweet words this lot of
mine.
MON. Yes, the skill of the man is wonderful.
A. Hardly has any land produced so famous a man.
MON. O maiden happy in such a father!
A. I certainly am so. He also exalts my name to the skies.
MON. I hear the symphony.
A. The Clarian Muses, together with Phœbus, sing their
melodies here with me night and day.
MON. Near you I see the Graces.
A. They tender garlands to me.
MON. Whence do they pluck violets?
A. On the Elysian Hills.
MON. Are there others with you?
A. There are also three divinities.
MON. What are they?
A. Sport, and Love, fair Monitor, and Merriment.
MON. What do they?
A. They lay in place for me holy holocausts, and they fill
the accustomed hearths with tinder and with fire.
MON. Have you long been a goddess of the upper regions?
A. I am becoming a goddess of the upper regions.
MON. If you are a goddess, why do you not have your dear
parents ascend to the heavenly realms?
A. They will both ascend.
MON. But when?
A. When their fates clearly see that it is necessary. Each
man has his fixed day, appointed for him by the fates.
MON. Each man, therefore, has his fixed and immovable day?
A. To every man comes death on a certain day.
MON. Meanwhile what will your father and mother do here on
earth?
A. What? They will perform their holy, sacred duties, and
pray.
MON. Afterwards what will happen?
A. In blessedness they will ascend to the heavenly realms,
when the Heavenly Father above so wills.
MON. I will now go back to my duties.
A. When you wish, of course; live in happiness, and a kind
farewell.
MON. And may you live with the gods above, as a heavenly
intelligence, as a famous constellation, as a benign goddess.
GENIUS _and_ WAYFARER, _Speakers_.
G. Stay a little, I beg, and go no farther, wayfarer,
before looking at this urn and tomb.
W. Who are you?
G. I am Tutelary Genius.
W. What would you have?
G. I wish to converse a little with you here, friend.
W. I am willing.
G. See how a maiden poet, taken away by cruel fate, is
contained in this earthen urn.
W. How old was she?
G. Twice five years.
W. And did she, well-skilled, sing poetic measures?
G. She did.
W. 'Tis a wonder that you tell me of.
G. She wrote festive songs in sweet verse, spontaneously
playing, spontaneously singing.
W. O rare grace of nature! O manifest glory of the gods!
That so tender a maiden should be a poet!
G. 'Twas a song, whatever she by chance wished to utter;
whatever she desired to say, 'twas a song.
W. Whence came to her the source of such a power?
G. From the realms above, whence it is used to come.
W. As one divine, therefore, she wrote charming verses?
G. As one divine, following her own and her father's
precepts.
W. Does her father too compose melodies?
G. He does, he is a poet fair and proper. He is proper and
deft and neat, bright and decent. He is one whom the Muse blesses
with divine song.
W. He is certainly well-deserving of some Mæcenas.
G. Few are the Mæcenases that live in the French world. No
one to-day either encourages the liberal arts by appropriate gifts
or undertakes to encourage them in any way. Uprightness and fair
virtue are in no esteem. So powerful is the sway of unhappy Avarice.
Treachery, deceit, and vice are in the ascendant. Virtues are put in
the background, and every form of wretched evil creeps abroad.
W. What, therefore, does he who is trained by the charming
Muses?
G. He takes pleasure in being able to live in his own house.
W. He ought to go with hurried step to the courts of kings.
G. He does not care to, because he has a free heart. Your
potentates sometimes take pleasure in looking at songs, but what
then? They requite them with nods. Golden songs, drawn from the high
heavens, they should reward with jewels and with pure gold. But,
frivolous as they are, they foolishly give their grand gifts to
fools, spendthrifts, and rogues.
W. Did he educate his own daughter in studies befitting her
birth?
G. He did, and in the fine arts besides.
W. And was she earnest to retain her father's precepts?
G. She had no greater wish than to follow her father's
words.
W. Oh, what a great honour she would have been to her
country and her father, had she lived to undertake the duties of
life.
G. Yes, her glory would have excelled that of all other
girls in French lands. She was distinguished in appearance, her face
was beautiful in its modesty, and she was all compact of golden
words and ways. She drew to herself the hearts of men, young and
old, and made them follow her wishes with constant loyalty.
W. This is a miracle you tell me of.
G. I tell you the truth, wayfarer. She was a mirror of
true-born nobility.
W. Oh, overwhelming grief! Oh, bitter grief and pain! That
such a one could die so suddenly! What will her father do in the
meantime?
G. Bowed down with grief, he will suffer pain of heart and
shed unceasing tears.
W. He would do better to pour forth a flood of prayers to
the heavenly gods and to join to his prayers the last rites to the
dead.
G. He joins the last rites to his prayers and never ceases.
He fills the customary hearths with tinder and fire.
W. O maiden worthy of so deserving a father! O father, too,
blessed in such a daughter!
G. She now shines benign in the glad clouds, like a
radiance newly-risen, like a golden constellation.
W. May she triumph, shining in the ethereal realms, and may
the daughter graciously take her father with her.
G. Go about your affairs, if you will depart, wayfarer.
This is what I wished to say. Friend, farewell.
W. Live in happiness, guardian of the tomb and revealer of
the urn. I go about my affairs diligently and in haste.
Printed at Paris, near the Law School, A.D. 1523, 15th day
of Feb'y.
10
CHAMP FLEVRY AU QUEL EST CONTENU LART & SCIENCE DE LA DEUE &
VRAYE PROPORTIÕ DES LETTRES ATTIQUES, QUŌ DIT AUTREMĒT LETTRES
ANTIQUES, & VULGAIREMENT LETTRES ROMAINES PROPORTIONNEES SELON LE
CORPS & VISAGE HUMAIN.--Ce Liure est Priuilegie pour Dix Ans
Par Le Roy nostre Sire, & est a vendre a Paris sus Petit Pont
a Lenseigne du Pot Casse, par maistre Geofroy Tory de Bourges
Libraire, & Autheur du dict Liure. Et par Giles Gourmont aussi
libraire demourant en la Rue sainct Iaques a Lenseigne des Trois
Coronnes.
[Here the Pot Cassé, no. 4 (see p. 45 supra).]
Privilegie povr dix ans.
* * * * *
A small folio of 8 preliminary leaves (signature A), comprising the title,
the _privilège_, etc., and LXXX numbered leaves (signatures B
to O); in all, 14 signatures. The first and last have 8 leaves each, the
others 6.
I have already spoken of this book at considerable length in the first
part, and shall refer to it again in the third; but in this place I must
at least describe it from a bibliographical standpoint.
On the verso of the title-page which I have just quoted, we read what
follows:[225]--
Ce toutal Oeuure est diuise en Trois Liures.
Au Premier Liure est contenue Lexhortation a mettre & ordonner la Lāgue
Françoise par certaine Reigle de parler elagāment en bon & plussain
Langage François.
Au Segond est traicte de Linuention des Lettres Attiques, & de la
conference proportionnalle dicelles au Corps & Visage naturel de Lhomme
parfaict. Auec plusieurs belles inuentions & moralitez sus lesdittes
Lettres Attiques.
Au Tiers & dernier Liure sont deseignees & proportionnees toutes
lesdittes Lettres Attiques selon leur Ordre Abecedaire en leur haulteur
& largeur chascune a part soy, en y enseignant leur deue facon & requise
pronunciation Latine et Françoise, tant a Lantique maniere que a la
Moderne.
En deux Caietz a la fin sont adiouxtees Treze diuerses facōs de Lettres.
Cest a scauoir. Lettres Hebraiques. Greques. Latines. Lettres Françoises.
& icelles en Quatre facons, qui sont. Cadeaulx. Forme. Bastarde, &
Torneure. Puis ensuyuant sont les Lettres Persiennes. Arabiques.
Africaines. Turques. & Tartariennes. qui sont toutes cinq en vne mesme
Figure Dalphabet. En apres sont les Caldaiques. Les Goffes, quō dit
autrement Imperiales & Bullatiques. Les Lettres Phantastiques. Les
Vtopiques, quon peut dire Voluntaires. Et finablement Les Lettres Floryes.
Auec Linstruction & Maniere de faire Chifres de Lettres pour Bagues
dor, pour Tapisseries, Vistres, Paintures & autres chouses que bel & bon
semblera.
On the following leaf is the license, an extract from which will be found
on a subsequent page (Part 2, § II, no. 2); then a letter from Tory 'à
tous vrayz et deuotz Amateurs de bonnes lettres,' beginning thus:--
'Poets, orators, and others learned in letters and sciences, when they
have made and composed some work of their studious diligence and their
hand, are wont to make gift thereof to some great lord of court or church,
commending him by letters and by words of praise to the knowledge of other
men; and this in order to please him and to the end that they may be able
always to be so welcome in his sight that he shall seem to be obliged
and bound to give to them some great gift, some cure or some office, in
recompense of the toil and night-watches they have employed in the making
and composing of their said works and gifts. I could readily do the same
with this little book; but, considering that, if I should give it to one
rather than to another, there might arise envy and detraction, I have
thought that it would be well and wisely done of me to make of it a gift
to ye all, O ye devout lovers of goodly letters! nor to prefer the great
to the humble, save in so far as he loves letters the more and is the more
at home in virtue.'
Then comes a table, filling eight pages, and another letter of Tory, from
which we make a few extracts.
_To the readers of this book, humble greeting._
It is commonly said, and truly said, that there is great natural
virtue in plants, in stones, and in words. To offer examples would
be superfluous, so certainly is it true. But I would that God
might be pleased to give me grace so to prevail by my words and
entreaties that I may persuade some persons that, if they will not
do homage to our French tongue, they will at the least cease to
corrupt it. I find that there be three sorts of men who strive and
exert themselves to corrupt and debase it: they are the 'skimmers
of Latin,' the 'jesters,' and the 'jargoners.' When the skimmers
of Latin say: 'Despumon la verbocination latiale, & transfreton la
Sequane au dilucule & crepuscule, puis deãbulon par les Quadrivies
& Platees de Lutece, & comme verisimiles amorabundes captiuon la
beniuolence de lomnigene & omniforme sexe feminin,'[226] it seems
to me that they make sport not of their fellows alone, but of
themselves. When the jesters, whom I may fairly call 'slashers
[dechiqueteurs] of language,' say: 'Monsieur du Page, si vous ne me
baillez vne lesche du iour, ie me rue a Dieu, & vous dis du cas, vo⁹
aures nasarde sanguine,' they seem to me to do as great harm to our
language as they do to their coats, by slashing and destroying with
contumely that which is of more worth whole than when maliciously
torn and defaced. And in like manner when jargoners[227] make their
remarks in their malicious and wicked jargon, it seems to me not
only that they prove themselves dedicate to the gibbet, but that it
would be well if they had never been born. Although Master François
Villon was in his day mightily ingenious therein, yet would he have
done better to have essayed to do some other more goodly thing....
I consider moreover that there is another sort of men who corrupt
our language even more: they are the innovators and forgers of
new words. If such forgers are not villains, I deem them little
better. Think you that they show great refinement when they say
after drinking that they have 'le Cerueau tout encornimatibule &
emburelicoque dũg tas de mirilifiques & triquedondaines, dung tas
de gringuenauldes & guylleroches qui les fatrouillēt incessammēt?'
I would not quote such foolish words, were it not that my scorn
in thinking of them forces me to do it. 'Si natura negat, facit
indignatio versum....'
Yours in everything,
Geofroy Tory de Bourges.
After this letter comes the text of the book, which occupies, as I have
said, eighty numbered leaves.[228]
At the end we read: 'Here endeth this present book ... the printing of
which was finished Wednesday the twenty-eighth day of the month of April,
in the year 1529, for Maistre Geofroy Tory of Bourges, author of the
said book, and bookseller, living in Paris, who has it for sale on the
Petit Pont, at the sign of the Pot Casse, and for Giles Gourmont, also
a bookseller, living in said Paris, who likewise has it for sale on Rue
Sainct Jaques, at the sign of the Trois Couronnes.'[229]
* * * * *
This work was reprinted in 1549, in octavo,[230] with the same woodcuts,
but with some variations in other respects.
11
LA TABLE DE LANCIEN PHILOSOPHE CEBES, NATIF DE THEBES, ET
AUDITEUR DARISTOTE. EN LAQUELLE EST DESCRIPTE ET PAINCTE LA VOYE DE
LHOMME HUMAIN TENDANT A VERTUS ET PARFAICTE SCIENCE. AVEC TRENTE
DIALOGUES MORAULX DE LUCIAN, AUTHEUR JADIS GREC. Le tout
pieca translate de grec en langue latine par plusieurs scavans et
recommandables autheurs. Et nagueres translate de latin en vulgaire
françois par maistre Geofroy Tory de Bourges, libraire, demourant
a Paris, rue Sainct Iaques, devant lescu de Basle, a lenseigne du
Pot Casse. Sont en ung volume ou en deux qui veult, a vendre audict
lieu par ledict translateur, et par Iean Petit, libraire jure en
luniversite de Paris, demourant aussi en la rue Sainct Iaques, a
lenseigne de la Fleur de Lys.
Twelvemo; divided into signatures of 8 leaves. In the first volume, 10
preliminary leaves and signatures A to T; in the second volume, signatures
_a_ to _vij_. All the pages are embellished with narrow filleted borders,
on some of which the Lorraine cross appears.
On the first page is Tory's Pot Cassé (no. 6), or Jean Petit's mark,
according as the copies were issued by one or the other of those
publishers, who divided the edition.
On the second leaf is an extract from the license (dated September 18,
1529[231]), in so far as it concerns this book, 'the printing of which was
finished the fifth day of October, in the year above named.'
On the third leaf is the dedicatory epistle, the essential part of which
is as follows:--
_Geofroy Tory of Bourges doth say and give humble greetings to all
studious and true lovers of excellent pastime in reading._
Horace, a poet of old surnamed Flaccus, hath told us in writing
in his 'Ars Poetica' that philosophers and poets are wont, under
the outer bark of deceitful words, to convey a moral meaning which
may profit us in the knowledge of virtue or give us pleasure in
the charm of their style and their pleasing invention. Wherefore,
seeing this to be true, and reading all day the Table of the ancient
philosopher Cebes, likewise the Dialogues of the very learned and
graceful Greek author Lucian, methought that it would be well done
of me to translate them into our French tongue also, and cause them
to be printed, to the end that each one of you, upon reading the
said Table, may readily recognize what pure virtue is, and may find
honest pleasure in the ingenious and moral Dialogues of the said
Lucian. I offer them with a most humble and devout heart to you,
O scholars and lovers of pure worth! giving you to know that, in
so far as it hath been possible for me so to do, I have followed
the true text, adding nothing of my own thereto, neither using nor
misusing any modification or stuffing whatsoever. I have most gladly
written them down for you in flowing language, in your domestic
mother tongue, without attempting to mix therein refinements of
phrase, strange words, or such language as Carmentes, mother of
Evander, might be unable to understand or decipher. I see some who,
if they should write but six words, four will be either out of use,
or manufactured, or stretched out longer than a spear. Like him who
said in the laments and epitaphs of a king of the Basoche:--
'Au point prefix que spondile et muscule,
Sens vernacule, cartilaige auricule,
DIsis acule, Diana crepuscule,
Et lheure acculle pour son lustre assoupir.'
And a thousand other like sayings which I leave to him. I know not
to whom such language gives pleasure; but to me it seems scarce fair
or fine. It would seem, and yet I misdoubt, as if such a battery of
behorned and overrefined words had come or been hurled down from the
Latin language to ours; for there have been, and there are to this
day many who think that they have done a wondrous thing if they have
written in Latin a strange and unduly long word, like him who said,
and ingeniously none the less: 'Conturbabuntur Constantinopolitani
innumerabilibus sollicitudinibus.' And that other, Hermes by name,
who took such delight in writing long and refined words that he
was hoist with his own petard when another ingenious man composed
against him, in manufactured words, with an armful of syllables, the
distich which follows:--
'Gaudet honorificabilitudinitatibus Hermes,
Consuetudinibus, sollicitudinibus.'
I say this in passing, that you may not expect to find unwonted
words in this your little book. I know that there was once a wise
man and philosopher who said one day to his friend: 'Loquere verbis
presentibus et utere moribus antiquis,' which is to say, 'Speak in
ordinary language and live according to the manners of the good
old days.' In this your said little book you will, I think, find
charm, for it is full of many goodly and ingenious conceits both of
Cebes and of Lucian. I have placed first herein, as I have said, the
Table of this man Cebes, to the end that you may see at the outset
that 'poesis est pictura loquens': a poetical work is a speaking
picture. Touching the Dialogues of the learned Lucian, I have not
included them all, nor translated all; but I have chosen thirty only
of those which in my opinion are the finest and most moral, which
you may readily discover to be not only pleasant to read, but most
profitable in goodly moral teaching. You will accept them then, if
it please you, with kindly face and heart, remembering that with
God's help I will shortly make you some other new gift, to the best
of my ability. And meanwhile I will pray to our Lord Jesus to have
you in his keeping according to your wishes.
From Paris; in all things your devoted servant,
Geofroy Tory.
Follows a long list of errata, and a table of the Dialogues, followed
by another letter, 'aux lecteurs des Dialogues de Lucian contenuz en ce
present livre.' This letter contains nothing personal to Tory, and I will
quote only the closing passage, where, speaking of the Dialogues, he
says:--
I believe that, if the ancient and noble painter Zeuxis of
Heracleia, if Raphael of Urbino, Michel Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci,
or Albrecht Dürer should try to paint philosophers and their various
aspects, they could not paint them so well nor so to the life as
our Lucian paints them herein. It will seem to you that you do
verily see them and hear them speak, and that Menippus, before your
wondering eyes, doth fly up to heaven to learn the truth concerning
all the falsehoods of the said philosophers. May God have you in his
keeping according to your noble and goodly desire.
From the University of Paris; in all things your devoted servant,
Geofroy Tory.
At the end of the book, after the Dialogues, Tory introduced a number of
moral apothegms and plays upon words, probably of his own invention.
This volume is printed with the type and decorative letters of 'Champ
fleury.'
12
SUMMAIRE DE CHRONIQUES, CONTENANS LES VIES, GESTES ET CAS
FORTUITZ DE TOUS LES EMPEREURS DEUROPE, DEPUIS IULES CESAR IUSQUES
A MAXIMILIEN, DERNIER DECEDE.--Avec maintes belles histoires
et mensions de plusieurs roys, ducs, contes, princes, capitaines et
aultres, tant chrestiens que non, tant de hault que de has estat et
condition.--Faict premierement en langue latine par venerable et
discrete personne Iehan Baptiste Egnace, Venicien.--Et translate de
ladicte langue latine en langaige francoys par maistre Geofroy Tory
de Bourges.--On les vend a Paris, a lenseigne du Pot Casse.--Avec
privilege du Roy nostre sire pour X ans.'
Octavo; 16 preliminary leaves (signatures _a_ and _b_), 99 leaves of text,
numbered, and 13 leaves of index and errata, not numbered (signatures A to
O); in all, 128 leaves, or 16 octavo sheets. All the pages are enclosed
in threefold fillets, with compartments running into one another, such as
were still used in printing-offices until quite recently. I will remark in
passing that the sheets of this book bear only two signature letters each,
one on the first page (for the first form), the other on the third page
(for the second form), as is the general practice to-day, instead of the
four which were commonly inserted, to no useful end.
On the verso of the first leaf, the recto of which is occupied by the
title, is printed the king's license, in these terms:--
Francoys, by the grace of God King of France, to the Provost of
Paris, Bailly of Rouen, Seneschal of Lion, and to all other our
justiciars and officials, or to their lieutenants, greeting. Our
dear and well-beloved maistre Geofroy Tory of Bourges, bookseller,
dwelling in our city of Paris, hath caused it to be said and shown
to us that he hath of late translated from the Latin into vernacular
French two books, one having been formerly translated from the
Greek into the Latin by several learned and commendable authors,
entitled: 'La Table du philosophe ancien Cebes, natif de Thebes,
et auditeur Daristote,' together with certain moral Dialogues of
Lucian; the other originally composed in the Latin tongue by Jehan
Baptiste Egnace, entitled: 'Summaire de Chroniques, contenant les
gestes et faictz de tous les empereurs Deurope, depuis Iules Cesar
jusques a Maximilian'; likewise another book, entitled: 'Les Reigles
generales de Lorthographe du langaige francoys'; the which books he
is desirous to print, were it our pleasure to permit him so to do,
and at the same time to forbid all booksellers, printers, and all
other persons whatsoever to print, cause to be printed, or expose
for sale the said books--Wherefore is it that we, having regard to
the trouble and labour which the said Tory hath had herein, have
given unto him license and permission to print, cause to be printed,
and expose for sale at a fair and reasonable price, by himself, his
servants, agents and factors, the said books above described, during
ten years following and subsequent to the printing thereof. Such is
our will, etc. Given at Paris the xxviii day of September, in the
year of grace M. D. XXIX, and of our reign the XV.
Heruoet.
Next comes the following letter of Tory, by way of preface:--
_Geofroy Tory of Bourges, to all studious and true lovers of goodly
reading and profitable pastime, doth humbly bid and offer greeting._
I promised you not long since, in the preface to the Table of Cebes
and the thirty new Dialogues of Lucian, that I would ere long, by
my humble efforts, make for you another new book, which, to my
thinking, might afford you pleasing and useful pastime, by enticing
you to read and see therein things wherewith your mind might well in
due time and place be entertained and deliciously soothed. At this
present time (my most honourable lords), as your humble servant,
who is entirely devoted to you, I present to you a 'Summaire de
Chroniques,' the which I have translated for you, as I translated
the said Cebes and Dialogues, from the Latin into French, to the
best of my poor ability, forewarning you that, after the manner
of Jehan Baptiste Egnatius, the present author, I have neither
modified nor changed the meaning of the story in favour of any man
whatsoever. Nor is my translation made word for word, because that
would have been a too barren style and devoid of charm. I know
that, according to Horace ('nec verbo verbum curabit reddere fidus
interpres'), a translator should not vex his wits about rendering
each word that he translates into a word of his language; but should
retain the meaning and set it forth in the best style that shall
be possible for him. So I have done the best that I could, as well
for the love and respect that I owe you, as not to depart from the
pure truth of history, which is of such nature that it will not
brook to be in any way turned aside from its purity. Marcus Tullius
Cicero doth well enjoin it upon us, when he writes in the second
book of his 'Orator': 'Nam quis nescit primam esse historiæ legem,
ne quid falsi dicere audeat, deinde ne quid veri non audeat, ne
qua suspitio gratiæ sit in scribendo, ne qua simulatis?' 'But who
is there [he says] who does not know that the first law of history
is to dare to tell nothing that is untrue, and to tell the truth
without feigning, to the end that there may be no suspicion of
partiality or of envy in that which one writes?' Of a surety history
should be entirely true, not only for the reasons already given, but
because, as Cicero says a little before the place already quoted:
'Historia est testis temporum, lux veritatis, vita memoriæ, magistra
vitas, et nuncia vetustatis.' 'History [he says] is the testimony
of the times, the torch of truth, the nurse and life of the memory,
teacher and schoolmistress of our life, and messenger of antiquity.'
I have chosen to make you a present of a history, and a history
abridged to the limits of a summary, rather than of something else,
for the reason that while engaging yourselves, you may see therein,
as in a mirror, a thousand excellent things, wherefrom you shall
be able to hear and recognize innumerable useful suggestions which
shall do you good service on occasion in due time and place. Titus
Livius says, in the preface to the first book of his first Decade:
'Hoc illud est precipue in cognitione rerum salubre ac frugiferum,
omnis te exempli documenta in illustri posita monumento intueri,
unde tibi tuasque Reipublicæ quod imitare cupias, unde fœdum
inceptum, fœdum exitu quod vites.' 'It is [he says] peculiarly
good and useful in the knowledge of things, to see and learn in
noble history the teachings of worthy example, by the imitation and
likeness whereof you may choose for yourselves and for your country
that which you ought to imitate and follow, and that which you ought
to avoid as an abomination, at the beginning as well as at the end.'
Take therefore in good part, an it please you, this little work, and
accept it with a gracious face and expression, as of your kindliness
you are wont to do; even so you will invite me, of your courteous
and singular grace, henceforward to do better, with the aid of Our
Lord Iesus, to whom I pray that he will give to you all his love and
blessed grace, at your noble and worthy desire.
At Paris, this X day of April, M. D. XXIX.
On the last leaf of the book we find the Pot Cassé, with these words
beneath: 'The printing of this present book was finished at Paris, the
XIII day of April, M. D. XXIX,[232] for maistre Geofroy
Tory de Bourges, who sells it in said Paris, at the sign of the Pot Casse.'
The only copy that I have seen of this edition was then owned by
M. Ambroise Didot, who courteously permitted me to examine it at my
leisure. It was in its original binding with the Pot Cassé. The book is
printed in the 'Champ fleury' type.
There are several other editions. I am familiar with two of them,
published by Charles L'Angelier, both in octavo, in 1543 and 1544. M.
Hippolyte Boyer mentions one of 1541, in his 'Histoire des Imprimeurs et
Libraries de Bourges' (octavo, Bourges, 1854), page 27; but I have not
seen it: whereas I have had the privilege of examining the other two.
Each of them contains 112 leaves (signatures A to O), plus 4 unnumbered
ones. The book is illustrated with engravings of two kinds, in addition
to the bookseller's mark on the title-page: the first, reproduced several
times, represents an emperor, mounted, holding a battle-axe; it is not
signed, but is engraved with much delicacy, and embellished with the
little cartouches so much affected by Tory. The others represent busts of
emperors roughly engraved, which cannot be the work of that artist.
13
LA PROCESSION DE SOISSONS DEVOTE ET MEMORABLE FAICTE A LA
LOUANGE DE DIEU, POUR LA DELIVRANCE DE NOSSEIGNEURS LES ENFANS
DE FRANCE.--On les vend a Paris, a lenseigne du Pot Casse,
rue Sainct Iaques, devant lescu[233] de Basle, et en la halle de
Beausse, a la mesme enseigne du Pot Casse, devant leglise de la
glorieuse Madalaine, avec privilege pour deux ans.
At the end of the book: 'The printing of this present book was finished
the XXIX day of August M. D. XXX, and it is for sale at
Paris by maistre Geofroy Tory de Bourges.'
Small quarto of 20 leaves with borders, signatures Aij to Cij.
This exceedingly rare little volume has a title-page with a border of
arabesques engraved on wood, with the Lorraine cross. Beneath Tory's
mark are four Latin verses, probably of his composition, as are the six
which bring the narrative to a close and which are entitled: 'Torinus
Biturigicus ad Galliam.' On the verso of the title is the preface, dated
August 25, 1530, and beginning thus: 'Geofroy Tory of Bourges to the
devoted lovers of good reading doth bid and offer humble greeting.'
At the top of leaf Aij we read: 'The order of the grand procession
ordained at Soissons by the reverend father in God Monseigneur Iehan
Olivier, Abbé de Saint Mard at said Soissons, Councillor to the King our
Sire, and Chronicler of France, on Sunday the last day of July in the year
of grace one thousand five hundred and thirty, to give thanks to our Lord
for the deliverance of our lords the Children of France.'
* * * * *
These particulars are taken from the fifth edition of Brunet's 'Manual de
Libraire.' I have not been able to find the volume, despite my thorough
search in the various libraries of Paris.
14
ÆDILOQUIUM CEU DISTICHA PARTIBUS ÆDIUM URBANARUM ET RUSTICARUM
SUIS QUÆQUE LOCIS ADSCRIBENDA. ITEM, EPITAPHIA SEPTEM DE AMORUM
ALIQUOT PASSIONIBUS ANTIQUO MORE ET SERMONE VETERI, VIETOQUE
CONFICTA. AUTHORE GOTOFREDO TORINO, BITURIGICO.--Parisiis, apud
Simonem Colinæum. 1530. Cum privilegio ad biennium.[234]
Octavo; 3 sheets, printed in italic. The title is set in an exceedingly
graceful border, borrowed from the Hours in octavo of 1527. The verso of
the title is blank, and on the second leaf is the following preface:--
_Geofroy Tory of Bourges to the fair reader, greeting._[235]
There are certain eminent painters in this prolific age, most gentle
reader, who, by their drawings, paintings, and varied colouring, depict
the tribal gods and human beings, as also other things of different sorts,
with such exactness that a voice and a soul seem the only things wanting
to them; but here, most gentle reader, I offer you, nearly in the manner
of these painters, a house, which not only is elegant and finished in
its outlines and parts, but speaks prettily and describes itself part by
part in a eulogy. I also offer you seven epitaphs, composed and written
in the ancient style and in very ancient language. These epitaphs show,
in a way that we may call comprehensible, the various affections to which
unhappy mortals who are in love are subject. I am, I say, pleased to offer
you these, not that you may speak or write in obsolete words such as you
here find, but that you may have before your eyes, so bright and full of
charm, a sample of antiquity, and may know that you have been thoroughly
warned by me to be on your guard against falling into the snares and
perplexities of an insane love. Farewell.
* * * * *
In addition to the border of the title-page, the book contains seven
exquisite little engravings, corresponding to Tory's seven 'love
epitaphs,'--engravings which are certainly his, in design at least,
although unsigned. Here is a list of them:--
1. Two hearts pierced by an arrow.
2. Two hearts in a circle.
3. Two hearts bound together by cords.
4. Two hearts in a boat.
5. A pig sniffing at two hearts.
6. Two hearts, a distaff, etc.
7. Two hearts being kicked by a horse.
As for the text of the book, it has been variously judged. Catherinot was
delighted with it; but the author of the 'Menagiana' reproves Tory for
manufacturing Latin words after the style of the author of the 'Songe du
Poliphile' (see supra, page 55, note 2). We have seen that Tory himself
did not recommend such words to the reader.
The Bibliothèque Nationale has a copy of this little book, still in its
original binding, with the Pot Cassé.
15
SCIENCE POUR SENRICHIR HONNESTEMENT ET FACILEMENT, INTITULEE:
LECONOMIC XENOPHON, NAGUERES TRANSLATEE DE GREC ET LATIN EN LANGAIGE
FRANCOYS PAR MAISTRE GEOFROY TORY DE BOURGES. [Here the Pot
Cassé, no. 4] On les vend a Paris, en la rue Sainct Iaques, devant
lescu de Basle, et devant lesglise de la Magdalaine, a lenseigne du
Pot Casse.--Avec privilege.
Octavo of 9 sheets (signatures _a_ to _i_). As in the 'Sommaire de
Chroniques' of Egnasius, there are only two signature marks to the sheet
(one for the first form and one for the second), and each page is enclosed
in a three-line fillet. The title-page alone is set in a border of
arabesques of pleasing design.
On the verso of the title: 'At the aforesaid sign of the Pot Casse there
be also for sale Thucydides and Diodorus, with several other excellent
books translated from Greek and Latin into French. Likewise there be
beautiful Hours and Offices of Our Lady, large, medium, and small,
illustrated and vignetted in ancient and modern fashion.'
On the second leaf is an explanation of the words 'Economic' and
'Xenophon'; and on the third a dedication, extracts from which follow.
_Geofroy Tory of Bourges to his most reverend father in God, Antoine
du Prat, Cardinal de Sens, legate in ordinary and Chancellor of
France, doth say and proffer most humble greeting._
After the book treating of the meaning of the ancient letters,
called 'Champ fleury,' the which I composed in the French tongue,
and the 'Table of Cebes,' with thirty moral dialogues, likewise
the 'Sommaire de Chroniques,' the which I translated into our said
tongue,[236] to confer a benefit on the studiously inclined, most
reverend father in God, it hath seemed to me a worthy occupation, if
I should employ myself in translating also the 'Economic Xenophon';
and beneath the shadow of your most honourable wing, first
presenting the same with humble devotion unto you, I have published
the same and placed it in the hands of all virtuous and worthy
persons, to pass the time studiously therewith and therein to find
good counsel for directing their families worthily and increasing
their wealth by honest means.
Wherefore, most reverend father in God, under your venerable favour
and blessing, the studious and veritable lovers of goodly reading
and fruitful occupation will kindly take this little book in their
condescending hands, and all will bear you good will, not for the
book alone, but for that you are he to whom all owe honour and
service, as to whom all the public welfare and all Christendom are
deeply indebted.
I shall continue to be, if it so please you, in your good favour,
and I will pray to Our Lord that he will give you his love according
to your noble and estimable desire.
From Paris this Wednesday, the fifth day of July, M. D.
XXXI.
Following this document, which fills three leaves, comes an epistle from
Geofroy Tory of Bourges to 'studious and worthy readers,' by way of
preface. It fills two leaves. The eighth leaf is entirely blank. On the
ninth, the 'Economic Xenophon' begins, and extends from _b_ to _i_ 4; the
fifth and sixth leaves of _i_ contain an 'Epistle from Seigneur Elisee
Calense, native of Amphrates, which he sent to Rufinius, guardian of the
Emperor Arcadius, replying to him touching the matter of managing his
family and of keeping in order his domestic goods and chattels, translated
from Latin into French by maistre Geofroy Tory de Bourges.'
On the last leaf but one appears a 'duplicate of the license granted to
maistre Geofroy Tory de Bourges, by the King our Sire, for this present
book and others named in this said license,' in these words:--
Francoys, by the grace of God King of France, to the Provost of
Paris, Bailly of Rouen, Seneschal of Lyon, and to all other our
justiciars and officials or their deputies, greeting. Our dear
well-beloved maistre Geofroy Tory of Bourges, bookseller, dwelling
in our city of Paris, hath caused it to be made known to us that
he hath of late made and composed in the Latin tongue a certain
book entitled; 'Ædiloquium et Erotica'[237]; likewise, that he
hath translated from Greek and Latin into French the 'Economic
Xenophon'; which books he would fain print, or cause to be
printed, if it should be our pleasure to permit him so to do, at
the same time causing all tradesmen, booksellers, printers, and
other persons whomsoever, to be forbidden to print or to expose
for sale in any manner the said books; and that, if any should be
brought hither by foreigners, other than those of the said Tory's
printing, they may not be sold within our realm during the period
of the four years reckoned from the date of the printing of said
books, with an extension for a like period for certain other books,
illustrations, and vignettes to be printed in the 'Heures et Office
de Nostre Dame' mentioned in two licenses heretofore granted to
him by our favour.[238] Wherefore, having regard and consideration
for the time and toil which it hath cost the said Tory to compile
and translate the said books, and for such expense as it shall be
his pleasure to incur in printing the same,--for these reasons we
have given and granted to him permission to print or cause to be
printed and to offer for sale the said books above mentioned for
four years following and succeeding the printing thereof. And so
we command you, that by virtue of this our present favour, warrant
and permission, you do allow the said petitioner to use and enjoy
the same, and do forbid in our name all tradesmen, printers,
booksellers, to print or cause to be printed, or to expose for
sale in any manner the said books during four years, on pain of
twenty-five silver marcs to be paid to us, and confiscation of the
books as to which they shall have been guilty; for such is our
pleasure. Given at Vannes, the XVIII day of June in the
year of grace one thousand five hundred thirty-one, and of our reign
the seventeenth.--Signed, Heruoet.
On the last page: 'The printing of this present book was finished by
maistre Geofroy Tory of Bourges Wednesday the fifth day of July in the
year M. D. XXXI. And it is for sale at Paris, opposite the "Escu
de Basle," Rue Sainct Iaques, and opposite the Church of La Magdeleine, at
the sign of the ("a leeseigne [_sic_] du") Pot Casse.'
The description we have given is that of the very complete copy owned by
M. Ambroise Didot. M. Chedeau, an attorney at Saumur, owned a copy the
title-page of which is different. It reads thus:--
ECONOMIC DE XENOPHON, CEST A DIRE: DOMESTIQUES INSTITUTIONS
ET ENSEIGNEMENS POUR BIEN REGIR SA FAMILLE ET AUGMENTER SON BIEN
PARTICULIER. IADIS COMPOSE EN GREC PAR LANCIEN AUTHEUR XENOPHON, ET
TRANSLATE DE GREC ET LATIN EN LANGAIGE FRANÇOIS PAR MAISTRE TORY DE
BOURGES. [Here the Pot Cassé.] Imprimees a Paris, a lenseigne
du Pot Casse, par ledict maistre Geofroy Tory, marchant libraire et
imprimeur du roy.--Avec privilege.
This title-page has the same border and the same form of the Pot Cassé
as the other copy; but it has not on the verso the little list of other
publications which we find on the latter, and which we have reproduced
above. As the first signature (A) of M. Chedeau's copy lacks four leaves,
we cannot say whether there are other differences in that signature; but
as to the other signatures, B to I, they are identical in the two copies.
Thus we find in both the error to which we called attention above in the
word 'enseigne' [printed 'eeseigne'], in the final note; better still,
this error has been corrected by hand, in the same way, in both copies,
probably by Tory himself. Which of the two is the earlier? I should not
venture to say; however, it seems to me that the additional matter on the
verso of the title-page of M. Didot's copy tends to prove that it is the
later of the two. In any event, the interval between the two impressions
cannot have been a long one. If I interpret rightly certain circumstances,
the first signature, which had been kept in type (as is proved by a number
of typographical defects which appear in both copies), was reprinted at
the same time with the last signature. Tory's dedicatory epistle, in M.
Didot's copy, is dated July 5, the day when the printing of the book was
finished according to the final note. Now, to make it possible for him to
affix this date to his preliminary epistle, we must concede that it had
been kept in type until the book was finished. But may it not be that no
date was affixed on the first signature of the first impression? That is
a question that I am unable to answer, in view of the imperfect state of
M. Chedeau's copy. It may be, too, that the first signature was reprinted
in order to announce Tory's new address, he having very recently installed
his printing establishment in the famous old Halle au Blé de Beauce, on
Rue de la Juiverie, opposite the Church of La Madeleine. For it will
be observed that this address does not appear on the title-page of M.
Chedeau's copy, although we do find it in the note on the last page.
This volume is printed in the 'Champ fleury' type.
16
POLITIQUES DE PLUTARCHE, CEST A DIRE: CIVILES INSTITUTIONS
ET ENSEIGNEMENS POUR BIEN REGIR LA CHOSE PU[BLIQUE], IADIS
COMPOSEES EN GREC PAR PLUTARCHE, ET DEPUIS TRANSLATEES DE GREC
EN LATIN PAR LE SEIGNEUR NICOLE SAGUNDIN, ET A PRESENT DE LANGUE
GRECQUE ET LATINE EN LANGAIGE FRANÇOIS PAR MAISTRE GEOFROY TORY
DE BOURGES.--Dediees par le dit autheur a lempereur Trajan,
et par le translateur en langaige françois a tresilustre et plain
de bon espoir en toute heureuse vertu, son seigneur, François de
Vallois, Daulphin de France. [Here the Pot Cassé, no. 4.] Imprimees
en Paris, a lenseigne de Pot Casse, par maistre Geofroy Tory de
Bourges, marchant libraire et imprimeur du Roy.--Avec privilege
tresample.[239]
Octavo, of 8 preliminary unnumbered leaves, and 67 numbered leaves of
text (signatures A to Iij). The pages have no borders. There are marginal
remarks. The type and the ornamental letters are the same as in 'Champ
fleury.'
On the second leaf is the following dedicatory epistle:--
_Geofroy Tory de Bourges to his most debonair lord, François de
Vallois, Daulphin de France, doth say and proffer most humble
greeting._
My lord, while translating this little book, I have oftentimes
reflected to whom of all my good friends I should the sooner
dedicate it, or whether I should dedicate it (as I have heretofore
done with certain other books which I have composed and translated
into the French tongue) to all studious and genuine lovers of
excellent reading and worthy pastime. But in fine, knowing thy
virtuous nature, likewise the mirror of all goodness and perfect
nobility wherein thou dost abundantly excel, and art ever disposed
for every blessed and goodly enterprise, I have considered that
before all other living men, of what state soever they may be, it
is to thy glorious lordship that I ought and am in duty bounden to
consecrate it, since it is thou under whom the public, not of France
alone, but of all Christendom, has its hope of living hereafter in
all felicity. I dedicate it to thee, not forgetting that thou hast
thy noble father the King, who, as Philip of Macedon did of yore to
his son Alexander, doth set before thee noble and goodly instruction
and examples of upright living; but also to the end that thou mayst
by times amuse thyself and read the excellent tales and teachings
which are marshalled herein as in a well-chosen library; and also
that, following thy noble and generous example, the studiously
inclined may, by reading the same, worthily profit thereby. Thou
mayst find herein many excellent passages, which will sometimes help
to comfort thee, and will be in some degree the means whereby thou
and thy Realm, with the grace of God, wilt ever prosper more and
more.
Paris, this XIIII day of June, M. D. XXXII.
On the verso of the last leaf: 'The printing of this present book was
finished Saturday the XV day of June, M. D. XXXII, by maistre Geofroy
Tory of Bourges, bookseller and king's printer, living in Paris, opposite
the church of La Magdeleine, at the sign of the Pot Casse.' [Here the Pot
Cassé, no. 9.]
I have seen two copies of this book, one in M. Didot's library, the other
in M. Alkan's.
Another edition was published at Lyon, in 1534, in 16mo, by Guillaume
Boulle (or Boullé, for the name, in accordance with the custom of the
time, has no accent on the _e_). This is undoubtedly the one mentioned by
Duverdier[240] as having been printed at Paris, in octavo, in 1530, by
Guillaume Boullé. In this statement there are as many errors as there are
words. Guillaume Boullé's edition was not printed in Paris, it was not an
octavo, and it cannot be dated 1530, as the first edition did not appear
until 1532. Unfortunately La Caille did not take the trouble to verify
Duverdier's statement, and he makes Guillaume Boullé a bookseller-printer
of Paris.[241] Lottin, in his 'Catalogue des Libraries et Imprimeurs de
Paris,'[242] has not failed to copy La Caille, and to mention, under the
year 1530, a Guillaume Boullé, bookseller and printer in Paris, side by
side with Jean Boullé, bookseller. Was this Jean, whom La Caille calls
simply Boulle, and whom he places in 1543, a kinsman of Guillaume? I
cannot answer. However that may be, here is a full description of the
edition of the 'Politiques' published by the latter. It is a 16mo volume
containing 8 leaves of front matter and 104 of text. On the title-page,
which is embellished by a roughly executed border, are these words:--
'Politiques ou Civiles Institutions pour bien regir la Chose publ., iadis
composees en grec par Plutarche, et despuys translatees en francoys par
maistre Geofroy Tory, et dediees par ledict translateur a tres illustre
prince et plein de bon espoir en toute heureuse vertu, Francoys de
Valloys, Daulphin de France.
'Disputation de Phavorin, philosophe, nouvellement y a este adioustee.
Item chapitre demonstrant combien sont destatz de la Chose publ.
'On les vend a Lyon, en la rue Merciere, a la boutique de Guillaume
Boulle, libraire, a la fleur de lys d'or.--Avec privilege. 1534.'
On the verso of the title-page is an engraving representing Justice, with
this inscription: 'Justitia in sese virtutes continet omnes.'
On the following leaf is the dedication to the Dauphin.
At the end of the volume is the mark of Guillaume Boullé, or Boulle.
There is a copy of this little book at the Arsenal, and also one in the
Bibliothèque Nationale. The latter lacks the final leaf bearing the
bookseller's mark, which some collector (!) has cut out, to enrich his
collection.
17
LA MOUCHE DE LUCIAN, ET LA MANIERE DE PARLER ET SE TAIRE
[de Volaterran]. [Pot Cassé, no. 6.] LA MOUSCHE EST TRANSLATEE
DE GREC ET DE LATIN EN LANGAIGE FRANÇOIS. LA MANIERE DE PARLER ET SE
TAIRE EST TRANSLATEE SEULLEMENT DE LATIN EN FRANÇOIS. Le tout
par maistre Geofroy Tory de Bourges, imprimeur du Roy et libraire
juré en l'université de Paris.--On les vend a Paris devant l'eglise
de la Magdeleine, a l'enseigne du Pot Cassé.
Eight octavo leaves, without date of printing or license. This pamphlet
was undoubtedly printed by Tory himself, subsequent to February 22, 1533;
for he assumes the title of bookseller to the University, which he did
not obtain until that date. Moreover, the acute accent, the apostrophe
and the cedilla are used therein, and he did not make use of those marks
until 1533. Lucian's 'La Mouche' [The Fly] fills 11 pages; the 'Maniere de
Parler' (an extract from the eighteenth book of Volaterran's 'Philosophy')
3 pages. The first leaf has the title, and, on the verso, a note 'aux
lecteurs.' The type used is the same as in 'Champ fleury.'
18
LES REIGLES GENERALES DE LORTHOGRAPHE DU LANGAIGE FRANCOYS.
Such is the title of a book written by Tory, of which no trace remains. We
do not know even whether it was printed, although it is included in the
license of the first edition of the 'Sommaire de Chroniques' of Egnasius,
dated September 28, 1529. (See page 88.) Doubtless it was the complement
of 'Champ fleury,' from a grammatical standpoint.
19
TRANSLATION OF THE HIEROGLYPHS OF ORUS APOLLO; a manuscript
given by Tory to 'a noble and excellent friend' of his.[243]
It is not known whether this translation was printed. There are in
existence several old translations of Orus Apollo, but they do not bear
Tory's name.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 174: It goes without saying that in the numerous quotations
which I shall make from these books I shall do away with abbreviations
and supply punctuation. To do otherwise would be to give the reader of
to-day, who is unfamiliar with the tachygraphy of the Middle Ages, simply
a succession of undecipherable puzzles. It is a difficult task to restore
the Latin texts according to the first impressions. I have taken it upon
myself, so that the reader may have the pleasure of reading without
difficulty. What I have said must be my apology for such errors as I may
have made in my work of restoration.]
[Footnote 175: Bibliothèque Mazarine.]
[Footnote 176: Gilles de Gourmont was in fact the first printer in Paris
who had Greek type. See my _Les Estienne_, pp. 62, 67.]
[Footnote 177: I have arranged these verses in lines, although in the book
the lines are indicated simply by capital letters; and I warn the reader
that several words were changed by Tory in order to adapt the verses to
his subject. [The changes are in fact considerable, especially in the
third passage, which is made up of parts of five lines, with several
changes, one of which results in an entire reversal of the meaning. The
English versions of these passages are adapted from Long's translation of
the _Æneid_. For the Latin original, see Appendix X, _g_.]]
[Footnote 178: Proper. ii, _ad Mæcenatem_. [The translations from
Propertius are those of Cranstoun.]]
[Footnote 179: Doubtless we should read 'iv no.' for there was no sixth of
the nones of December. The fourth of the nones fell on Dec. 2. But perhaps
we should read 'vj id.'; the sixth of the ides of December fell on Dec. 8.]
[Footnote 180: [For the Latin original, see Appendix X, _b_.]]
[Footnote 181: [For the Latin original, see Appendix X, _i_.]]
[Footnote 182: Jan. 10, 1508, new style.]
[Footnote 183: [For the Latin original, see Appendix X, _j_.]]
[Footnote 184: [For the Latin original, see Appendix X, _k_.]]
[Footnote 185: Following the course pursued in the _Psalterium
Quincuplex_, published shortly before by Henri Estienne, Tory proposed
to write with a cedilla the last _e_ but one of the third person plural
of the perfect tense of verbs of the third conjugation (_emere_,
_contendere_, etc.), to distinguish it from the infinitive. In our day the
circumflex accent has been adopted for this purpose; but accented letters
did not exist in Tory's time, and he sought to utilise, in the interest of
the metre, the only distinctive sign at the disposal of typography, the
_e_ with the cedilla, which was then generally used for _æ_, in imitation
of the manuscripts of the Middle Ages. Tory also proposed to spell
with _s_, instead of _x_, certain words like _mixtum_; 'for,' he said,
'_misceo_ has _miscui_ in the perfect; and so, by analogy, we must say
_mistum_.'
I will not comment here on some other observations of the same sort
made by Tory in this same note to the reader; I will say simply that
they all tend to prove his erudition and peremptorily contradict the
extraordinary assertion of a certain Abbé Joly, who, in a huge folio,
entitled _Remarques critiques sur le Dictionnaire de Bayle_, and published
in 1740, observes that Tory was 'very ignorant,' without adducing a single
fact in support of his opinion. In the _Menagiana_ (vol. iv, p. 84 of
the 12mo edition of 1729) Tory is rebuked, to be sure, for forging Latin
words, after the example of the author of the _Songe du Poliphile_; but
this is a less serious charge, and is not a proof of ignorance; on the
contrary it proves misuse of knowledge. Geofroy Tory, says the author,
attracted by the style of the _Poliphile_, composed seven epitaphs filled
with words most worthy of a place in that work, 'such as _murmurillare_,
_insatianter_, _hilaranter_, _pederaptim_, _velocipediter_,
_ægrimoniosius_, _avicipes_, _conspergitare_, _venustulentissus_,
_vinulentibibulus_, _apneumaticus_, and _collifrangibulum_, which he
represented as ancient words, and which the excellent Catherinot, in his
epitaph of this same Tory, did not fail to guarantee to be such.'--See
what Catherinot has to say of Tory's _Epitaphs_ in his epitaph of Tory, p.
44 supra. [_Tumulos aliquot ludicros veterrimo stylo latine condiderit._]]
[Footnote 186: This is the correct reading, not _Hongoti_, which M.
Renouard mistakenly adopts (_Ann. des Estienne_, 3d ed., p. 6, 2d col.,
no. 3; and p. 276), having failed to notice the line over the _o_ in the
second syllable of the word. However, this is the only place in which
this Jean Hongont is mentioned, and nothing is known of him save that he
was associated with the first Henri Estienne in the publication of this
edition of the _Cosmography_ of Pope Pius II, otherwise called Æneas
Sylvius, edited by Tory. This book is in the Bibliothèque Mazarine.]
[Footnote 187: October 10, 1509.]
[Footnote 188: See infra, Part 3, § III, _sub nomine_ Bade.]
[Footnote 189: Bibliothèque Mazarine.]
[Footnote 190: [For Latin original, see Appendix X, _l_.]]
[Footnote 191: As to this adage, see the _Collection_ of Erasmus (folio,
Basle, 1574), p. 302: _Aristophanis et Cleantis lucerna_.]
[Footnote 192: _Claudian_, xv, 385: _Minuit præsentia famam_.]
[Footnote 193: As to this adage, see the _Collection_ of Erasmus, ubi
sup., p. 134 a: _Non absque Theseo_.]
[Footnote 194: Plautus, _Casinus_, Act V, 4, 1: _Ubi tu es, qui colere
mores Massilienseis postulas._]
[Footnote 195: [For the Latin original, see Appendix X, _m_.]]
[Footnote 196: The answer seems to be _bat_.]
[Footnote 197: [See p. 265 infra.]]
[Footnote 198: [For the Latin original, see Appendix X, _n_.]]
[Footnote 199: May 9, 1510.]
[Footnote 200: Silvestre, no. 974.]
[Footnote 201: On folio 26 of the first edition there is a small plan of
Rome, doubtless a reminiscent work of Tory's, which is lacking in the
second and third editions.]
[Footnote 202: Vol. vii, p. 548, no. 411.]
[Footnote 203: _Catal. bibl. Bunav._ vol. i, p. 417 a.]
[Footnote 204: Vol. i, col. 810, under 'Berosus.']
[Footnote 205: [For the Latin original, see Appendix X, _o_.]]
[Footnote 206: [For the Latin original, see Appendix X, _p_.]]
[Footnote 207: For example, here are two riddles by Tory, the labour of
solving which, I leave, as he did, to the reader:--
_Godofredus To. Bi._
Tu caput Adrasti capias morientis, et adde
(Si modo grande bonum vis mihi) te socium.
_Idem._
Quæ fuit ilia Cato Romæ legatio quondam
Cor, caput, atque pedem cui nec habere fuit?
]
[Footnote 208: This book may be found in the Bibliothèque Mazarine, and at
the Arsenal.]
[Footnote 209: [For the Latin original, see Appendix X, _q_.]]
[Footnote 210: In original, _Cordatus_. His house [in Bourges] is now used
as the hôtel de ville.]
[Footnote 211: As to this gentleman, see page 4, supra.]
[Footnote 212: February 27, 1510, or rather, 1509, for it is hardly
probable that the bulky volume was printed in four months. See the
dedication in question, on page 4, supra. The book may be found in the
Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève.]
[Footnote 213: [For the original Latin, see Appendix X, _r_.]]
[Footnote 214: As to this person, see note 3 on page 5, supra.]
[Footnote 215: We have mentioned heretofore (page 4, supra) the eminent
posts occupied at this time by Philibert Babou and Jean Lallemand.]
[Footnote 216: [For the original Latin, see Appendix X, _s_.]]
[Footnote 217: [For the Latin original, see Appendix X, _t_.]]
[Footnote 218: [For the Latin original, see Appendix X, _u_.]]
[Footnote 219: The text has _nomen_ instead of _novem_, but the correction
is made in the errata.]
[Footnote 220: Christophe de Longueil, to whom the manuscript published by
Tory belonged.]
[Footnote 221: [For the Latin original, see Appendix X, _v_.]]
[Footnote 222: For the monogram appended to this final _avis_, see p. 6,
supra.]
[Footnote 223: See these two marks, p. 46, supra [nos. 7 and 8].]
[Footnote 224: [For the Latin original, see Appendix X, _w_.]]
[Footnote 225: [This same passage is quoted at length by M. Bernard in
Part 1 (see pp. 13-14, supra), where the translator has attempted to
render it intelligibly in English. As the present section of the book is
intended to assist the bibliographer, it seems proper to reproduce it here
exactly in its original form.]]
[Footnote 226: See, as to this passage, the remarks on p. 14, supra.]
[Footnote 227: Those who use thieves' slang.]
[Footnote 228: [There is no leaf numbered lix; the leaf between lviii and
lx is numbered lxx.]]
[Footnote 229: Cy finist ce present Liure, ... Qui fut acheue dimprimer Le
mercredy .xxviij. Iour du Mois Dapuril, Lan Mil Cincq Cens. XXIX.
Pour Maistre Geofroy Tory de Bourges, Autheur dudict Liure, & Libraire,
demorãt a Paris, qui le vent sus Petit Pont a Lenseigne du Pot Casse. Et
pour Giles Gourmont aussi Libraire demorant au dict Paris, qui le vent
pareillement en La Rue Sainct Iaques a Lenseigne des Trois Coronnes.]
[Footnote 230: See what I have said of this second edition on p. 42,
supra.]
[Footnote 231: See the exact text of this license, which includes three
works of Tory, under no. 12, infra.]
[Footnote 232: 1530, new style.]
[Footnote 233: Not _à l'escu de Basle_, as in the note printed by M.
Brunet.]
[Footnote 234: The license, which embraces the _Economic Xenophon_, and
is printed at the end of the last-named book, extends the author's rights
for four years, not for two. The discrepancy may be explained by the fact
that the _Ædiloquium_ was printed while Tory's application for the license
was pending,--that is to say, in the first three months of 1531, which
were then reckoned in the year 1530, according to the old computation. In
fact, the license is dated June 18, 1531, which seems to conflict with the
date of printing of the _Ædiloquium_. This circumstance also explains why
the second title of the book is different in the printed volume from that
given in the license (_Erotica_). See p. 31, supra.]
[Footnote 235: [For the Latin original, see Appendix X, _x_.]]
[Footnote 236: He does not mention the _Ædiloquium_, because it was in
Latin.]
[Footnote 237: In the printed volume of the _Ædiloquium_, Tory modified
this sub-title; for it might well have marred his epitaphs with a
suspicion of obscenity which was very far from his thought.]
[Footnote 238: On September 23, 1524, and September 5, 1526. Tory
requested an extension of the licenses for his Hours because he was about
to reprint them. The second edition of the quarto Hours appeared on
October 20, 1531.]
[Footnote 239: We have not this 'privilege tresample,' which probably
was printed in some other of Tory's books, now lost. In truth, that
accomplished man was accustomed to have several books included in each of
his licenses.]
[Footnote 240: _Bibliothèque Françoise_, article 'Geofroy Tory.']
[Footnote 241: _Histoire de l'Imprimerie_, p. 102.]
[Footnote 242: Vol. i, p. 24. Lottin also writes _Beulle_.]
[Footnote 243: _Champ fleury_, fol. 43 recto.]