IV. DYALOGUE INSTRUCTOIRE DES CHRESTIENS EN LA FOY, ESPERANCE ET AMOUR DE DIEU COMPOSÉ PAR FRERE PIERRE DORÉ, DOCTEUR EN THEOLOGIE.... Imprimé nouvellement par Denys Janot, demourant en la rue Neufve Nostre Dame, à l'enseigne Sainct Jehan Baptiste, pres Saincte Geneviefve des Ardens.
Sixteenmo, 1542. On the verso of the title-page is an engraving signed with the Lorraine cross. It represents the Virgin standing on a crescent, holding the child Jesus in her arms, and surrounded by a halo. (Bibliothèque Nationale.)
1543-1544
SOMMAIRE DE CHRONIQUES, CONTENANS LES VIES, GESTES ET CAS FORTUITZ DE TOUS LES EMPEREURS D'EUROPE, etc. By J. B. Egnatius, translated by G. Tory.[386]
There were several other editions of these chronicles. M. Hippolyte Boyer mentions one of 1541, in his 'Histoire des Imprimeurs et Libraires de Bourges' (8vo, Bourges, 1854), p. 27; Antoine du Verdier, another, of 1543, in his Bibliothèque françoise. This much is certain—that M. Renouvier owned a copy, with illustrations, dated 1544. It is an octavo, 'for sale by Charles l'Angelier, in the "grand'salle du Palais."' It contains 112 leaves (signatures A to O), plus 4 unnumbered leaves. The engravings are of two sorts: the first represents an emperor on horseback, carrying a battle-axe; there is no mark, but it is engraved with much delicacy and distinguished by the little cartouches of which Tory was so fond; this figure is reproduced several times. The others are busts of emperors, roughly engraved, which cannot be Tory's. It may be noted that the edition published by Tory in 1530 contains no engravings.
1545
DE DISSECTIONE PARTIUM CORPORIS HUMANI, etc. By Charles Estienne. Folio, Simon de Colines, 1545.
There are in this book about sixty large anatomical plates. Five are signed with the Lorraine cross—folios 149, 150, 151, 154, 155. The last four bear also the name of Jollat, with the dates 1530, 1531, 1532. Here is what M. Renouvier has to say on the subject: 'Simon de Colines ... employed another wood-engraver of some note, Mercure Jollat, to whom Papillon attributed almost all of our gothic books of Hours. He should be reckoned only among the engravers of an altogether modernized manner. His name is written Iollat, the first letter in the zodiacal sign of Mercury, followed by the dates 1530, 1531, and 1532, and accompanied by the Lorraine cross, on four plates of Charles Estienne's book on the dissection of the human body, representing the cadaver in its skin and the cadaver with the skin removed. The drawing of the figures has been attributed, even by Brulliot, to Woeiriot; but it is really the work of the surgeon Estienne Rivière, who is named on the title-page and in the preface as the painter of the bones, ligaments, and all the anatomical details. His initials, S. R., appear on a tablet hanging from the branches of a tree in the first plate. The engraving, which varies considerably, would seem to be the work of different hands, or, at least, to have come from an establishment which practised diverse styles and which sometimes put forth work done by apprentices. The workmanship of the plates with Jollat's mark seemed to me more monotonous—not unskilful although less picturesque. I am not now passing upon their scientific merit, but upon their picturesque interest simply.'[387]
The inscription of Jollat's name on plates marked with the Lorraine cross seems, at first glance, quite hard to explain, especially with the general opinion concerning the former of these artists, based on Papillon's statements. But as the story of Jollat's work as an engraver still remains to be told, I think I may safely say that he simply designed the plates that bear his name in Charles Estienne's book, and that they were engraved by Tory, or, at least, in his workshop. We have seen, in fact, that Tory was Simon de Colines' favourite engraver. To be sure, M. Renouvier seems to be of opinion that all the plates were designed by Estienne Rivière, whence he concludes that the engraving is by Jollat; but this is a mistaken opinion, based on a sentence in the preface. Rivière, who was a friend of Charles Estienne, may have designed the majority of the plates in Charles Estienne's book, and yet not have designed all of them. Those signed Jollat evidently belong to that artist, who seems to have designed a number of them before the work was placed in Rivière's hands.