I. HOURS ACCORDING TO THE USE OF TOUL.
Octavo. On the first page: 'The present hours according to the use of Tou [sic], in full, sans requerir, newly printed at Paris.' (Here the mark of François Regnault.) 'For sale in Paris, Rue Saint Jacques, at the sign of the Elephant, opposite the Mathurins, by Françoys Regnault's widow.'
On the verso is a table of Easter-Days for thirteen years, beginning in 1547. Next comes a calendar, with engravings and verses (some in Latin, some in French), the 'Jours moralisez,' divers moral and religious axioms, in verse and in prose, and, lastly, the four Gospels of the Passion, in Latin. All these form the first part, with a special series of signatures, aa to ee. It is more than likely that this first part, which has no application to any particular diocese, is printed, in the same form, in the Hours which Veuve Regnault probably printed for other churches about the same time. In signatures cc and ee there is an engraving representing Jesus on the Cross, signed with the letters I, L, B and the Lorraine cross, which appears in several other publications of the same period.
The second part of the book comprises the Hours properly so-called, according to the ritual of the church of Toul. This part is made up of eight signatures, a to h, the word Tou being printed on the first page of each sheet.
The volume contains a hundred leaves in all. In addition to the bookseller's mark and the engraving signed with the Lorraine cross, there are 55 large woodcuts, most of which are signed with the initials I, M (without the cross), a few small engravings, and a large number of letters in grisaille, but no borders.
With a copy of these Hours, which I have seen, was bound the following work:—
'The fifteen effusions of the blood of our Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ, by Barbe Regnault, Rue Saint Jacques, at the sign of the Elephant, opposite the Mathurins.' Eight leaves in two octavo folds, enriched with fifteen pretty woodcuts, interspersed through the text, and marked, like the one mentioned above, which is one of them, with the letters I, L, B and the Lorraine cross.
This little volume is undated, but it is known that Barbe Regnault succeeded her mother, Madeleine Boursette, widow of François Regnault, who was carrying on the business as late as 1555. So that the engravings with the initials I, L, B might be of later date than that; but we have seen that one of them had already appeared in the first part of the book; therefore they are of earlier date than 1547.
Here is a list of these engravings, which are the same ones mentioned by M. Robert-Dumesnil under date of 1599:—