[Footnote 386: See what I have had to say concerning this book, pp. 88-91,
supra.]
[Footnote 387: Renouvier, _Des Types_, etc., 16th century, p. 168.]
[Footnote 388: The _Bibliophile Français_ (April 15, 1865) mentions an
edition of this book, with the date of 1557. I regret that I was not aware
of it before the above paragraph was _printed_, as I should have cited
that edition in preference to that of 1575. However, it is unimportant, as
the two editions are identical except in the order of the plates, which
differs slightly.]
[Footnote 389: Neither the edition of 1557 nor that of 1575 was known
to M. Choulant, who published a curious monograph concerning works with
anatomical figures. (_Geschichte ... der anatomischen abbildung_; quarto,
Leipzig, 1852.)]
[Footnote 390: These explanations are printed, in movable type, in
cartouches inserted for that purpose. The type is different in all four of
the editions known to me.]
[Footnote 391: See p. 41, supra.]
[Footnote 392: I have seen this engraving in a fragment of a book of
Hours, printed in Roman type at a date which I cannot fix although it was
contemporaneous. This fragment consists of signatures _Aa_ and _Bb_ (a
half-signature), that is, 12 leaves, numbered 185 to 196. Signature _Aa_
begins (folio 185) with a title-page printed in red, in these words: 'Die
dominica ad vesperas. Psalmus.' The engraving in question is below them.
The last page of _Bb_ ends with the word 'finis,' which proves that the
book had but 25 signatures.]
[Footnote 393: Or, better, Purgatory. In an octavo collection at the
Bibliothèque Mazarine, there is a little book entitled: 'Le Purgatoire
prouvé par la parole de Dieu' (octavo; Paris, Denis Basset, 1600), in
which this engraving, signed with the Lorraine cross, appears twice;
it represents a nude man standing in the flames, with this legend in a
scroll: 'Constitvas mihi tenrvs' (tempvs?) 'in qvo recorderis mei.']
[Footnote 394: Such is my opinion; but I am bound to say that M. Achille
Devéria, formerly Conservator of the Department of Engravings, was of the
opposite opinion. According to him the unsigned engravings were copies of
the others. It seems to me that the dates of printing confirm my theory.
For we find the unsigned engravings in an edition of 1522; so that we
must refer those with the cross to an earlier date; but this seems hardly
probable, since Louis Royer (to whom they are attributed, as we shall see,
because he was the first to use them) succeeded Jean de Brie, who did not
die until about 1522.]
[Footnote 395: _Manuel du Libraire_, 5th edition, vol. v, col. 1672, no.
366 _bis_.]
[Footnote 396: See supra, p. 168.]
[Footnote 397: [Jean Cousin was born in 1501, and died at Sens about
1590.]]
[Footnote 398: Renouvier, _Des Types_, etc., _Seizième siècle_, p. 162.]
[Footnote 399: [See supra, p. 211.]]
[Footnote 400: That is, having immediate reference to the bearer's name.]
[Footnote 401: [Reproduced on the opposite page.]]
[Footnote 402: This engraving had previously appeared in 'Amadis de
Gaule': see supra, p. 216.]
[Footnote 403: Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 404: The copies in Sertenas's name bear a very curious mark,
which is reproduced in M. Silvestre's book, nos. 221 and 714.]
[Footnote 405: [Supra, p. 149.]]
[Footnote 406: See under that date for details (supra, p. 218).]
[Footnote 407: This portrait was engraved on copper, in 1556, by
Woeiriot, printed separately, and pasted on the recto of the second leaf
of Le Duaren's works, printed at Lyon in 1558 by Guillaume Rouille, in
folio; on some copies Woeiriot's engraving of Le Duaren's portrait is
replaced by the one engraved by Georges Ghisy, called the Mantuan. See
_Robert-Dumesnil, Peintre-graveur français_, vol. vii, p. 109, no. 282.]
[Footnote 408: See, too, the article on Le Duaren in the _Biographie
Universelle_.]
[Footnote 409: Supra, p. 189, note 3.]
[Footnote 410: These letters had already appeared in a book published by
Robert Estienne in 1549.]
[Footnote 411: This frieze in 1561 came into the possession of the second
Robert Estienne, who used it in a book entitled: _Ordonnances de M. le duc
de Bouillon pour le règlement de la justice de ses terres_. Small folio,
1568.]
[Footnote 412: Page 271.]
[Footnote 413: Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 414: [Supra, p. 218.]]
[Footnote 415: [The author forgets that he has listed two engravings on
folio 59, one on each side of the leaf.]]
[Footnote 416: Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 417: [The inscription would seem to prove, on the contrary, that
the engraving was made] two years earlier, or in 1551.]
[Footnote 418: Vol. ii, folios 936 recto, 948 verso, and 994 recto.
This work of Thevet's must not be confounded with that geographer's
_Cosmographie du Levant_, the fruit of an earlier journey, two editions of
which had been published at Lyon, in 1554 and 1556, by Jean de Tournes, in
quarto, with engravings in the text.]
[Footnote 419: See the details of this voyage of Thevet given by M.
Ferdinand Denis in a letter printed at the beginning of a work by M.
Demersay, entitled: _Études économiques sur l'Amérique_; 8vo, 1851.]
[Footnote 420: We shall see in the next paragraph that a reprint of it was
issued in April, 1558.]
[Footnote 421: See what has been said concerning this volume, on pages 223
and following, supra.]
[Footnote 422: This sign was retained by Thomas Perier, Charles's son. See
Silvestre, _Marques Typographiques_, no. 386.]
[Footnote 423: _Péché_ [sin].]
[Footnote 424: I have previously had occasion to comment upon the
extraordinary custom that formerly prevailed in the Cabinet des Estampes
of removing from engravings, etc., every sort of extraneous matter. It is
impossible to measure the extent to which this custom has impaired the
value of the collection. Unfortunately it is followed by most collectors
of prints, who sometimes destroy a very valuable and unique volume for no
other purpose than to preserve an engraving unaccompanied by text.]
[Footnote 425: We find some features of it in the frieze engraved by Tory
for the Bible published by Robert Estienne in 1532. See p. 202, supra.]
[Footnote 426: This collection was sold in January, 1846, and the plate in
question was purchased, for about 2000 francs, for M. Cambacérès, Grand
Master of Ceremonies in the Imperial household, who now owns it [1857].
This is what M. Baron says of it in his sale catalogue, no. 445: 'This
important piece, in the most perfect preservation, merits the attention of
collectors by virtue of its value and its rarity.' There is a copy also in
the Cabinet of Geneva.]
[Footnote 427: According to the catalogue quoted in the last note, the
reverse of the plate also is embellished with arabesques.]
[Footnote 428: Brother of the first-named Jean.]
[Footnote 429: [See p. 169, supra.]]
[Footnote 430: And not August 20, as it has sometimes been printed.]
[Footnote 431: The 'Avis au lecteur' is by him.]
[Footnote 432: [According to the list there are 11.]]
[Footnote 433: [According to the list only 14.]]
[Footnote 434: See what I have said on this subject on p. 173, supra.]
[Footnote 435: See infra, § III, 'Le Coq.']
[Footnote 436: These engravings are, as is well known to-day, by
Luczelburger, of Basle, Holbein's regular engraver.]
[Footnote 437: These pages were intended to be used as an album. I have
seen a very valuable copy at M. Potier's bookshop; he bought it of M.
Gaullieur, who has described it in his _Études sur l'imprimerie de
Genève_, p. 207. This copy, which was arranged by Durand the bookseller,
who emigrated to Geneva for religious reasons, has no title-page and
contains only the empty pages, that is to say those with borders alone,
within which Durand's friends, the most illustrious leaders of the
Reformation--de Bèze, Goulard, etc.--have inscribed each some sentence.
In some verses which come first, and which are admirably engrossed on
parchment, Durand tells us that he wrote them in 1583, without spectacles,
notwithstanding his great age and 'the gout in his fingers.']
[Footnote 438: Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 439: It may be that this fragment belongs to a collection
cited by M. Brunet (_Manuel du Libraire_, vol. iv, col. 850), under the
title, _Pourtraictz divers_, small octavo, Lyon, Jean de Tournes, 1557,
as containing 63 plates, including the title-page. M. Brunet then gives
a description of this collection, which cannot possibly fit it. 'These
plates represent factories, animals, scenes of divers sorts, mythological
subjects, and architectural designs.' This description evidently belongs
to the volume of 1556 mentioned on the next page.]
[Footnote 440: These portraits and many other woodcuts of the de Tournes,
which are still preserved in the Fick Press, at Geneva, have lately
been reproduced in a sumptuous publication entitled: _Anciens bois de
l'imprimerie Fick_, folio, Geneva, 1864. It contains many engravings of
Petit Bernard.]
[Footnote 441: I have already cited (page 259), on the authority of M.
Didot, an edition of this book under the date of 1551, but I doubt its
existence.]
[Footnote 442: The first 24 pages of this collection are bound with an
edition of Claude Paradin's _Quadrins historiques_, published by Jean de
Tournes, in 1558.]
[Footnote 443: This book was reprinted in 1557, with the title
_Pourtraictz Divers_; see p. 260, note 1.]
[Footnote 444: [See pp. 201-202, supra.]]
[Footnote 445: For instance, the anonymous author of a book entitled
_Notice sur les Graveurs_, printed at Besançon in 1807 (2 vols., octavo),
attributes to Salomon Bernard, whose period of activity he places between
1550 and 1580 (vol. i, p. 63 ), the engravings of Petrarch's _Triumphs_,
which appear in an edition of 1545, and a _Resurrection of the Dead_,
dated 1547 (vol. i, p. 64), which dates are inconsistent with those
mentioned above; he also attributes to him (vol. i, p. 65) the theatrical
scenes which we have with good reason ascribed to Tory, whose cross
appears on one of them; and, lastly, he attributes to him the story of
Psyche, in 32 duodecimo cuts, and the medallions of Jacques Strada's
_Epitome des Antiquités_ (Lyon, 1553), his authorship of which is very
doubtful. But there is no question at all concerning the following pieces,
which certainly belong to Salomon Bernard:--
I. The figures of the Bible, to the number of 251, reprinted
very frequently after 1553. In an edition of 1680, printed by Samuel de
Tournes, at Geneva, whither the second Jean withdrew about 1580, because
of his religion, is the following note: 'The figures that we offer you
here are from the hand of an excellent craftsman, known in his day under
the name of Salomon Bernard, called Le Petit Bernard, and have always been
held in esteem by those who are learned in works of this sort.'
II. Claude Paradin's _Devises héroiques_, containing 184
engravings, besides a border on the title-page. Large octavo, Jean de
Tournes, 1557 ( Bibliothèque Nationale). The license at the end of the
volume discloses the titles of several other volumes which Jean de Tournes
was then intending to publish, particularly the two following, which
appeared the same year.
III. The Metamorphoses of Ovid; octavo, 1557; 178 engravings.
IV. _L'Astronomique Discours_, by Jacques Bassentin; folio, 1557;
with a large number of astronomical plates.
V. _Hymnes du temps_, by Guillaume Gueroult; quarto, 1560; 88
pages, with borders and drawings. In the _avis au lecteur_ we read: 'I
hope that you will find some pleasure herein, for that the whole is
the work of a goodly hand; for the invention [of the engravings] is of
M. Bernard Salomon, an excellent painter as there has ever been in our
hemisphere.'
VI. Virgil's Æneid, French translation; quarto, 1560; with 12
vignettes.
VII. A book of _Thermes_, in eighteen orders; printed at Lyon in
1572, by Jean Marcorelle.--At the tenth _therme_ is a genie carving on a
shield the letter S, the initial of Bernard's baptismal name.
A large number of vignettes, and of letters in grisaille, used by the
printers of Lyon, are also attributed to this artist.]
[Footnote 446: See what I have had to say on this subject apropos of
Baïf's _Annotations_, supra, p. 208.]
[Footnote 447: _Des Types et des Manières des maîtres graveurs_, etc.,
16th century, pp. 167, 168.]
SECTION III. MARKS OF BOOKSELLERS AND PRINTERS SIGNED WITH THE LORRAINE
CROSS.
[Illustration: PRINCIPIVM EX FIDE, FINIS IN CHARITATE.]
The inventor of the Pot Cassé was chosen by his confrères, in preference
to all other engravers, to engrave their private marks. They had realized
the force of his 'kindly exhortation to practice and employ themselves in
goodly inventions,'[448] and had been impressed by the perfection with
which he executed that species of engraving, which he had completely
transformed. For, in lieu of the coarse vignettes with a black background,
on which the design stood out in white, as if cut with a die, Tory had
gradually introduced into these woodcuts all the delicacy of the Italian
engravings. The earliest ones of his of which we have any knowledge are
in the criblé style, which the Middle Ages had handed down to him; but he
soon rejected that style and not only adopted a new manner of engraving,
but altered the arrangement of the designs that were entrusted to him.
This fact is especially manifest if we compare the original mark of the de
Marnefs (Silvestre, 'Marques Typographiques' no. 151) with the one that
bears the motto, 'Principivm ex fide, finis in charitate' (Silvestre, no.
1043). Instead of the roughly drawn Pelican nourishing from its vitals
its still more roughly drawn young, in a nest perched on a tree of which
the leaves are larger than the trunk, we have, in the second engraving
[given above], an entirely new composition, of which both design and
execution are irreproachable. In the face of such results, we should not
be surprised by the predilection of the printer-booksellers for Tory; they
deemed it a duty to employ a confrère who poetized their profession: to
them it was a question of esprit de corps and of patriotism alike.
That is why we have so many typographical marks signed with the Lorraine
cross. We propose to enumerate all of those which we have actually had
before us. As it was impossible to arrange them chronologically, we have
adopted the alphabetical order.
* * * * *
ALARD (GUILLAUME), bookseller at Paris in 1550. See
FEZANDAT.
[Illustration: PRELVM ASCENSIANVM]
* * * * *
BADE (CONRAD), printer and bookseller at Paris from 1546 to
1560, when he withdrew to Geneva for religious reasons.--One mark, which
appears on the first edition of Théodore de Bèze's 'Poemata' (1548); the
volume contains also a portrait of the author signed with the double
cross. Conrad's mark, like that of his father, Josse Bade, represents
a printing-press. It contains also the words 'Prelum ascensianum';
but, instead of being inscribed in a cartouche on the press, they are
in two cartouches, one at the top, the other at the bottom, of the
border (Silvestre, no. 867). When Conrad betook himself to Geneva, Eloi
Gibier,[449] a printer of Orléans, bought the mark. It afterwards passed
to Fabian Hotot, a printer in the same city, who was using it in 1609; but
before using it he had the word 'Ascensianum' removed.
* * * * *
BESSAULT (THIBAUT, and JEAN, his son),
booksellers at Paris. See REGNAULT (BARBE).
* * * * *
BONFONS (JEAN), bookseller at Paris from 1548 to 1572.--One mark
(Silvestre, no. 125), representing a dove on a tree, within a circle
formed by a serpent, and on the outside of the circle this sentence from
the Bible: 'Estote prudentes sicut serpentes, et simplices sicut columbæ.'
I have seen it in a quarto edition of 'Le Petit Jehan de Saintré,'
published by Bonfons in 1553, in gothic type.
* * * * *
BUON (GABRIEL). See PORTE (MAURICE DE LA).
* * * * *
CALVARIN (SIMON), printer-bookseller at Paris, from 1553 to 1593.
Two marks, representing a woman, seated, surrounded by the paraphernalia
of the arts and sciences, and holding in one hand a palm-tree decorated
with three wreaths. I have seen one of these marks, the larger, in an
edition of Rodolphe Agricola's book entitled: 'De Inventione dialectica
libri tres' (quarto, 1558), on the title-page of which is this imprint:
'Parisiis, ex officina Simonis Calvarini, in vico Belovaco, ad Virtutis
insigne.'[450] The smaller one appears at the end of a book entitled:
'Conservation de santé et prolongation de vie, etc., composé premierement
par noble homme H. [Hieronime] Monteux, conseiller et medecin ordinaire
du roi François II, et nouvellement traduit en nostre langue fraçoise
par maistre Claude de Valgelas, docteur medecin, etc. Paris, chez Simon
Calvarin, rue Saint-Jacques, à la Rose blanche couronnée, 1572.' This
is a 16mo, of which there is a copy in the Bibliothèque Nationale. This
Simon was, I have no doubt, a son of Prigent Calvarin, printer at Paris
from 1524 to 1582, whose mark is very different (Silvestre, no. 137).[451]
It represents two persons holding a shield which hangs from a vine, with
these sentences surrounding them: 'Deum time,' 'Pauperes sustine,' 'Finem
respice,' 'Prigent Calvarin.' Simon, having set up for himself during his
father's lifetime, had to adopt a different mark.
* * * * *
CHAUDIÈRE (REGNAULT), bookseller at Paris from 1516 to 1546, in
the latter year succeeded to the printing business of Simon de Colines,
whose marks 'au Temps' he used thereafter. He had a new one engraved in
Tory's establishment, with the same figure, but with a slightly different
motto: it reads: 'Virtus sola aciem retundit istam.' This mark appears in
the edition of the comedies of Terence printed in 1546. See COLINES
(SIMON DE).
[Illustration]
* * * * *
COLINES (SIMON DE), printer-bookseller at Paris from 1520 to
1546. Four marks at least. See the two already described in the preceding
section, under 1520-1521, as forming a part of title-pages, and numbers
80 and 329 of M. Silvestre's 'Marques typographiques.' The last two
passed in 1546 into the hands of Regnault Chaudière, a bookseller since
1516. Chaudière had married Colines's daughter by the widow of Henri
Estienne, and by virtue of the connection inherited his father-in-law's
printing-office and bookshop. He himself printed, in 1546-1547, under the
Latin name Calderius, an edition of the comedies of Terence[452]; at the
end is M. Silvestre's no. 329, which (like no. 80) represents Time armed
with a scythe, and this devise in a scroll: 'Hanc aciem sola retundit
virtus.' Chaudière, who had previously used another mark (Silvestre, no.
96), employed thenceforth this one with the figure of Time, and handed it
down to his successors.[453] In 1548 he published an octavo catalogue of
his own books and those of Simon de Colines--'tum ab Simone Colinæi, tum
ab Calderio excusi.'[454] The following is, in my opinion, the order in
which Simon de Colines's various marks were engraved by Tory: In the first
place, in 1520, the one with the rabbits, or _conils_, which it has been
said that Colines adopted as a play upon his own name; but this conjecture
seems to me the more improbable because these same rabbits had been used
on the sign of Henri Estienne's shop as early as 1502.[455] However that
may be, Colines seems to have retained this mark during all the time
that he occupied Henri Estienne's house. When he turned over that abode,
in 1525, to Robert Estienne, who established himself in business on the
paternal premises, Colines went a little farther down rue de Beauvais, and
took for his sign the 'Soleil d'or,' which appears on the second mark;
finally, in 1528, he adopted the one with the figure of Time, which was
afterwards adopted by his son-in-law, Regnault Chaudière.
[Illustration: S. DE COLLINES]
[Illustration: GILLES CORROZET]
* * * * *
CORROZET (GILLES), bookseller at Paris from 1538 to 1568.--One
mark, representing, by way of allusion to the name of its owner, a rose
upon a heart ('cor'), and with 'Gilles Corrozet' at the foot (Silvestre,
no. 145). This mark, which I have seen on a book of 1539,[456] was
undoubtedly the first that Corrozet used. It descended to his heirs, and
his grandson Jean was still using it a century later, on the 'Trésor des
histoires de France,' the work of another Gilles Corrozet, which Jean
reprinted several times between 1622 and 1644. Jean simply removed from
the mark his grandfather's Christian name, regardless of the lack of
symmetry in the engraving caused by this subtraction. So that here was an
engraving that was in use more than a hundred years; it is an interesting
example of the durability of these woodcuts.
* * * * *
COTEREAU or COTTEREAU (RICHARD), bookseller at
Chartres;--(PHILIPPE), bookseller at Blois.
[Illustration]
* * * * *
DAVID (MATHIEU), printer-bookseller at Paris from 1554 to 1566.
Three marks (Silvestre, nos. 227, 394, and 759). They represent a warrior
bearing on his shoulders a woman plunging a sword in his throat. One of
the marks has the word 'odiosa' in the border on one side, and 'veritas'
on the other. Another is printed in an octavo volume of 1539 (Bibliothèque
Nationale), Ravisius Textor's 'Epistolæ a mendis repurgata.'
[Illustration: NOLI ALTVM SAPERE]
* * * * *
DUPUY (J.), printer at Paris in 1549. See FEZANDAT.
* * * * *
ESTIENNE (ROBERT), printer-bookseller at Paris, from 1526 to
1550. Six marks at least, representing the olive-tree in different
forms. Three of them are reproduced in M. Silvestre's work: nos. 162,
318,[457] and 319[458]; add to these the large folio mark that appears
on the Bible of 1528[459] and that of 1540, previously described; a
small mark which appears in the 16mo Virgil of 1549; and, lastly, a mark
similar to Silvestre's no. 163 (except that the figure is bald), which
appears in 'Caroli Stephani de Nutrimentis,' etc.[460] Probably most
of these marks were engraved for Robert Estienne at the outset of his
typographical career, that is to say, about 1526; he carried them with him
to Geneva in 1550; and his son, the second Henri, used them in his turn,
after his father's death, which occurred in 1559. It was undoubtedly the
widow of Tory who engraved the mark (in different sizes) which appears,
after 1544, on the Greek books printed with the royal types, and which
represents a basilisk entwined about a lance.
[Illustration]
* * * * *
ESTIENNE (CHARLES), printer and bookseller at Paris from 1551 to
1561. Three marks at least. Upon entering the typographical profession
Charles adopted his brother's olive-tree; that is to say, he simply had
copies made of Robert's marks, as he succeeded to his business. I have
seen the first of these marks, similar to Silvestre's no. 163, in an
octavo edition of P. Bunel's 'Epîtres familières,' printed by Charles in
1551; the second appears in a folio edition of Cicero, in four volumes,
published by the same printer from 1551 to 1555[461]; and the third, like
Silvestre's no. 162, in the 'Petit Dictionnaire français-latin' (quarto),
published by Charles in 1559. It is probable that the second Robert used
these same marks after his uncle's retirement in 1561.
* * * * *
FEZANDAT (MICHEL), printer-bookseller at Paris from 1541 to 1553.
One mark (Silvestre, no. 423). This mark which, by way of allusion to the
name of its owner, represents a pheasant (_faisan_) on a dolphin, with
the letters M and F at the left and right, respectively, of the pheasant,
was used without the initials in 1549, as may be seen on the title of 'Le
Temple du chasteté,' printed in that year by Fezandat, in octavo.[462]
In 1550, one Guillaume Alard (Fezandat's son-in-law, it may be), who
lived 'e regione collegii de la Mercy,' also used the mark in that
form.[463] The appearance of this mark on Alard's book may be due solely
to the fact that the book in question was printed by Fezandat. I have been
unable to ascertain the facts because the fragment of the title-page on
which I saw the mark and Alard's name does not contain the title of the
book. The only possible clue is the three Greek verses on the other side
of the page, which lead one to think that it may have been a work of Jean
Blaccus Danois, of whom we have a translation of Isocrates into Latin
verses, printed by Regnault Chaudière, also in 1550 (quarto).[464] This G.
Alard is not named by Lottin in his 'Catalogue des imprimeurs-libraires
de Paris.' I find the same mark in a small volume entitled 'Le Bouquet
des fleurs de Sénèque'; octavo; Caen, 'de l'imprimerie de Jacques le
Bas, imprimeur du roy,' 1590.[465] I find Fezandat's mark also in a book
published by the bookseller J. Dupuy in 1549: 'Novum Testamentum,' in
Greek and Latin; 16mo. Why? I have no idea.
[Illustration]
* * * * *
GIBIER (ELOI), printer at Orléans. One mark, representing a
printing-press. This printer, whose oldest known imprint is dated 1559,
had evidently practised his trade several years earlier. This is what
we find concerning him in the 'Bibliothèque historique des auteurs
orléanais,' by Dom Gerou, which is preserved in manuscript in the Public
Library of Orléans: 'We may say that Eloy Gibier was in a certain sense
the first printer of Orléans; Mathieu Vivian and Pierre Asselin had
preceded him, but we know of only a single work printed by each of them,
whereas there are a great number by Eloy Gibier. We do not know when he
began, but the earliest book printed by him of which we have any knowledge
is of 1559. At first he put no symbol on the title-pages of his works;
the place where the symbol should be was entirely unoccupied; later, he
sometimes inserted one, but not always. This symbol was a printing-press,
about which were the words: "In sudore vultus tui vesceris pane tuo."'
I have seen this mark on the 'Coutumes générales d'Orléans,' printed by
Gibier in 1570, octavo.[466] But he afterward adopted the mark of Conrad
Bade. See that name.
[Illustration]
* * * * *
GOURMONT (GILLES DE), printer-bookseller at Paris, from 1506 to
1530.--Three marks. The first, in the form of a border, is found on the
title-page of a volume containing nine comedies of Aristophanes, printed
by Pierre Vidoue, at Gilles de Gourmont's expense, in 1528 (quarto)[467]:
a description of it will be found above.[468] The second represents Fame:
it is a nude woman, winged, all over whose body are eyes, tongues, and
ears. At the foot, in a scroll, are the words: 'Ecqvis incvmbere famae'
('poterit' understood, no doubt). The Lorraine cross appears at the left
on the lower edge of the engraving. I have seen this mark on a small book
entitled: 'Alphabetum hebraicum,' consisting of 8 leaves, printed by
Pierre Vidoue (Silvestre, no. 98). Although the name of Gourmont nowhere
appears in this case, I have no doubt that the mark belongs to Gilles
de Gourmont, for it is accompanied by his initials, E and G (Egidius
Gourmontius), at the left and right respectively; and we shall see that
this same mark was afterward used by Jérôme de Gourmont, Gilles's son or
nephew. It maybe that it was because of the loan of Gourmont's Hebrew
type that his mark appears on this precious pamphlet, a description of
which follows. First leaf, beginning at the end (according to the Hebrew
and Arabic custom), Gourmont's mark in a border of detached compartments.
On the verso Pierre Vidoue's epistle to the reader, dated from his
workshop August 1, 1531. Then comes the text, followed by this subscript:
'Petrus Vidovæus Vernoliensis excudebat Lutetiæ' And, lastly, Vidoue's
mark--Fortune, with the words: 'Audentes juvo' (Silvestre, no. 65). The
third of Gilles de Gourmont's marks signed with the Lorraine cross is
given by M. Silvestre (no. 826). [This mark forms the lower part of the
border first described, and has evidently been cut from the border for use
separately.] It represents the Gourmont arms[469]: a shield coupé, three
roses in chief and a crescent in base; for crest a St. Michael, holding
a bare sword, supports two winged stags with ducal coronets about their
necks. This subject, much more fully developed, appears on the first page
of the 'Tableaux des Arts Libéraux de Savigny,' in-plano,[470] published
in 1587, by Jean and François, sons of Gilles de Gourmont, who succeeded
to his establishment on rue Saint-Jean-de-Latran.
* * * * *
GOURMONT (JÉRÔME DE), printer-bookseller at Paris from 1524 to
1533.--One mark representing Fame, copied from the second mark of Gilles
de Gourmont just described, but reversed. Beneath the inscription 'Ecqvis
incvmbere famae,' in a small cartouche, are the initials H. D. G. (Hierome
de Gourmont), with the Lorraine cross just above. I have seen this mark in
an octavo volume published at Paris in 1534 by Jérôme de Gourmont, under
this title: 'Pauli Paradisi ... de modo legendi hebraice dialogus,'[471]
and in another octavo, also published at Paris ('Dionysiæ') in 1535, under
a Greek title of which the Latin translation is: 'Apollonius Alexandrinus,
de Constructione.'[472] Jérôme de Gourmont published at least one other
book at 'Dionysiæ' in 1535; but I do not know the title, as I have not
seen the title-page. All that I can say is that Ausonius is quoted in the
Latin preface printed on the verso of the first leaf, of which I have seen
only a fragment, belonging to M. Silvestre.
I believe that Jérôme de Gourmont did some printing, although he is
named only as a bookseller in the bibliographies. The books that I have
mentioned show that he was a scholar who followed in the tracks of Gilles
de Gourmont. Indeed, the one first described, which is in Latin, contains
some Hebrew words; the second is entirely in Greek.
I have seen a little book, printed at Paris in 1539, with Jérôme de
Gourmont's mark: it is 'Pugna porcorum per J. Porcium,' octavo. The
subscript below the mark reads: 'Parisiis, apud Anthonium Bonnemere.' Was
Anthoine Bonnemere publisher for Jérôme de Gourmont, at the same sign?
That is something that I do not know.
* * * * *
GOURMONT (BENOÎT DE), bookseller at Paris.--One mark,
representing a man standing above two precipices; above him is a scroll
with the words: 'Vndiqve praecipitivm'; and at his feet the initials B. D.
G. (Silvestre, no. 838).
* * * * *
GRANDIN (LOUIS), printer-bookseller at Paris, from 1542 to
1553.--Two marks (Silvestre, nos. 277 and 416). They represent two men,
one of whom is receiving a sphere from the hand of God; the other holds
one which is crumbling in his fingers. On the second of the two marks are
the words: 'Confidere in Domino bonum esse quam confidere in homine. Ps.
117.'
[Illustration]
* * * * *
GUEULLARD (JEAN), printer-bookseller at Paris, from 1552 to
1553.--Two marks representing the Phœnix rising from the flames,[473] in
an oval border. The smaller one has, within the border, the words, 'Amor
vitæ acer nimis,' with Gueullard's initials, I. G., below (Silvestre, no.
790). This mark is .055 of a millimetre high by .044 wide. I have seen it
in a book entitled: 'Petri Ruffi Druydæ dialectica, nuper ab eodem autore
emendatur,' quarto, 1553 (3d edition).[474] The larger one has this motto
within the border: 'Mori vivere mihi est'; it is .087 of a millimetre high
by .063 wide (Silvestre, no. 882). I have seen it in a book entitled,
'Hexastichorum moralium libri duo, per Nic. Querculum Tortronensem Rhemum;
quarto, Paris, 1552.'[475] See HARSY (OLIVIER DE).
* * * * *
GUILLARD (CHARLOTTE), printer-bookseller from 1518 to 1556.--One
mark representing her sign, a golden sun in a starry sky. Below, two lions
erect, holding a shield on which are the initials C. G. This lady carried
on the printing trade for more than fifty years. She married first, in
1502, Berthold Rembold, a partner of the first printer in Paris, Ulric
Gering. Berthold, who had established his domicile on rue Saint-Jacques,
'au Soleil d'Or,' having left Charlotte a widow in 1518, she carried on
the business alone until 1520, when she married Claude Chevallon, who took
up his abode on the same premises. Chevallon having departed this life, in
his turn, in 1542, Charlotte continued in the business until 1556. It was
during her second widowhood that the mark in question, which we reproduce
herewith, was engraved. I have seen it on a quarto volume entitled,
'Institutionum civilium libri quatuor, 1550. Parisiis, apud Carolam
Guillard, viduam Claudi Chevallonii, sub Soli aureo, et Guilelmum Desbois,
sub Cruce Alba, in via divi Jacobi.' Claude Chevallon had upon his mark,
by way of allusion to his name, two horses standing (cheval-long). But M.
Silvestre publishes as his (no. 395) a mark which has the lions.
[Illustration]
* * * * *
HARSY (OLIVIER DE), bookseller at Paris, from 1556 to 1584,
used Gueullard's mark on several works written by Nicolas Ellain;
among others, 'Elegia libri duo ad Joach. Bellaium, quo adhuc vivo eos
scripsit.--Parisiis, e typogr. Olivarii de Harsy, ad Cornu cervi, in
clauso Brunello'; quarto, 1560.[476] I have no idea why de Harsy adopted
Gueullard's mark.
* * * * *
HOTOT (FABIAN), printer at Orléans. See BADE (CONRAD).
* * * * *
HOUIC (ANTOINE), bookseller at Paris. See REGNAULT
(BARBE).
* * * * *
KERVER (THIELMAN II), printer and bookseller at Paris, from
1530 to 1550.--One mark, representing the arms of the Kervers; a 'gril'
(_cratis_) held by two unicorns, with the letters T. K. Below is the
printer's name in full: 'Thieman [_sic_] Kerver.' This mark appears on a
book of Hours of 1550.
* * * * *
LE BAS. See FEZANDAT.
* * * * *
LE COQ (JEAN) printer at Troyes, from 1506 to 1525.--One mark,
representing Le Coq's arms (a cock), hanging from a tree; below is the
name, 'Jean Le Coq' (Silvestre, no. 875). This mark appears in a 'Graduel'
of 1521, previously described.[477] We find it again in a book of Hours
according to the use of Toul, published in 1541, which contains many
other engravings signed with the double cross.[478] Also in a small book
published in our own day by Aubry the bookseller[479]; that is to say,
this particular woodcut is still in existence and belongs to M. Aubry.
* * * * *
LE NOIR (PHILIPPE), printer-bookseller at Paris, from 1520 to
1539. Three marks,[480] representing two negroes (noirs) holding a shield
with Philippe le Noir's initials.
* * * * *
MALLARD (OLIVIER), printer-bookseller at Paris, from 1536 to 1542.
* * * * *
MALLARD (JEAN), bookseller at Rouen.
* * * * *
MARNEF, DE: Enguilbert, Jean and Geoffroy, brothers, were
printers and booksellers at Paris and Poitiers, together or separately,
from 1510 to 1550. Their mark was a pelican, piercing his side in order
to nourish his young. Tory engraved for them at least two marks: one
which appears on a book printed by Enguilbert and Jean, in Poitiers, in
1536,[481] entitled 'Les angoisses et remedes d'amour du Traverseur en son
adolescence' (by Jean Bouchet), with this device: 'Eximii amoris typus';
it is reproduced by Dibdin,[482] and by Silvestre (no. 152).[483] The
other may be seen in the Print Section of the Bibliothèque Nationale,
among Tory's work; the pelican and its young are in an oval border, around
which is this device: 'Principium ex fide, finis in charitate' (Silvestre,
no. 1044). [See also the reproduction at the beginning of this section,
page 265.]
* * * * *
MENIER (MAURICE), printer at Paris, from 1545 to 1566.--One mark
(Silvestre, no. 789), representing a man closing a woman's mouth, with
this device, 'Coercenda volvptas.'
* * * * *
MERLIN (GUILLAUME), bookseller at Paris, from 1538 to 1570.--One
mark, representing a swan whose neck is twined about a cross, surrounded
by the device, 'In hoc signo vinces.' The Lorraine cross is barely visible
in the lowest ornament of the engraving. I have seen this mark on the
first page of a 'Missale ecclesie Parisiensis,' in folio, without date,
printed by Iolande Bonhomme, widow of the first Thielman Kerver, as is
shown by the presence of that printer's mark on the first page of the
text; it may be that there are copies in her name. This book is without
date, but should be placed between the years 1532 and 1552, which embrace
the incumbency of Jean du Bellay as Archbishop of Paris. Merlin's mark is
.095 of a millimetre high by .067 wide.[484]
* * * * *
MOREL (GUILLAUME), printer-bookseller at Paris, from 1548 to
1564.--One mark, reproduced by M. Silvestre (no. 164), who informs me
that his engraver accidentally omitted the Lorraine cross. 'This mark,'
he adds, 'was used later by Estienne Prevosteau, Morel's son-in-law, who
subsequently reëngraved it, or had it reëngraved, with his initials, E. P.
in place of Tory's mark.'[485] It represents a capital theta (Θ), about
which are twined two winged serpents, and in the centre an angel, seated
on the cross-piece of the Θ, with a lighted torch in her hand.
* * * * *
NIVELLE (SEBASTIEN), printer and bookseller, at Paris, from 1550
to 1601. One mark, representing two storks in the air, one being carried
and fed by the other; with this verse from Exodus (XX, 12), to
explain the drawing: 'Honora patrem tuum et matrem tuam, et sis longævus
super terram.' I have seen this mark on an octavo edition of St. John
Chrysostom ('Homeliæ duæ'), printed by Sebastien Nivelle in 1554. It is
reproduced by M. Silvestre (no. 201), but the Lorraine cross is barely
visible on this impression. I have seen also another mark of Nivelle's
representing the same subject, with analogous designs suggesting filial
love in the four corners; but it is not signed with the cross although it
is absolutely in Tory's manner.
[Illustration]
* * * * *
NYVERD (GUILLAUME), printer and bookseller at Paris, from
1516.--One mark, or, to speak more precisely, a small border in the style
of one of the marks of Simon de Colines. At the foot, in a scroll, are the
words, 'Nasci, laborare, mori.' This border appears in a small pamphlet,
undated, in pure gothic type, entitled, 'La Reformation des tavernes et
destruction de gourmandise, en forme de dialogue'; a small octavo of 4
leaves, of which M. Cigogne possesses the only known copy (1856). At the
end are the words, 'Paris, by Guillaume Nyverd, printer.' So that Lottin
is mistaken in saying that he was a bookseller only. He gives only one
date for his career in the trade--1516--but our engraving is certainly
later than 1520. M. Silvestre extends Nyverd's business career to 1559, on
what grounds I do not know; but he also calls him a bookseller only. The
text of the 'Reformation des tavernes,' etc., was reprinted on page 223
of the second volume of the 'Recueil des poésies françoises des XV et XVI
siècles,' collected and annotated by M. Anatole de Montaiglon.[486]
* * * * *
NYVERD (GUILLAUME DE), probably the son of the preceding,
printer-bookseller at Paris, from 1550 to 1580.--One mark, representing
the arms of France borne by two winged genii. Above them a head with
wings; from its mouth come two garlands in the style of those on the last
plate of 'Champ fleury.' At the left, at the foot of the cut, the letters
G. N., and at the right the Lorraine cross. This engraving, which is 8
centimetres wide by 11 high, was undoubtedly executed when Guillaume
de Nyverd was appointed king's printer, which title he held in 1561,
according to Lottin. In all probability he held it earlier than that.
However that may be, I have seen this mark, already much worn, in an
impression of 1572: 'Prognostication touchant le mariage du tres honoré et
tres aimé Henry, par la grace de Dieu roy de Navarre, et de tres illustre
princesse Marguerite de France, calculée par maistre Bernard Abbatia,
docteur medecin et astrologue du tres chrestien roy de France' [Charles
IX]. There are in the Bibliothèque Nationale at least three editions of
the little pamphlet, made by the same printer at about the same time,
that is to say immediately after the marriage of the King of Navarre with
Marguerite de Valois. All three have this engraving on the last page, but
in every case it is accompanied by an addition of much later date, namely,
the device of Charles IX (two pillars joined by a scroll containing the
words, 'Pietate et Jvsticia'), above the arms of France. The volume
contains also numerous other engravings and letters bearing Guillaume de
Nyverd's initials. It is worth while to call attention to the fact that de
Nyverd does not assume the title of king's printer in this book, although,
as we have seen above, his appointment was of much earlier date.
* * * * *
PALLIER (JEAN), called 'Marchand,' printer and bookseller at
Metz, from 1539 to 1548.--One mark (Silvestre, no. 156), representing a
fleur-de-lis held in the air by two naked children, with the letters I. P.
in the field.[487] Jean Pallier, or, better, Palyer (in Latin, Palierus),
did business also in Paris, for I have seen several books of his dated
from that city in 1541 or 1542, with the mark described above. I will
mention, among others: (1) 'Epitomæ singularum distinctionum libri primi
sententiarum, cum versibus memorialibus Arnoldi Vesaliensis,' etc., 16mo,
Paris, 1541; and (2) 'Topica Marci Tullii Ciceronis,' etc., 'ex officina
Joannis Palierii, e regione Navarræ, sub signo Leonis Coronati,' 4to,
1542.
* * * * *
PARIS (NICOLE), printer at Troyes, from 1542 to 1547.--One mark
(Silvestre, no. 175), representing a child clinging to the branches of a
palm-tree (?), beneath the device, 'Et Colligam.'
[Illustration]
* * * * *
PERIER (CHARLES), bookseller at Paris, from 1550 to 1557.--One
mark, found on the title of the folio entitled, 'Les quatre livres
d'Albert Durer ... de la proportion des parties et pourtraicts des corps
humains, traduits par Louys Meigret,' etc., 'chez Charles Perier ... à
l'enseigne du Bellerophon, 1557.'[488] This bookseller issued two editions
of Dürer's book in the same year, one in Latin and the other in French,
both illustrated with the same cuts. I am unable to say which appeared
first. He had already published, in 1555, for Louis Meigret, a translation
of 'Les XII livres de Robert Valturin, touchans la discipline militaire,'
in folio, with engravings, in which his mark appears, signed with the
double cross. The sign of Bellerophon was retained by Charles Perier's son
Thomas.
* * * * *
PETIT (OUDIN), bookseller at Paris from 1541.--One mark
(Silvestre, no. 103), representing a shield bearing a fleur-de-lis, and
held by two lions; in the field the letters O. P.
* * * * *
PORTE (MAURICE DE LA), bookseller at Paris from 1524 to
1548.--One mark used by his widow in the volume entitled, 'M. A. Mureti
Juvenilia'; octavo, 1553.[489] Maurice de la Porte's widow sold his plant
to Gabriel Buon, who used the marks of the deceased from 1558 to 1587.
They represent a man carrying a valise at the door (_à la porte_) of a
house; one of them has the device, 'Omnia mea mecum _porto_.' The man
is Bias,[490] according to La Caille. About the same time there was a
printer at Lyon named Hugues de la Porte, whose mark represented Samson
carrying away the gates (_portes_) of Gaza in his arms, with the device,
'Libertatem meam mecum _porto_.' (He also published a folio Latin Bible in
1542.)[491]
* * * * *
PREVOSTEAU (ESTIENNE). See MOREL (GUILLAUME).
* * * * *
REGNAULT (BARBE), bookseller at Paris from 1556 to about
1560.--One mark, representing an elephant carrying a tower on his back,
with the device, 'Sicut elephas sto'; height 7½ centimetres, width 5½
centimetres. Barbe was undoubtedly the daughter of François Regnault,
who died in 1552, and who had a similar mark.[492] François Regnault's
mark was retained by his widow, Madeleine Boursette, who added to it
her initials, M. B., and did business in her own name until 1555. Barbe
Regnault's mark first appears, so far as my knowledge goes, in a small
octavo, printed about 1556, entitled, 'Description de la prinse de Calais
et de Guynes, composée par forme de style de proces par M. G. de M.' (Here
the mark.) 'A Paris, chez Barbe Regnault, rue Sainct-Jacques, à l'enseigne
de l'Elephant.'[493] La Caille informs us of other works published
about the same time by Barbe Regnault: 'Monstre d'abus contre Michel
Nostradamus,' 1558; J. Seve, 'Supplication aux rois,' ... 'de faire la
paix entre eux,' 1559. In 1560 she published a book by Estienne Brulefer,
in octavo, entitled, 'Identitatum et distinctionum ... traditarum
compendiosa contractio'; then comes the mark, and below it an imprint
in which Barbe styles herself the widow of André Barthelin.[494] I am
unable to say whether this is the same man whom La Caille and Lottin call
André Berthelin, and who published in 1544 a work entitled, 'Francisci
Georgii Venali ... de Harmonia mundi totius cantica tria'; folio, Paris,
'apud Andream Berthelin, via ad divum Jacobum, in domo Guilelmi Rolandi,
sub insigne Aureæ Coronæ, et in vico Longobardorum in domo ejusdem
Rolandi.'[495] If he is the same man, we must assume that he was not yet
married to Barbe Regnault, for we see that, while he lived, as she did,
on rue Saint-Jacques, he had a different sign. Indeed, I am inclined to
think that Barbe did not adopt the 'Elephant' until after the death of
Madeleine Boursette, François Regnault's widow, about 1556. However that
may be, La Caille says that Barbe Regnault's mark passed into the hands
of Thibault Bessault, then to his son Jean, and finally to Antoine Houic.
I have seen a book published by the last-named in 1582, embellished with
Barbe Regnault's 'Elephant.'
* * * * *
ROBINOT (GILLES I), bookseller at Paris, from 1554 to 1575.--One
mark (Silvestre, no. 686), representing Icarus hurled into the sea for not
following the advice of Dædalus, his father, not to approach too near the
sun lest that luminary should melt the wax with which the wings of our
presumptuous youth were fastened to his body. In a scroll are these words,
'Ne quid nimis.' This mark was used as late as 1619 by Gilles Robinot the
second, son of the first Gilles[496]; it is .05 of a millimetre high by
.047 wide. See SERTENAS.
[Illustration]
* * * * *
ROFFET (PIERRE), called 'Le Faulchoir,' bookseller at Paris,
from 1525 to 1537.--One mark (Silvestre, no. 150) representing a mower
(_faucheur_) appears in a book printed in 1536.[497]
* * * * *
ROIGNY (JEAN DE), bookseller at Paris, from 1529 to 1562.--I
know two marks of de Roigny, signed with the Lorraine cross. The older is
the one that appears in a superb edition of Pliny's 'Letters,' printed
by Josse Bade in 1533, in folio (Silvestre, no. 674).[498] It represents
a man and a woman, each holding a scroll containing a Latin motto; the
man's reads thus: 'Nec me labor iste gravabit'; and the woman's, 'Spes
premii solatium est laboris.' In the sky is Fortune with her wheel
and the horn of plenty, and this device in a scroll beneath: 'Quod
differtur non aufertur.' The second mark, which was adopted by Jean de
Roigny after the death of his father-in-law, Josse Bade, in 1535, is the
'Prelum ascensianum,' but reëngraved (Silvestre, no. 787); for Bade's
typographical plant passed into the hands of another son-in-law of his,
Michel de Vascosan, who continued to use his father-in-law's old woodcuts,
especially his mark, badly worn as it was. As for Robert Estienne, Bade's
third son-in-law, his father-in-law's death caused no change in his
typographical arrangements; he still retained the 'Olive-tree' which he
has made so celebrated.
[Illustration]
* * * * *
SERTENAS (VINCENT), bookseller at Paris, from 1534 to 1561.--One
mark, which was used on two opuscula, in octavo, of 1561; they are usually
bound in the same volume, and are entitled: (1) 'Régime de vivre et
conservation des corps humains,' etc.; (2) 'Recueil de plusieurs secrets
très-utiles pour la santé,' etc. This mark represents the initials V. S.
interlaced, in a medallion above which is the sun, with a genie on each
side; and below, the device, 'Vincenti non victo.' We also find Robinot's
mark, described above, in certain books published by Sertenas. I will
mention among others the 'Recueil des rimes et proses, by E. P.; octavo,
1555.[499] Presumably, it was because Robinot was the printer that he
placed his mark on the books.
* * * * *
VIVIAN (THIELMAN), bookseller at Paris in 1539.--One mark
(Silvestre, no. 725), which appears in the second part of the 'Grand
Marial de la mère de vie,'[500] translated by Adam de Saint-Victor. This
second part is entitled, 'A la très-pure et immaculée Conception de la
Vierge'; quarto, 1539. Vivian lived in Clos Bruneau; his mark bore this
device, 'Post tenebras spero lucem' in a scroll, above a fountain guarded
by two unicorns; below are the letters T. V., and still lower, 'Thielman
Vivian.'
[Illustration: THIELMAN VIVIAN]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 448: _Champ fleury_, folio 43 verso.]
[Footnote 449: Eloi Gibier used previously a similar mark, which bore
the following device: 'In sudore vultus tui vesceris pane tuo.' (See
Silvestre, no. 544.) He used it particularly at the end of the _Coutumes
générales d'Orléans_, 1570.]
[Footnote 450: Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 451: Brunet, _Manuel de Libraire_, vol. ii, col. 1629.]
[Footnote 452: This very rare and valuable edition contains a dissertation
on Latin accents. Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 453: See Silvestre, nos. 286 and 287.]
[Footnote 454: See Mattaire, _Annales typographiques_, vol. iii, part 1 A,
p. 147.]
[Footnote 455: See the subscription of the first book published by him
in conjunction with Wolfgang Hopyl, under the title, _Artificialis
introductio Jacobi Fabri Stapulensis_, etc.; folio, 1502. This book is in
the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève.]
[Footnote 456: According to Lottin, it was first used in 1555. See his
_Catalogue_, vol. ii, p. 30.]
[Footnote 457: I have reproduced this mark on the title-page of my _Les
Estienne et les types grecs de François I_; octavo, 1856.]
[Footnote 458: [Silvestre also gives three other variants, nos. 508, 542,
and 958, signed with the cross. No. 508 is reproduced above.]]
[Footnote 459: [1538? M. Bernard mentions no Bible of 1528.]]
[Footnote 460: Octavo; Paris, Robert Estienne, 1550. Bibliothèque
Nationale.]
[Footnote 461: This book is described on p. 244, supra.]
[Footnote 462: Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 463: See the collection of Tory's work in the Print Section of
the Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 464: _Sermonum liber unus ex Isocratis notione de regno, carmine
heroico._ Bibliothèque Mazarine.]
[Footnote 465: Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 466: Bibliothèque de l'Institut.]
[Footnote 467: Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 468: On p. 197. [Reproduced on p. 198.]]
[Footnote 469: The placing of these arms on the typographical mark of
Gilles de Gourmont proves, in contradiction of the common opinion, that
the printer's trade was not degrading. (But see what I have said on this
subject in my book on the _Origin of Printing_, vol. i, p. 210, and vol.
ii, p. 89.) The Gourmonts of Paris were in fact descended from a noble
family of the Cotentin, which may still be in existence, and which bore
the same arms in the seventeenth century. Gilles de Gourmont had taken
up his abode in Paris in the last years of the fifteenth century, as had
several of his brothers, who practised the same trade. The oldest, Robert,
appears in that city as early as 1498; Jean, who was younger than Gilles,
not until 1507. We hear also of a Jérôme and a Benoît as booksellers in
Paris in the middle of the sixteenth century. I do not know what their
relationship to the earlier men was. Perhaps they were sons of Robert.
(Benoît, who married Catherine Goulard, had a son baptized by the name of
Gilles at the church of Sainte-Croix-en-la-Cité, on October 9, 1546.) We
also find a Jean Théobald de Gourmont at Antwerp in 1527. As for Gilles,
he was engaged in bookselling and printing from 1506 to about 1533, and
left two sons, Jean and François, who retained his establishment on rue
Saint-Jean-de-Latran, and printed there, in 1587, the _Tableaux des Arts
Libéraux de Christophe de Savigny_. This is an in-plano, at the beginning
of which is a superb engraving representing the arms of the family [as
described in the text]. This remarkable work, which bears the monogram
of the two brothers, was probably executed by Jean, the elder, who was a
painter and engraver. The Musée du Louvre has a picture supposed to be by
him (_Notice des tableaux du Louvre_, part 3, p. 156); he is the author
of a fine portrait of the Cardinal de Bourbon, mentioned by Mariette and
now in the Cabinet des Estampes; he is mentioned also by Abbé de Marolles
and by Papillon for certain pictures of equestrian groups and bits of
decoration. His mark (formed of the letters I D G entwined) and the name
accompanying it are found on several pieces cited by Brulliot, on the
plates of a Bible of 1560, and on certain pieces of Tortorel and Perissim
(Renouvier, _Maîtres Graveurs du Seizième Siècle_, p. 195 ). It will be
seen that Gilles had worthy successors; unfortunately the race of the
Gourmonts of Paris died out with them.]
[Footnote 470: [That is, consisting of unfolded sheets, so that each sheet
forms only one leaf, or two pages.]]
[Footnote 471: Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 472: Bibliothèque Mazarine.]
[Footnote 473: Gueullard lived at the sign of the Phœnix, _e regione
collegii Remensis_.]
[Footnote 474: Bibliothèque Mazarine.]
[Footnote 475: Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 476: Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 477: [See p. 177, supra.]]
[Footnote 478: [See p. 221, supra.]]
[Footnote 479: _Bibliothèque de l'Amateur champenois_, 2d part:
'Construction d'une Notre-Dame.']
[Footnote 480: See Dibdin, _The Bibliographical Decameron_, vol. ii, p.
43; Silvestre, no. 61. The one in Silvestre is a reduced copy of that
at the end of _Des Coustumes et statuz particuliers de la pluspart des
baillages_, etc. (4to, 1527), which is of much larger format, and is also
signed with the Lorraine cross. [This magnificent mark is reproduced in
its full size on p. 264, supra.]]
[Footnote 481: Quarto; finished Jan. 8, 1536 (1537 n. s.).]
[Footnote 482: _Bibliographical Decameron_, vol. ii, p. 32.]
[Footnote 483: Nos. 153 and 174 seem to be by the same artist, but they
are not signed.]
[Footnote 484: Silvestre, no. 801. See a further description of this book,
supra, p. 215, note.]
[Footnote 485: Indeed I have seen this mark, with the Lorraine cross,
on a Greek alphabet of 1560, printed by G. Morel (Bibl. Nat.), and on
several other works printed by Prevosteau, his son-in-law; I will mention
particularly _Adriani Behotii diluvium_, octavo, 1591 (Bibl. Nat.), where
the mark is cracked, which explains why it was reëngraved with the letters
E. P.]
[Footnote 486: Sixteenmo; Paris, Janet, 1855.]
[Footnote 487: See _Le Second Enfer d'Estienne Dolet_; quarto, 1544;
Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 488: Bibliothèque du Jardin des Plantes et Sainte-Geneviève.]
[Footnote 489: Bibliothèque Mazarine.]
[Footnote 490: One of the 'Seven Sages' of Greece.]
[Footnote 491: Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 492: See Silvestre, nos. 42 and 43.]
[Footnote 493: Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 494: Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 495: Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 496: See _Epistres morales d'Honoré d' Urfé_; 8vo, 1619.]
[Footnote 497: [Reproduced on p. 137.]]
[Footnote 498: [Reproduced on p. 286.]]
[Footnote 499: Copies of both books are in the Bibliothèque Nationale.]
[Footnote 500: This book is in the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal. The first
part is in gothic type, without typographical signs; the second, in roman.]
APPENDICES.
I
NOTE CONCERNING GEOFROY TORY'S FAMILY.
1. _Of his Forbears and Collateral Relations._
[Illustration]
Genealogical investigation, supplemented with information furnished by two
learned Berrichons, enabled me to enumerate, in my first work on Tory,
a considerable number of members of his family, all, or almost all, of
whom lived in Faubourg Saint-Privé [Bourges]. The recent researches of my
friend M. Hippolyte Boyer, Deputy Archivist of the Department of the Cher,
make it possible for me to make known his grandfather, his father, and all
his brothers and sisters.
'By deed of December 29, 1486, Robert Thory, husbandman, living in the
parish of Saint-Germain-du-Puy, conveys to Jean Thory, his brother, for 20
livres tournois, his share in the heritage of the late Jean and Jeanne,
their father and mother.'
'By contracts of September 5 and 8, 1507, Jean Thory, of Saint-Privé,[501]
and Philippe _Thoreye_, his wife, give their two daughters, Jehanne Thorye
and Perron Thorye, in marriage to Thevenin and François Leconte, sons of
Jean Leconte.' Among the provisions of Perron's contract is one to the
effect that Jean Thory and his wife settle a dowry of 40 livres tournois
on their daughter: 'and this in satisfaction of all claim upon father and
mother, be it in respect of furniture or of inheritance, which said claim
the said future bride, with the authority of her said future husband,
hath renounced and doth by these presents renounce, in favour of her
father and mother, of _maistre Geoffroye_, André, Antoine and Michell
Thoris, children of said Jean and Philippe, save for the power to,'
etc.[502]
Thus it appears that Geofroy was the oldest of the brothers and sisters,
as he is named first in the document. Now, as two of his sisters were of
marriageable age in 1507, and as he is called _maistre_, it is probable
that he himself was more than twenty-five. That is why I have placed his
birth about 1480.
2. _Of his Descendants._
Jean Toubeau, printer and bookseller at Bourges, who died at Paris in
1685, while on a mission for his native place,[503] wrote the following
in the preface to his 'Institutes consulaires,' printed by himself in
1682, three years before his death: 'I have not been impelled to undertake
and write this work by the examples of the illustrious members of my
profession. Nor is it the example of those of my own family who have given
their works to the public: Geofroy Tory, professor in the University
of Paris, and a printer and bookseller in the same city, who was so
prolific that, proposing to put forth a book which should teach the scope
and proportions of those beautiful roman letters which we use to-day
in printing, he could not forbear to produce a book overflowing with
learning, which was followed by numerous others of instruction, which are
so well known that it is needless to give a list of them here, especially
as M. de la Thaumassière gives them a whole chapter in our history.'
It is evident from this passage that Toubeau was related to Tory, but it
is not clear how the relationship came about; and La Thaumassière does
not mention Tory in his 'Histoire du Berry,' printed a few years later
by François Toubeau, Jean's son, despite the promises which he seems to
have made to Jean, who had transferred to him the duty of making known to
posterity that illustrious son of his province.
The only author able to assist us at all in our investigations is Moréri,
who, in the article on Jean Toubeau in his great historical dictionary,
says that he was the great-great-grandson of Tory, on his mother's side.
This statement should be exact, and the article appears to be written from
information furnished by the Toubeau family; but all that we can determine
from it is that Toubeau was a descendant of Tory in the fourth degree.
Whether he descended from a son or daughter of Geofroy, I have been
unable to discover. To elucidate this fact, I wrote to M. Auguste Toubeau,
judge of the civil court at Bourges, and this was his reply, dated March
5, 1856: 'I should have been glad to give you the information you desire
about Tory. But I have no documents or family papers which establish his
relationship to Jean and Hilaire Toubeau. I do not know what connection
there was between them and Tory, and I learned that there was such a
connection only from what Moréri says of it.'
Failing family papers, I made fruitless efforts to fix the relationship
between the Toubeaus and Tory. Finding it impossible to reach any certain
result, I have abandoned this search, which has no bearing upon the
history of our illustrious typographer. The Toubeaus alone are interested
in the solution of the question; I leave to them the task of proving their
kinship.
POSTSCRIPT.--It may be surmised that Bonaventure _Torinus_,
bookseller of Bourges, who caused to be printed at that city, in 1595, by
the widow of Nicolas Levez, the 'Epitome juris civilis,' by an unknown
author, and 'Julii Pauli receptarum sententiarum libri V,'[504] was Tory's
son, for he wrote his name in Latin in the same way that Tory wrote it;
but was it from a daughter of Tory or from a daughter of this Bonaventure
that Toubeau descended? It is impossible for me to say. The lateness of
the period at which Bonaventure makes his appearance leads me to believe
that he did not see the light until Tory had reached an advanced age.
Indeed, if we compare the dates, we shall find that this son of Tory
cannot have come into the world before 1530, for, starting from that year,
he would have been sixty-five years old in 1595, when his 'Epitome juris'
was printed, and there is no reason to believe that he died very soon
thereafter. For my own part, I believe that he was not born until after
the publication of 'Champ fleury,' and that his Christian name was an
allusion to his late birth.[505] In that case, we can understand why he
did not succeed to the paternal establishment: he was only two or three
years old at Geofroy's death--too young to think of taking his place; so
that that duty fell to Geofroy's pupils, whoever they may have been. As
for Bonaventure, the family traditions naturally led him back to Bourges,
and the trade that he adopted brought him still nearer to his father.
II
VERSES IN HONOUR OF GEOFROY TORY, PRINTED AT THE HEAD OF PALSGRAVE'S
GRAMMAR.[506]
'Ejusdem [Leonardi] Coxi ad eruditum virum Gefridum TROY[507] de
Burges[508] Gallum, Campi floridi authorem, quem ille sua lingua Champ
fleury vocat, nomine omnium Anglorum, phaleutium.
'Campo quod toties, Gefride docte,
'In florente tuo cupisti habemus.
'Nam sub legibus hic bene approbatis
'Sermo gallicus ecce perdocetur.
'Non rem grammaticam Palæmon ante
'Tractarat melius suis latinis,
'Quotquot floruerant ve posterorum,
'Nec Græcis melius putato Gazam
'Instruxisse suos libris politis,
'Seu quotquot prætio prius fuere,
'Quam nunc gallica iste noster tradit.
'Est doctus, facilis, brevisque quantum
'Res permittit, et inde nos ovamus,
'Campo quod toties, Gefride docte,
'In florente tuo cupisti, habentes.'
_Remarks on the foregoing lines._
The numerous errors of all sorts which disfigure Palsgrave's book (a very
interesting book, none the less)--errors of which the foregoing lines
afford several specimens--should have humbled to some extent the national
vanity of the author, who cries out incessantly, throughout his bulky
volume, against the ignorance of French printers. He should, in any event,
have remembered that English typography was the very humble daughter of
French typography, which latter not only trained the first English artist
(Caxton), but also gave him his two most illustrious successors,--Wynkyn
de Worde and Pinson,--the last named of whom did in fact print a part of
Palsgrave's book.
A modern Englishman, David Baker, has gone even farther than Palsgrave; he
says, speaking of Palsgrave's work: 'the French nation, so proud to-day of
the universality of its language, seems to owe it to England.' To which M.
Génin retorts: 'Baker reasons backward. The French language did not come
into universal use because it pleased Palsgrave to write a grammar; on
the contrary, Palsgrave composed his grammar because the French language
was already universal. This universality was a fact, admitted before
Palsgrave's birth,[509] and others before him had tried to draw up rules
to facilitate the study of French by foreigners. Palsgrave names three to
whom he acknowledges that his work is greatly indebted.
'Leonard Coxe exults more modestly and with more propriety than David
Baker, for he seems to attribute to Geofroy Tory the honour of having
called forth Palsgrave's grammar. To be sure, a comparison of dates seems
to leave little likelihood to that conjecture, for the Frenchman's work
and the Englishman's are only about a year apart; but I must notice here
one curious fact which has not been noticed by the bibliographers. On the
title-page of the English book we find the date 1530, and on the last
leaf, "Printing completed July 18, 1530." But the king's licence to print,
at the beginning of the volume, is dated, "At our Castle of Ampthill,
the second of September, in the year of our reign the XXII."
Now, as Henry VIII succeeded to the throne in 1509, after Easter, the
twenty-second year of his reign was the year 1531,[510] and "Champ fleury"
appeared early in 1529. So that this gives us an interval of three
years.[511] In this view Leonard Coxe's words have genuine force, and the
point of concurrence which Palsgrave congratulates himself upon finding
in "Champ fleury" and "Lesclaircissement" may not be so fortuitous as he
chooses to state.'
However, as M. Génin goes on to say, 'this honour, claimed by the English,
of having been the first to write upon the French language, is, all things
considered, simply an act of homage to France; for if our neighbours had
awaited from a foreign nation the first book on the English language,
perhaps they would be awaiting it still.'
III
TORY ADMITTED AS THE TWENTY-FIFTH BOOKSELLER TO THE UNIVERSITY.
In the 'Acta Facultatis medicinæ Parisiensis,'[512] at the end, we read as
follows:--
'Die Martis 18 febr. 1532 [1533, n. s.]....
'Die sabbati sequenti, vocata est Universitas in ecclesia Mathurinorum,
super tribus articulis: clausione rotuli, resignatione cure Sanctorum
Cosme et Damiani, et receptione vigesimi quinti librarii Universitatis.
Clausus est rotulus solito more; admissa est resignatio permutationis
causa et sine prejudicio turni, et admissus est vigesimus quintus
librarius Gauffridus Torier [_sic_], dono regio. Ubi supplicavit magister
Jacobus Japhet pro pastillaria.'
(_Translation._)
'On the following Saturday [February 22, 1533], the University was
called together at the Church of the Mathurins. There were three
articles in the order of the day: Closing of the register [of
benefices]; resignation of the curé of Saint-Come and Saint-Damien;
reception of a twenty-fifth bookseller to the University. The
register was closed according to the usual form. The resignation
was accepted, by way of exchange, without prejudice to the next
in turn. Geofroy Tory was admitted as twenty-fifth bookseller, by
presentation of the king. At this same session Maître Jacques Japhet
prayed for leave to present his "pastillary" thesis.'
* * * * *
The only item that interests us in this extract from the proceedings of
the Faculty of Medicine is the passage relating to Tory. We see that in
1533 he was made the twenty-fifth bookseller to the University, by command
of King François I. Up to that time there had been only twenty-four (see
M. Didot's 'Essai,' col. 744), and they undoubtedly went back to that
consecrated number after the death of Tory, in whose behalf an exception
had been made.
IV
NOTE CONCERNING TORY'S VARIOUS DOMICILES IN PARIS.
The dedicatory epistle of Tory's edition of Pomponius Mela is dated Paris,
December, 1507; but it mentions no place of abode.
The edition of the 'Cosmography' of Pope Pius II is dated at the Collège
du Plessis, October 2, 1509. Tory was at the Collège du Plessis as late as
May 10, 1510.[513]
On August 18, 1512, we find him installed at the Collège Coqueret; and a
little later at the Collège de Bourgogne.[514]
About 1518, having joined the fraternity of booksellers, he went to live
on rue Saint-Jacques, opposite the Écu de Bâle, which was then used as a
sign by the famous printer Chrétien Wechel. The latter's establishment was
on the right going up rue Saint-Jacques, near the church of Saint-Benoît.
About 1526 Tory established himself on the Petit-Pont, near Hôtel-Dieu,
but did not give up his shop on rue Saint-Jacques, at the sign of the Pot
Cassé.
Early in 1531, he changed his abode to rue de la Juiverie, the Halle aux
Blés de Beauce, where he set up his printing-press and his bookstall. He
retained his shop on rue Saint-Jacques for some time.[515] It was in his
house on rue de la Juiverie that he died, in 1533.
V
OF THE FIRST USE BY PRINTERS, AND IN THE FRENCH LANGUAGE, OF THE
APOSTROPHE, THE ACCENT, AND THE CEDILLA.
M. Francis Wey, in a report made by him to the Philological section of the
Committee on the Language, History, and Arts of France, on June 9, 1856,
and published in the 9th fascicle of volume three of that Committee's
'Bulletin' (page 437), seems to attribute to Jean Salomon, otherwise
called Montflory, or Florimond, the first philological dissertation
in which there is any mention of the accent, the apostrophe and the
cedilla,--signs peculiar to the French language, which, as every one
knows, was for many years content with the alphabet of the Latin tongue,
from which it descended; more than that, he attributes to that author the
first use of these signs in a printed book. In both respects the honour
is due to Geofroy Tory. In truth, in his 'Champ fleury,'--which was not
published until 1529, it is true, although begun in 1523, the license
to print being dated September 5, 1526,--Tory proposed to introduce the
accent, the apostrophe, and the cedilla into the French language; he
did more than that; for, having become a printer, he was the first to
introduce those signs into typography. They appeared for the first time in
the last of the four editions of the 'Adolescence Clementine' (by Clement
Marot), all four of which he published. This fourth edition appeared June
7, 1533, accompanied by an 'avis' in these words: 'With certain accents
noted, to wit, on the _é_ masculine, different from the feminine,[516]
on letters joined by synalephe, and under the _c_ when it is pronounced
like _s_, the which for lack of counsel has never been done in the French
language, albeit it was and is most essential.' This was the first work
in which Tory applied his orthographic system, as may be seen by the
inexperience of the compositors in his employ, who made several errors of
omission and transposition in this very notice.
This so necessary reform spread very rapidly, thanks to the fact that the
necessity had already made itself felt, as is proved by the work of Jean
Salomon, published in that same year 1533. But it is Tory's especial glory
that only those changes which were proposed by him were retained, save a
few orthographic signs which have no other purpose than to distinguish
words spelled alike but of different meanings--and these signs were
introduced later: a, à; ou, où; du, dû, etc.
With however good a will one might seek to deny Tory's precedence in the
use of orthographic signs in the French tongue, and to award it to Jean
Salomon, who used them in the same year, there are two facts that decide
the question in favour of the former: these are, the publication in April,
1529, of his 'Champ fleury' (the first book of which is entitled, 'An
exhortation to fix and ordain the French language by certain rules for
speaking with elegance in good sound French words'), and the formulation
of the 'General rules of orthography of the French language,' no copy of
which is known to exist, it is true, but for which Tory obtained a license
to print on September 28, 1529, four years before Salomon's work appeared.
Nor must we lose sight of the fact that Tory was from Bourges, that is to
say, from the same province as Jacques Thiboust, Seigneur de Quantilly,
'friend of books, and distinguished penman,' who was Jean Salomon's
Mæcenas. There is nothing improbable in the supposition that Thiboust had
had his interest aroused by Tory, who is likely to have been a crony of
Thiboust in Paris by a two-fold claim,--as a Berrichon and as a 'friend
of books.' It seems to me that the alias 'Montflory' assumed by Salomon
is an allusion to 'Champ fleury.' That, in my opinion, is why he wrote
it 'Montflory' or 'Florimond,' indifferently, the word being an anagram
rather than a real surname.
As the opportunity offers itself, I will add to M. Francis Wey's notes a
few remarks which may some day assist in writing the biography of Jean
Salomon, of whom nothing is known except the fact, told us by himself,
that he was an Angevin.
We know now of three different editions of his work. The first, dated
1533, with no indication of the month, was printed in that year in three
pages and a half, octavo, under this title: 'Briefve doctrine pour
deuement escripre selon la propriete du langaige francoys.' We do not know
where or by whom it was published, but it certainly was printed at Paris,
where Salomon undoubtedly lived, and probably by Antoine Augereau, as was
the one next described, which seems to have been modelled upon it. Indeed,
like it, it is generally found between the same covers with an edition of
the 'Miroir de l'âme pécheresse' (of Marguerite of Navarre),--an edition
without date, name of place or of printer, which, therefore, should also
be attributed to Antoine Augereau and to the year 1533. This edition,
which M. Brunet does not mention,[517] has on the first page: 'Le Miroir
de lame pecheresse, auquel elle recongnoit ses fautes et pechez, aussi
les graces et benefices a elle faictz par Jesuchrist son espoux.' It
consists of nine half sheets in octavo, printed as four (signatures _a_
to _i_). On the last leaf is a note to the reader wherein forgiveness is
asked for the first corrector (he who is called to-day 'the corrector
of first proofs'), who has inadvertently omitted three verses. 'Divers
other trivial errors may peradventure be found before or after, but they
must needs be charged rather to the variety of the copies than to the
negligence of the correctors or to the haste of the printers.'--As I
have said, it is at the end of this pamphlet that we find printed, with
separate signatures of its own, from _a_ to _d_, the little book described
by M. Wey after the copy in the Bibliothèque Nationale which contains the
'Briefve doctrine.' But one essential point, which M. Wey has forgotten to
mention, is that in the first edition not a word is said of the accent or
the cedilla; there is no mention of anything except the apostrophe.
The second edition, printed at Paris by Antoine Augereau, in December,
1533, at the back of another edition of the 'Miroir de l'âme pécheresse'
(called 'Miroir de tres chrestienne princesse Marguerite, reine de
Navare'), is two-thirds larger. It was probably published (like the
preceding one) by the Queen of Navarre's secretary, Jean Thiboust, after a
manuscript which the author had dedicated to him as his Mæcenas. Indeed,
we find at the head of this reprint the words 'ex manuscriptis authoris,'
which seems to indicate further that the author was dead. A point worth
noting is that the 'Briefve doctrine' again forms a part of an appendix
distinguished by separate signature letters (and folios) from Marguerite's
poem, and bearing the same title as in the earlier print, despite
the additions that had been made to it (presumably based upon Tory's
publications), especially with respect to the cedilla and the accent,
which, moreover, are used throughout the volume.
The third is the one which is still in manuscript at Bourges. It contains
several passages more than the preceding; but these passages, which are
of very debateable merit (as M. Wey, who reproduces them in his report,
declares), were probably added by one Jean Milon, of Arlenc in Auvergne,
calling himself a retainer ('serviteur') of Thiboust, who revised the
'Briefve doctrine' about 1542; so much at least we may infer from the
date of some other pieces in the collection containing it, which was
presented, in 1555, by Jacques Thiboust to the Collège de Bourges, whence
it found its way to the public library of the same city. It is exceedingly
interesting to find this document in Geofroy Tory's native place. It
is as if chance had chosen thereby to remind us of the source of the
orthographic reform proposed by Jean Salomon.
To be entirely fair, we ought to say that certain other writers had even
anticipated Salomon. Thus Jacobus Silvius, otherwise called Jacques
Dubois, had published through Robert Estienne, on the 7th of the Ides
of January, 1531 (January 7, 1532, n. s.), a French grammar in Latin,
wherein he suggested a complete system of orthographic reform, including
the acute accent, the apostrophe, the cedilla, etc.; but his plan was so
complicated that it could not be followed in its entirety. Moreover, the
signs proposed by him were, for the most part, impossible of adoption
throughout a book. For instance, the cedilla consisted of an _s_ placed
about the _c_. The merit of Tory's system, over and above its priority,
was its simplicity. So we may say that it was generally adopted after 1533.
VI
TRANSLATION OF THE LETTERS PATENT OF FRANÇOIS I, APPOINTING CONRAD
NÉOBAR KING'S PRINTER FOR GREEK.[518]
January 17, 1539 [new style].
François, by the grace of God King of the French, to the French nation,
greeting.[519]
We desire that it be known to one and all that our dearest wish is, and
has ever been, to accord to letters our support and especial favour, and
to do our utmost endeavours to supply the young with useful studies.
We are persuaded that such useful studies will produce in our realm
theologians who will teach the blessed doctrines of religion; magistrates
who will execute the laws, not with passion, but in a spirit of public
equity; and skilful administrators, the glory of the State, who will not
hesitate to sacrifice their private interests to love of the public weal.
Such are in effect the advantages which we are justified in anticipating
from worthy studies almost alone. And that is why we did, not long since,
make liberal allotments of stipends to distinguished scholars that they
might teach the young the languages and sciences, and train them in the no
less valuable practice of good morals. But we have considered that there
was still lacking, in order to hasten the onward march of literature,
something no less essential than public instruction, namely, that a
capable person should be specially entrusted with the matter of printing
in Greek, under our auspices and with due encouragement from us, in order
to the correct printing of Greek authors for the use of the young people
of our realm.
In truth men distinguished in letters have represented to us that the
arts, history, morality, philosophy, and almost all other branches of
knowledge, flow from the Greek authors as streams flow from their sources.
We know likewise that, Greek being more difficult to print than French
and Latin, it is indispensable for the successful administration of a
printing establishment of this sort, that the director thereof should be
well versed in the Greek tongue, extremely painstaking, and blessed with
abundant means; that it may be that there is not a single person among
the printers of our realm who combines all these qualifications (that is
to say, knowledge of the Greek language, painstaking energy and large
wealth), but that in one the fortune is lacking, in another the necessary
knowledge, and in others still different conditions. For those men who
possess at once wealth and learning prefer to pursue any other occupation
rather than turn their hands to typography, which demands a most toilsome
life.
Accordingly we instructed several scholars whom we admit to our table or
to our intimacy, to point out to us a man overflowing with zeal for the
art of typography, and of proved learning and diligence, who, supported by
our generosity, should be employed to print Greek books.
And we have a two-fold motive in thus serving the cause of study. Firstly,
as we hold this realm from the All-powerful God, which realm is abundantly
supplied with wealth and with all the conveniences of life, we choose that
it shall yield to no other in respect to the profundity of its studies,
the favour accorded to men of letters, and the variety and extent of the
instruction provided; secondly, in order that the studious youth, knowing
our good-will toward them, and the honour which it is our delight to
bestow upon learning, may give themselves with the greater ardour to the
study of letters and of the sciences, and that men of worth, incited by
our example, may redouble their zeal and efforts to train our youth to
goodly and useful studies.
And even as we sought the person to whom we could with all confidence
entrust this function, Conrad Néobar presented himself most opportunely,
being most desirous to obtain some public employment which should
place him under our protection, and confer upon him personal benefits
proportioned to the importance of his service; and, acting upon the
testimony that has been laid before us of his learning and his skill, by
men of letters well known to us, it has pleased us to entrust to him the
matter of Greek typography, to the end that he may print correctly in our
kingdom, supported by our munificence, those Greek manuscripts which are
the source of all learning.
But, desiring to provide at the same time for the public service, and
in order to forestall any possible fraud to the prejudice of Néobar our
printer, we establish him in his said office upon the following rules and
conditions:--
Firstly, we understand that all works not yet printed shall not be put
to press, still less published, before they have been submitted to the
judgement of our professors of the Académie of Paris who are charged with
the instruction of the young; so that the examination of works in profane
literature shall be entrusted to the professors of belles-lettres, and of
those on religious subjects to the professors of theology. By this means
the purity of our most sacred religion will be preserved from superstition
and heresy, and integrity of morals be removed beyond the reach of the
debasement and contagion of vice.
Secondly, Conrad Néobar will deposit in our library a copy of all editions
of Greek texts which he shall first put forth, to the end that, in the
event of some occurrence calamitous to letters, posterity will have this
source to draw upon to repair the loss of books.
Thirdly, all such books as Néobar may print shall contain an express
statement that he is our _printer for the Greek_, and that he is specially
entrusted with Greek printing under our auspices; to the end that not the
present age alone, but all posterity, may learn of the zeal and good-will
for letters whereby we are moved, and that, inspired by our example, it
may, like ourselves, prove itself disposed to strengthen the cause of
study and contribute to its progress.
Furthermore, inasmuch as this office is of more benefit to the State than
any other, and as it demands from the man who desires to perform its
duties zealously such assiduous care and attention that he can not have
a single moment to devote to labours which might lead him to honours or
to wealth, we have chosen to provide in three ways for the interest and
support of our printer Néobar.
Firstly, we award him an annual stipend of one hundred gold crowns, called
'écus au soleil,' by way of encouragement and to indemnify him in part for
his expenses. It is our will, further, that he be exempt from all imposts
and that he enjoy the other privileges which we and our predecessors have
accorded the clergy and the Académie of Paris, so that he may enjoy the
greater advantage from the disposal of his books and that he may the
more easily acquire all that is essential for a printing establishment.
Finally, we forbid everybody, printers and booksellers alike, to print or
to sell, in our realm, for the term of five years, such books in foreign
tongues, whether Latin or Greek, as Conrad Néobar shall have published
first, and for the term of two years such books as he shall have reprinted
more correctly, from ancient manuscripts, whether by his own labours or by
availing himself of the work of other scholars.
Whoever violates the terms hereof shall be punishable with a fine for
the use of the treasury, and shall reimburse our printer all the cost of
his editions. Furthermore, we command the provost of our city of Paris,
or his lieutenant, as well as all other magistrates now in office, or
who hold public employments from us, to see to it that Conrad Néobar,
our printer, enjoys to the full all the privileges and immunities hereby
conferred upon him, and to inflict severe punishment upon whoever shall
cause him annoyance or hindrance in the performance of his duties: for
it is our will that he be protected from the evil-disposed and from the
malice of the envious, to the end that the tranquillity and security of an
unharrassed life may enable him to devote himself with the greater zeal to
his important duties.
And that full and entire credence may be forever given to what is
hereinbefore commanded, we have confirmed it with our signature and have
caused our seal to be affixed. Adieu.
Given at Paris, the seventeenth day of January, in the year of grace 1538,
and of our reign the twenty-fifth.
VII
EXTRACT FROM THE LETTERS PATENT OF FRANÇOIS I, APPOINTING DENIS JANOT
KING'S PRINTER.[520]
François, by the grace of God King of France, to all those who shall see
these letters, greeting. Be it known that we, having been well and duly
advised of the great skill and experience which our dear and well-beloved
Denis Janot has acquired in the art of printing and in the matters which
depend thereon, whereof he has ordinarily made great profession, and even
in the French language; and considering that we have already engaged and
constituted two printers of our own, one for the Latin, the other for
the Greek language; desiring to do no less honour to our own than to the
said two other languages, and to commit the printing thereof to some
person who is able to acquit himself thereof, as we hope that the said
Janot will prove himself well able to do, for these causes and others
moving us thereto, we have engaged and do by these presents engage him
to be our printer in the said French language, henceforward to print
well and duly, in good type and as correctly as may be, such books as
are and shall be written in said language, and such as he may be able to
recover; and to enjoy in that office the honours, authority, privileges,
precedencies, powers, liberties, and rights which may appertain thereto,
so long as it shall be our good pleasure. And in order to arouse in him
the greater ardour and to afford him better means and opportunity to
maintain and support the cost and outlays, the toil and labour which it
will be incumbent on him to make and undergo, as well in the printing and
correcting as in other matters depending thereon, we have decreed and
ordered, do decree and order, and it is our pleasure that the said Janot
be given permission, by these presents, to print all books composed in the
said French language which he may be able to recover, but only after they
shall have been well, duly, and sufficiently inspected and examined, and
found to be excellent and not scandalous.... Given at Paris the twelfth
day of April in the year of grace one thousand five hundred forty-three,
and of our reign the twenty-ninth.
On the outside are the words: 'By the King--Present, the Bishop of
Thulles. Signed BAYARD; and sealed _sur double cueue_[521] with
that lord's great seal.'
VIII
LIST OF KING'S PRINTERS WHO PERFORMED THEIR FUNCTIONS AT PARIS, FROM
THE ORIGINAL INSTITUTION OF THAT OFFICE.
GEOFROY TORY, 1530-1533.[522]
OLIVIER MALLARD, 1536-1542.
DENIS JANOT, 1543-1550.[523]
CHARLES ESTIENNE, 1551-1561.
ROBERT ESTIENNE II (nephew of CHARLES), 1561-1570.
JEAN METTAYER, 1575-1586.
JAMET METTAYER (brother of JEAN), 1586-1602.
PIERRE METTAYER (brother of JEAN and
JAMET), 1602-1639.
MAMERT PATISSON, 1578-1601. His widow succeeded him and
held the office from 1602 to 1606.
MICHEL DE VASCOSAN, 1560-1571.
PIERRE LE VOIRRIER, 1583.[524]
FEDERIC MOREL (VASCOSAN'S son-in-law), 1560-1581.
FEDERIC MOREL II (son of FEDERIC), 1582-1630.[525]
CLAUDE MOREL, 1617 (?).
CHARLES MOREL (son of CLAUDE), 1635-1639.
GILLES MOREL (son of CHARLES), 1639-1647.
PIERRE LE PETIT. Succeeded MOREL, June, 1647
'with the privileges and salary of 225 livres charged upon the
State.'[526] He died in 1686.
GUILLAUME NYVERD II, 1561.
NICOLAS NIVELLE, }
GUILLAUME CHAUDIÈRE, } Printers of the Sacred Union, 1589-1594.
ROLIN THIERRY, }
CLAUDE PREVOST, 1614-1629.
NICOLAS CALLEMONT, 1622-1631. His widow held the office in
1631.
PIERRE L'HUILLIER, 1610.
ANTOINE ESTIENNE, 1614-1664. In 1649 he called himself
'_first_ king's printer.'[527]
HENRI ESTIENNE, his son, obtained the reversion of his
father's office in 1652, but he died before him, in 1661, probably
without acting.[528]
PIERRE MOREAU, 1640-1647. (For his bastard italic.)
ANTOINE VITRÉ, 1622-1674. 'Linguarum orientalium
typographus regius.'
SÉBASTIEN CHAPELET, 1639.
JACQUES DE GAST, 1640.
SÉBASTIEN CRAMOISY, December 24, 1633. In 1640 he was
appointed manager of the royal printing-office of the Louvre; in
1651 he resigned the office of king's printer in favour of his
grandson, SÉBASTIEN MÂBRE-CRAMOISY, and died in 1669.
SÉBASTIEN MÂBRE-CRAMOISY (grandson of the preceding,
through his mother), 1661-1687. He also held the office of manager
of the royal printing-office.
SÉBASTIEN HURÉ, August, 1650.
SÉBASTIEN HURÉ II (son of the preceding), appointed in
1662, in place of HENRI ESTIENNE, Antoine's son; died in
1678.
PIERRE ROCOLET, April 14, 1635; died in 1662.
DAMIEN FOUCAULD (son-in-law of ROCOLET), succeeded
him; 1662-1687(?).
FRANÇOIS MUGUET, appointed as locum tenens in November,
1661, was definitively appointed in 1671; resigned his letters in
1686, to replace PIERRE LE PETIT, at the salary of 225
livres. Muguet died in 1702.
FRANÇOIS-HUBERT MUGUET (son of the preceding) succeeded
him; 1702-1742.
FRÉDÉRIC LÉONARD. Succeeded FRANÇOIS HURÉ;
1678-1712.
FRÉDÉRIC LÉONARD II (son of the preceding) succeeded him;
1713-1714.
JEAN DE LA CAILLE, 1644-1673.
JEAN-BAPTISTE COGNARD. Succeeded FOUCAULD;
1687-1737.
COGNARD'S widow, 1737-1760.
JEAN-BAPTISTE COGNARD II (son of JEAN-BAPTISTE),
1717-1752, when he resigned.
JACQUES LANGLOIS, 1660-1678.
JACQUES LANGLOIS II (son of the preceding), 1678-1697.
JEAN-BAPTISTE-ALEXANDRE DELESPINE, 1702-1746(?).
GUILLAUME DESPREZ, 1686-1708.
GUILLAUME DESPREZ II (son of the preceding), 1740-1743,
when he resigned.
GUILLAUME-NICOLAS DESPREZ (son of the preceding),
1743-1788. He was at the end the dean of the king's printers.
PIERRE-ALEXANDRE LE PRIEUR, 1747-1785.
CLAUDE-CHARLES THIBOUST, appointed king's printer in 1756,
died in 1757.
N. DE MAISONROUGE (widow of the preceding), succeeded him,
and held the title of king's printer till 1788.
LAURENT-FRANÇOIS PRAULT, 1780(?).
LOUIS-FRANÇOIS PRAULT (son of LAURENT) succeeded
him; 1780-1788.
ANTOINE BOUDET, 1768-1779.
FRANÇOIS LE BRETON; died October 4, 1779.
PHILIPPE-DENIS PIERRES; succeeded LE BRETON by
virtue of letters dated October 7, 1779.[529] He was appointed first
king's printer in August, 1785.
JACQUES-GABRIEL CLOUSIER, 1788.
AUGUSTE-MARTIN LOTTIN, 1775-1789.
(Demoiselle) HÉRISSANT, 1788.
_King's Printers for Greek._[530]
CONRAD NÉOBAR, 1538-1540.
ROBERT ESTIENNE, 1540-1550.
ADRIEN TURNÈBE, 1552-1555.
GUILLAUME MOREL, 1555-1564.
MICHEL DE VASCOSAN, 1560-1576.
ROBERT ESTIENNE II, 1561-1570.
FEDERIC MOREL, 1571-1581.
ÉTIENNE PREVOSTEAU, 1581-1600(?).
PIERRE PAUTONNIER, 1600-1605(?).
_Printers of the King's Closet._
JACQUES COLLOMBAT, in 1743.
N. DEHANSY (widow of the preceding), 1744.
JACQUES-FRANÇOIS COLLOMBAT (son of JACQUES), 1744-1751.
JACQUELINE TARLÉ (wife of JACQUES-FRANÇOIS), 1751-1752.
JEAN-JACQUES ESTIENNE COLLOMBAT (their son, 1752-1763).
_Printers of His Majesty's Closet, Household and Buildings._
JEAN-THOMAS HÉRISSANT, 1764-1772.
MARIE-NICOLE HÉRISSANT (his daughter), 1772-1788.
_King's Printers for Mathematics._
JEAN LEROYER, February 3, 1553 (1554, n. s.)-1565.
PIERRE LEVOYRIER, 1575-1584.
_King's Printer for Coins._
JEAN DALLIER, August 23, 1559.
_King's Printers for Engravings._
PIERRE LENGEVIN, buried February 5, 1609.[531]
MELCHIOR TAVERNIER, 'living on the Île du Palais.'
_King's Printers for Music._
ROBERT BALLARD, 1551-1606. Letters patent of May 5,
1516,[532] inform us that he received 250 livres tournois in this
capacity.
LUCRÈCE LE BÉ (BALLARD'S widow), 1606.
PIERRE BALLARD (son of ROBERT I), 1608-1640.
ROBERT II (son of PIERRE), 1640-1679.
----widow of ROBERT II, 1679-1693.
J.-B.-CH. BALLARD (grandson of ROBERT II),
1694-1750.
----(widow of the preceding), 1750-1758.
----CHR.-J.-F. BALLARD (son of J.-B.-CH.),
1758-1765.
----(widow of the preceding), 1765-1792.
PIERRE-ROBERT-CHRISTOPHE BALLARD (son of
CHR.-J.-F.), 1779-1792.
After the Restoration Louis XVIII named as king's printers members of
certain families in the printing trade which had formerly borne that
title, and some others who had won great renown in their trade; such
are the first six in the following list, which includes all the king's
printers of the Restoration.
LOTTIN DE SAINT-GERMAIN,[533] 1815-1828.
BALLARD,[534] 1815-1828.
BALLARD'S widow, 1828-1830.
VALADE,[535] 1815-1822.
PIERRE DIDOT, the elder, 1815-1822.
JULES DIDOT, his son, succeeded him; 1822-1830.
FIRMIN DIDOT (PIERRE'S younger brother), 1815-1827.
MADAME HÉRISSANT-LEDOUX, 1816-1822.
LEBEL, successor to VALADE, 1822-1825.
LEBEL'S widow, 1826.
LENORMANT, 1824-1830.
AMBROISE DIDOT (son of FIRMIN) was appointed king's
printer by patent of December 7, 1829. The office became extinct in his
hands in July, 1830. M. Ambroise Firmin Didot, who thus closes the list
of king's printers, opened by Tory, has another bond of union with the
latter: like him he was an engraver. See what M. Firmin Didot père wrote
on this subject at the beginning of his tragedy, 'Annibal,' which was
printed by him in 1817, preceded by a letter from his son, who was then
travelling in Greece; the letter being printed in an 'English' type which
he tells us was engraved by his son Ambroise.[536]
IX
NOTE CONCERNING THE KING'S BINDERS AND LIBRARIANS.
There had long been functionaries known as 'libraires du roi' (king's
librarians), when François I instituted the office of king's printer.
Indeed, we find that Guillaume Eustace bore the title as early as 1574,
that is, under Louis XII. He is so styled in the subscript of an edition
of 'Les Chroniques de France,' in three volumes, folio. At the end of the
last volume, we read: 'Here endeth the third and last volume of the great
chronicles of France, printed at Paris in the year a thousand five hundred
and fourteen, the first day of October, for Guillaume Eustace, _libraire
du Roy_, and sworn binder to the University of Paris.'
In our first edition we expressed the opinion that Eustace may have been
replaced in 1522 by Jean de Sansay, who is described as king's librarian,
in 1530, in the accounts published by M. de Laborde.[537] This is an
error. Eustace was still king's librarian in 1533. Jean de Sansay was not,
as Eustace was, _purveyor_ to the king's library, but _keeper_ thereof, a
title assumed in more exact terms by one of his successors, Jean Gosselin,
in a book which he caused to be printed in 1583.[538]
Jean de Sansay's immediate successor, under François I, seems to have been
Claude Chappuis, who was king's librarian before March 28, 1543, as may be
seen from the following document, dated January 6, 1544, new style, the
original of which is in the Joursauvault collection at the Bibliothèque du
Louvre:--
'In the presence of me, notary and secretary of the state to the King our
sire, Jehan Estienne,[539] dealer in silversmithery to the queen, having
power of attorney from maistre Claude Chappuys, librarian to our said
lord, thereby sufficiently authorized, did by deed of the twenty-eighth
day of March a thousand five hundred forty-three, after Easter last
past, executed before Jehan Langlois, royal notary in the bailiwick or
chatelany of Moret, aver that he had had and received from maistre Jacques
Bouchetel, treasurer and paymaster of the household of our said lord,
the sum of two hundred forty livres tournois on account of his office of
librarian during the year beginning the first day of January a thousand
five hundred forty-two [1543, n. s.], and ending the last day of December
a thousand five hundred forty-three. For which sum of IIᶜ
XL livres tournois the said Jehan Estienne, as attorney as
aforesaid, hath held and doth hold himself accountable and duly paid,
and hath acquitted and doth acquit the said maistre Jacques Bouchetel,
treasurer as aforesaid, and all other persons. Witness my sign manual
hereto affixed at his request. The VI day of January in the year
a thousand five hundred forty-three.
'BURGENSIS.'[540]
In 'La Renaissance des Arts,' M. de Laborde has published several extracts
from the royal accounts relative to this Claude Chappuis.
'To maistre Claude Chappuis, librarian to our said lord, the sum of
thirty-three livres five sols tournois, to him ordered to be paid by our
said lord, to reimburse him for several small sums by him furnished and
paid for the embellishment of books which our said lord hath caused to be
brought from Thurin, for the carriage thereof from Fontainebleau to Paris
and to Sainct-Germain-en-Laye, and from said Sainct-Germain to Paris and
Fontainebleau, and for expense incurred by said Chappuis, say XXXIII
L. V. S.'[541]
'To maistre Claude Chappuys, librarian to our said lord, the sum of six
times twenty and ten livres, and ten sols tournois to reimburse him for
the like sum which he hath paid of his own moneys to a bookseller of Paris
named Le Faucheux, for having, by command of our said lord, re-bound and
gilded divers books from his library, in the manner and guise of a gospel
heretofore bound and gilded by said Le Faucheux, written in letters of
gold and ink.'[542]
Doubtless this Claude Chappuis is the same man who belonged to the
household of Jean du Bellay, Ambassador to Rome in 1536. Having become
librarian to the King, he probably used in gilding the books mentioned in
the last quotation, the irons which François I had bought in Venice, as we
learn from another account, undated, but a little earlier, preserved, like
the others, in the national archives.
'To Loys Alleman, Fleurantin, for sending to Venice for irons to
print[543] certain Italian books, and for the cost of such printing, the
sum of V livres.'
As for Le Faucheux, mentioned here as a binder, he is evidently Étienne
Roffet, called Le Faucheux, described as binder and librarian to the King
on the title-page of the 'Œuvres de Hugues Salel,' which he published, and
which was printed at Paris, in octavo, in 1540.[544] He was the son of
Pierre Roffet (publisher to the two Marots, father and son), who had for
his sign a 'faucheur,' mower.[545]
X
PASSAGES WRITTEN IN LATIN, IN MOST CASES BY TORY, TRANSLATIONS OF
WHICH ARE INSERTED IN THE BODY OF THE BOOK.
A
_Godofredus Torinus Bituricus Joanni Rosselletto, literarum
amantissimo, S. D. P._[546]
Egregiam de te spem, Joannes ornatissime, tuis et cognatis et patriæ, non
solum moribus, imo et benefactis, te velle nobiliter ostendere, nunquam
(opinor) tu prætermittes neque desistes. Quo tu Reipubl. vel consilio
prodesses, curasti ut per me Quintilianus emendatior caracteribus et
impressioni daretur bellissime. Multis exemplariis diligenter collatis,
unum (mendis pene innumerabilibus deletis) castigatissimum non pigra
manu feci; ipsum, ut jussisti, a Parrhisiis Lugdunum misi. Utinam et qui
impriment novos non superinducant errores. Vale, et me ama.
Parrhisiis, apud collegium Plesseiacum, tertio calendas Martias.
B
Imbutam ausonia cupiens me reddere lingua
Artibus et pariter me decorare bonis,
Nocte dieque docens pater ut charissimus, ipse
Fundamenta mihi dulcia et ampla dabat.
C
MONITOR. Hanc tibi quis struxit gemmis insignibus urnam?
AGNES. Quis? Meus in tali nobilis arte pater.
MON. Excellens certe est figulus genitor tuus.
AGNES. Artes
Quottidie tractat sedulus ingenuas.
MON. An ne etiam scribit modulos et carmina?
AGNES. Scribit.
Dulcibus et verbis hæc mea fata beat.
MON. Ipsius est nimirum hominis solertia mira?
AGNES. Tam celebrem regio vix tulit ulla virum.
D
VIATOR. Mecenate aliquo certe dignissimus ille est.
GENIUS. Mecenas franco rarus in orbe viget.
Nemo hodie ingenuas donis conformibus artes
Aut fovet, aut ulla sorte fovere parat.
Non est in pretio probitas, nec candida virtus.
Infelix adeo regnat Avaricia.
Fraus, dolus et vitium præstant; virtutibus omne
Postpositis miserum serpit ubique nephas.
VIA. Quid facit ille igitur Musis excultus amœnis?
GEN. In propria gaudet vivere posse domo.
VIA. Ad reges alacri deberet tendere passu.
GEN. Non curat, quoniam libera corda gerit.
Isti nonnunquam gaudent spectare potentes
Carmina, sed quid tum? nictibus illa beant.
Deberent gemmis auroque rependere puro
Aurea de superis carmina ducta polis.
Sed potius fatuis, nebulonibus atque prophanis
Contribuunt stulti grandia dona leves.
E
Egregii quidam sunt felici hoc seculo pictores, lector humanissime,
qui suis lineamentis, picturis et variis coloribus deos gentilitios et
homines, itemque alias res quascunque adeo exacte depingunt, ut illis vox
et anima deesse tantummodo videatur; sed ecce, lector humanissime, ego jam
tibi, illorum propemodum more, domum offero, non solum suis lineamentis et
partibus elegantem et absolutam, sed etiam pulchre loquentem et encomio
sese particulatim describentem.
F
Godofredo Torino, quem Ulvaricum[547] Biturigum peperit, quem Lutetia
Parisiorum fovit, viro linguæ: turn latinæ turn græcæ peritissimo,
litterarum denique amantissimo, typographo solertissimo et bibliographo
doctissimo, quod de partibus ædium elegantissima distica scripserit,
tumulos aliquot ludicros veterrimo stylo latine condiderit, Xenophontis,
Luciani, Plutarchi tractatus e græco in gallicum converterit, Parisiis
in Burgundiæ gymnasio philosophiam edocuerit, primus omnium de re
typographica sedulo disseruerit, litterarum sive caracterum dimensiones
ediderit, et Garamundum calco-graphum principem edocuerit, viri boni
officio, quoad devixit, anno M.D.L. semper defunctus, a monente
Joanne Toubeau, etiam typographo et auctore, mercatorum prætore, ædili
Bituri-censi, ob negotia civitatis difficillima ad regem et concilium
legato, ejusdem Torini abnepote, et typographicorum insignium hærede,
Nicolaus Catharinus, nobilis Bituricus, regis advocatus et senator
in Biturigum metropoli, a teneris annis huc usque et deinceps rei
typographicæ addictissimus, cursim raptimque scripsit, exeunte novembri
M.DC.LXXIV.
G
_Godofredus Torinus Bituricus Philiberto Baboo, civi Biturico,
serenissimi Gallorum regis dispensatori ac camerario meritissimo,
salutem dicit humilimam._
Pomponium Melam, ornatissime Philiberte, geographorum authorem
luculentissimum, quum nuper inspicerem, eum tot mendis depravatum ac
lacerum esse cognovi, ut
... Ecce ante oculos mœstissimus author
Visus adesse mihi, largosque effundere fletus;
_Vergilius_, _Eneid._ _ij._
Ecce inquam:
Raptatus bigis (heu miserum) aterque cruento
Pulvere, perque pedes traiectus lora tumentes,
Quam graviter gemitus imo de pectore ducens.
_Id._, _ibid._
Talibus verbis conqueri videbatur: Siccine ego qui tot terras, tot gentes,
insulas, amnes, freta, vada, carybdes, tam eleganter descripsi, quique
totius orbis descriptionem tam confidenter aggressus sum, sic mancus, sic
mutilus, sic truncus habebor?
Hei mihi! quam cæsus sum, quamque similimus illi
Hectori qui quondam concretos sanguine crines
Vulneraque illa tulit quæ circum plurima muros
Accepit patrios....
_Id._, _ibid._
Nisi medicabiles aliquæ in me manus se extendant, sine dubio, iam emoriar.
Tarda Philoctetæ sanavit crura Machaon,
Phœnicis Chyron lumina Philyrides;
Et Deus extinctum Cressis Epidaurius herbis
Restituit patriis Androgeona focis.
_Proper._, _lib. ij_, _ad Mæcenatem_.
Sed sane credo quod
Hoc si quis vitium possit[548] iam demere, solus
Tantalea poterit tradere poma manu.
Dolia virgineis idem ille repleverit urnis,
Ne tenera assidua colla graventur aqua;
Idem Caucasea solvet de rupe Promethei
Brachia, et a medio pectore pellet avem.
_Idem_, _ibid._
Certe statim apud me dixi: Si Machaon, si Chyron aut Æsculapius essem,
libens huic rei subvenirem. Sed quid autem si manuum mearum opellam
impenderem? Nonne remedio esse possem? Forte, at equidem expertus, et id
quo saltem emendatior habeatur.
Quod si deficiant vires, audacia certe
Laus erit: in magnis et voluisse sat est.
_Idem_, _lib. ij_, _ad Musam_ [_Ad Augustum?_].
Pauculas ergo annotationes adiecimus[549] quibuscum sub tuo nomine
(quandoquidem[550] et literarum et literatorum amantissimus es) bonis ut
aiunt avibus Pomponius ipse Mela iam tutius exeat. Vale.
Parrhisiis, vj no. decemb. MCCCCC vij.
H
Habes, ornatissime Philiberte, Pomponium ipsum Melam pluribus quibus
scatebat mendis iam emendatum. Curavi siquidem accuratissimo (qui etiam
primus apud Parisios græcis caracteribus lotissimas addidit manus)
impressori dare. Eum diligentius, et quo politior ac absolutior in tuas
primum, deinde cæterorum manus perveniat, recognoscere pauculaque in
eum subannotare non ingratus volui. Tu nunc cum ipso per totum orbem,
quemadmodum et Phiclus, qui super aristas eas non frangendo cucurrisse
fertur, non tantum secure, sed confidenter ac præsentissime ire ac redire
vales. Si tigres animalium pernicissimos comprehendere, catoblepam sine
tui malo cernere; si dracones, feras, satyros, panes, silvanos; si Indos,
Et penitus toto divisos orbi Britannos;
si Sauromatas, Afros, eorum denique si medios omnes populos videre,
pariterque ipsorum mores mirabiles cognoscere desideras, hoc in orbe, id
est,[551] Pomponio, manibus tuis amplissime comprehenso, sine dubio, iam
optime dispicere potes. Vale et me tibi devotum semper ama.
Parisiis, nono calen. januarias.
Ω
CIVIS.
_In Pomponium Melam._
Mela, quibus plænus fueras erroribus, es iam
Excussus, tecum paucula menda manet.[552]
Tu melior multo longeque probatior extas
Quam prius; hoc fecit tantula nostra manus.
_Ad Philibertum Baboum._
Quod mea vita tibi multos se debeat[553] annos,
Hoc duo versiculi iam, Philiberte, probant.
Αλϕα mihi teneris habui quodcumque sub annis,
Id voluit fœlix ωμεγα ferre tuum.
Ω
CIVIS.
I
Quia nihil est diffilius (_sic_) quam in nullo errare, non absurdum esse
videtur si cum lectoris bona pace paucorum admodum erratorum paucula
retractentur, ut illo verbo cum dicit in epistola _potuit_, scribendum est
_possit_....
J
_Reverendo in Christo patri et domino D. Germano Gannaio,
Cathurcensium episcopo designato, Godofredus Torinus Bituricus
salutem dicit humilimam._
Pium papam, antistes excellentissime, au thorem et dignitate et
singularitate sine dubio venerandum, in Asiæ et Europæ descriptione, iam
tersiorem et emendatiorem quam antea legebatur in luce exire curavimus.
Quem autem ei recenter ex chalcotypea officina sese expedienti, virum
delectum, literarum amantissimum, et singulari virtute plenissimum, statim
devotissime salutatum iret, potiorem sane te, dignioremve, cognoscere
potui nullum. Summum ipsum pontificem te maxime venerabilem antistitem
invisere rem esse putavi non iniucundam. Ipsum, inquam, geographiæ et
lectu dignissimæ (uti videre poteris) historiæ non pœnitendum authorem,
te, bonarum omnium literarum amatorem et cultorem, accedere et amplecti,
factum opido quam decentissime existimavi, gemmam auro, encaustum, id
est opus igni pictum, argento, et palmam vincenti conferre, procul
dubio nihil aliud est quam bona bonis, splendida splendidis et merita
meritis addere. Tibi profecto et cum his alia ratione pulcherrimum hoc
opus meritissime dedicari debet, siquidem per capita distinctum, et in
commodiorem ordinem, te promotore et iubente, redactum est. Quo facilius
(ut voluisti) et melius, tibi in primis, consequenter aliis omnibus
studiosis et legentibus, regiones terræ, quæ numero sunt multæ, et in
eis res scitu periucundæ capiantur et memoriæ commendentur, capitatim
nominibus fluviorum, opidorum, locorum, ducum et aliarum rerum insignium
in margine coannotatis, quæ etiam omnia in indice numeratim inveniuntur,
divisimus, ipsam hanc nostram lucubratiunculam tibi antistiti, reverentia
percelebri, sincæro dedicamus animo. Impar sine controversia est, quam
tuæ reverendæ paternitati deberem offerre, tu tamen, cuius benignitatem
et integritatem omnes prædicant (et me minime latet) excellentissimam, ea
fronte qua huiusmodi alias solitus es ipsam purissimas in manus tuas, si
placet, accipies. Vale.
Parrhisiis, apud collegium Plesseiacum, 6 nonas octobris anno Domini 1509.
K
_Godofredus Torinus Bituricus ad lectorem._
Quod eruęre, contendęre, misęre et huiusmodi multa, per tale e
in penultima scripta leges, factum est ut ipsa indicativi præterita, quæ
regulariter penultimam habent longam, a presenti et præterito imperfecto
modi infinitivi, quæ in tertia coniugatione semper corripiunt penultimam,
suam quantitatem, et quam inter legendum proferre debes, tibi ostendant.
Illam Psalterii Quincuplicis nuper in lucem dati perelegantem et absolutam
scripturam libenter sum imitatus et insecutus. Invenies etiam ipsum e in
aliquibus dictionibus, similiter in genitivis et dativis singularibus,
nominativis et vocativis pluralibus primæ declinationis nonnunquam, more
quorumdam, pro ædiphtongo poni, sed rarius. Insuper hæc consulto scripsi
mistum per s, et non per x, nam misceo facit miscui in præterito, unde
et mistum analogice, intellego, toties, quoties, litus, opidum, litera,
tralatum, aliquando, et id genus alia, secundum ορθογραϕιαμ,
id est rectam scripturam, observanda. TVRCAM etiam in prima declinatione,
quod multi in secunda proferunt, scripsi. Michael Tarchaniota Marulus
Constantinopolitanus ad Carolum regem Franciæ plausibiliter author est
mihi. Eius sunt hæc verba:--
Invicte magni rex Caroli genus,
Quem tot virorum, tot superum piæ
Sortes iacentis vindicemque
Iusticiæ fideique poscunt;
Quem mesta tellus Ausonis hinc vocat,
Illinc solutis Grecia crinibus,
Et quicquid immanis profanat
TVRCA Asiæ, Syriæque pinguis, _et cætera_.
Quod etiam plureis parteis, omneis monteis, accusativos in eis protuli,
grammatice quidem et latine, authore Prisciano, lib. 7, cap. de
accusativis pluribus tertiæ declinationis, facere visus sum. Ea est
pulchra ad accusativum a nominativo discriminandum diferentiam, et
qua mille sunt usi authores, de quibus multis Salustium, Vergilium et
Plautum hic testes habere sat erit. Salustius, quiquidem primo etiam
verbo est usus, sic ait in Catilinario bello: 'Omneis homines qui sese,
etc.' Vergilius in primo Eneidos: 'Hic fessas non vincula naveis Ulla
tenent....' Plaut. in Aulularia: 'Quid est? quid ridetis novi omneis, scio
fures hic esse complureis.' Hoc lubens annotare volui, ut (bone lector)
non tantum dicendi puritatem intellegas, sed et tanquam digitos inter et
legendum et dicendum pura verba festiviter in promptu habeas et dicas.
Vale.
CIVIS.
L
_Herverus de Berna Amandinus Iuventuti Bituricæ S. D._
Divitem, didascalum nostrum, sapientia clarum et musarum alumnum, de
vobis bene meritum, non ignoratis; docuit enim vos Musas, Heliconem,
Phœbi nemus, Mercuriumque; et enim innumeri (tanquam ex e quo Troiano)
ex officina eius prodiere litterati. Curæ sunt ei gloriosissim Musarum
labores, cuius nomen in honoribus et laurea immortale servandum censeo
maxime. Ipse non solum quod dicitur ad Aristophanis, sed etiam ad
Cleantis, lucernam lucubrasse fertur. Elegantia carminis laudatum haud
dubitatis, ex quo fit ut poema religiosum quod conscripsit de Passione
Dominica extet, tantoque splendore refulgeat, tanta suavitate redoleat,
tamque florido ornatu spectabile sit, ut cœlestis ingenii artificio
potius quam humani fabrefactum credatur. Nec dubito quin ex eo contingat
quod plurimum litteratis viris contingere consuevit: ut ait Claudianus,
minuet praesentia[554] famam. Non tamen sine Theseo, hoc est Torino
Biturico, commilitone nostro, antiquis moribus, et, ut Plautus ait,
Massiliensibus[555], et cum virtute doctissimo, voluimus ut Dives in
publicum volaret: speroque iterum secundis (ut aiunt) avibus. Valete
fœlicissime. Ex ædibus nostris Amandinis, calendis martii.
M
_Godofredi Torini Biturici in preceptoris sui Guilielmi Divitis
Gandavensis commendationem dialogus._
_Interlocutores_: MONITOR _et_ LIBER.
M. Sancte liber, passum qui defles carmine Christum,
Fare age: cuius opus tam potes esse pium?
L. Cuius opus? videas. Sum Divitis.
M. Illius euge
Ditia qui Bituris tot documenta dedit?
L. Vera putas.
M. Vere est sapienti pectore Dives.
L. Aptius hoc nullum nomen habere potest.
M. Ipse est qui Bituris florenti dicere lingua
Edocuit, faciles pangere et ore modos.
L. Dicere non tantum docuit, nec texere carmen,
Corpora sed Christi cæsa videre dedit.
M. Brachia fixa Dei si quisquam cernere vellet,
An satis ad vivum Dives et ipse darer?[556]
L. Ferre crucem Domini, si vulnera sæva, coronam,
Discupis, in manibus me gere, cuncta feres.
M. Omnia vota ferat semper fœlicia Dives,
Tale piis qui dat cordibus esse bonum!
L. Nestoreos terris perstet victurus in annos,
Postque obitum cœli ditia regna petat.
CIVIS.
N
_Philibertum Baboum, virum honestissimum, Godofredus Torinus
Bituricus salutem plurima iubet impartitum._
Anno præterito, quo tempore Pii Pontificis Maximi Cosmographiam
imprimendam curavi, Berosum Babilonicum in antiquitatibus regnorum
bellissime recognoscere et impressoribus non immutare dare venerat in
mentem; at, nescio quo animo meo se tunc agente, in aliud tempus, opera
dedita, rem propemodum divinam facturus, differre decrevi, distulissem
quidem et in longissimum, atque, ut proverbio memoratur, ad calendas
græcas, nisi, ut ita dicam, Berosus ipse, et quod non parvi apud me est,
eritque semper, amicorum plusculi, quotidie ad aurem meam cum precibus
quodam modo simul innuentes, Myrsilum, de origine Turrenorum, Catonem, in
fragmentis, Archilocum, Methastenem, Philonem, Xenophontem, de æquivocis,
Sempronium, Fabium Pictorem, et Antoninum Pium, in fragmento itinerarii,
coimprimendos efflagitanter desiderassent. Avarissimum est genus hominum,
quod si librum (librum dico inventu rarum) trium aut quatuor versiculorum
habeat (more formicarum Indiæ, necnon griforum, qui aurum penitus egestum
cum summa pernicie attingentium custodire feruntur), continuo abstractum
servat, cathenis et compedibus captivum et misellum prorsus incarcerat.
Tale genus potius cum huiusmodi et formicis et grifis, quod et alii
grifibus declinant, curiosam et avaram illam singularis alicuius sibi
habendi cupiditatem exercere, quam cum hominibus inhumanitatem, quod et
melius forte dixerim immunitatem, habere deberet. Non solum nobis nati
sumus, debemur et amicis, debemur et patriæ. Igitur ne ardentis lucernæ
clarissimum lumen opprimere velle videar, sub nomine tuo, Philiberte,
civium Bituricorum ornatissime, gratiusculum reipublicæ factum opinor
daturus Berosianam antiquitatem cum aliis authoribus nominatim præscriptis
in apertum, et studium omnibus commune iam libentius emitto. Vale.
Parrhisiis, apud collegium Plesseiacum, 6 nonas maias 1510.
CIVIS.
O
_Godofredus Torinus Bituricus ornatissimos Philibertum Baboum et
Ioannem Alemanum Iuniorem, cives Bituricos, pari inter se amicitia
conjunctissimos, salutat._
Debentur vobis, viri singulari virtute plenissimi, omnes quos et noctu et
interdiu assumere possum (etiam de industria) labores. Ecce. Quia moribus
antiquis, id est honestis et vere bonis, haud mediocriter utimini et
gaudetis, Probum Valerium scripturarum antiquarum et abbreviationum quæ
in numismatis, sepulchris et tabellis antiquitus perbelle consignabantur,
diligentissimum coacervatorem certissimumque explanatorem, sub vestro mihi
semper amando nomine, lubens ut vel tantillum reipublicæ valeam prodesse,
caracteribus et impressioni, cum nostra utinam tam felici quam diligenti
recognitiuncula, trado. Sinite, quæso, authorem perquam singularem primum
in vestras omnem ad virtutem aptissimas, deinde studiosorum omnium aliorum
manus, commode iam et festiviter exire. Valete.
Parrhisiis, apud collegium Plesseiacum, 6 idus maias 1510.
CIVIS.
P
_Godofredus Torinus Bituricus lectori salutem._
A quo tempore Probum Valerium imprimere bonis, ut reor, avibus incœpi, ne
liber unius aut duorum codicum enchiridio minus aptus exiret, pluscula
scitu non indigna coimprimere venit in mentem. Tractatum de ponderibus
et mensuris, ex Prisciano; item, quemadmodum datæ formæ agrorum metiri
debeant, ex Columella; similiter figuras quæ sub dimensionem cadant,
ex Georgio Valla; dialogos etiam aliquot cum ænigmatis, ex diversis
authoribus diligenter pro tempore collectis, superaddimus. Ænigmata
consulto reliquimus inenarrata, ut tibi legenti (quod ait Gel. in 12
libro, cap. 6) coniecturas in requirendo acueres. Da, precor (bone
lector), operam, ne tibi, quod etiam ænigmatice Plautus in Milite ait:
Glaucoma ob oculos obiecerim. Vale.
Q
_Dialogus per Godofredum Torinum, in quo urbs Biturica, sub loquente
persona, describitur._
_Interlocutores_: MONITOR _et_ URBS.
MON. Urbs, tibi quod nomen?
BIT. Biturix.
MON. Tu dic age quodnam
Hæc sibi quæ video tecta superba volunt?
BIT. Templa, domos, turres, divina palatia spectas.
MON. Hercle! suis cœlos molibus exuperant.
Hæc quæ templa, precor?
BIT. Stephani protomartiris, ipsa
Quæ Triviæ excedunt marmora celsa deæ.
MON. Quæ domus illa rubris excellens cordibus una,
Memnonis anne ipsa est ædificata manu?
BIT. Hanc Iacobus homo Cordatus condidit olim,
Dives opum; nobis quem abstulit invidia.
MON. Arcibus hæc Phariis quæ maior cernitur, heus tu!
Quæ turris? miror cum satis aspicio.
BIT. Celtarum populos regeret cum maximus ille
Ambigatus, quondam condita tanta fuit.
MON. Dic, ea, dic, palatia sunt Capitolia nunquid
Aurea? Responde, quid retices, Biturix?
Non loqueris facili quæ[557] iam sermone loquuta es,
Hic mihi vis fieri quod fuit Harpocrates?
BIT. Non, ea sed tanta (videas) sunt arte probanda,
Talia quod totus non tulit orbis adhuc.
MON. Terra quid hæc tanto quæ se distendit hiatu?
BIT. Est ubi turris erat constituenda mihi.
MON. Altera nonne tibi quanta est hæc?
BIT. Altera tanta.
Turribus a binis inde vocor Biturix.
MON. Nomine quo fertur nostro hoc sub tempore?
BIT. Fossam
Vulgus arenarum dictitat et vocitat.
MON. Quis tibi, quis fluvius memorandus?
BIT. Avaricum.
MON. An ille est
Quem memorat Cæsar Gallica bella notans?
BIT. Ille est.
MON. Sunt alii?
BIT. Duo sunt: sunt Ultrio et ipsa
Innumeris pregnans Hebrya pisciculis.
MON. Quæ tibi sunt dotes?
BIT. Omnis veneranda facultas
Est mihi quæ nummos cudit et aula novos.
MON. Nil aliud quicquam est?
BIT. Aquitania primam
Me vocat, et leges accipit ipsa meas.
MON. Numina quæ tecum?
BIT. Sunt Juno, Jupiter et Pan,
Vesta, Diana, Ceres, Liber et ipse pater.
R
_Godofredus Torinus Bituricus Philiberto Baboo et Ioanni Alemano
Iuniori, viris ornatissimis, S. P. D._