In this book we find, in addition to the portrait of Belon, seven cuts of birds, signed with the Lorraine cross. They are: the osprey, folio 96; the sea-gull, 169; the bustard, 238; the pullet, 252; the loriot, 295; the woodpecker, 304; the sparrow-hawk, 376. Some of the other engravings in the volume are signed with a white cross on a black ground.
1556
I. LES SINGULARITEZ DE LA FRANCE ANTARCTIQUE, AUTREMENT NOMMÉE AMERIQUE, ET DE PLUSIEURS TERRES ET ISLES DECOUVERTES DE NOSTRE TEMPS. Par F. André Thevet, natif d'Angoulesme.—A Paris, chez les héritiers de Maurice de la Porte, au clos Bruneau, à l'enseigne S. Claude.—1558.
This rare and curious volume is a quarto of 8 preliminary leaves, 166 leaves of text, and 2 of index unnumbered,—in all, 46 signatures. The privilege, which is printed on the verso of the title-page, is dated Saint-Germain-en-Laye, December 18, 1556. In the dedication, addressed to the Cardinal of Sens, Jean Bertrand, first Keeper of the Seals of France, Thevet says that the country described by him maybe called the fourth part of the world, 'for that no one has as yet made explorations there, all geographers thinking that the world is limited to that which the ancients have described to us.'
There are 41 engravings in the text, not including borders, floriated letters, and Jean Bertrand's arms on the title-page. Of the 41, only seven are signed with the double cross; four of these represent scenes in the life of the American savage,—they are on folios 6 verso, 31 recto, 47 verso, and 151 recto; a fifth represents an extraordinary bird called pa (45 recto); and the other two, plants,—the pineapple (89 verso), and the cassava (113 verso). The last three appear in André Thevet's 'Cosmographie Universelle,' published in 1575, in two volumes, folio.[418] The others also appear in that work, but reëngraved on a larger scale, and without signature.
The seven engravings signed with the double cross cannot have been executed prior to 1556. For Thevet set out for the New World on November 4, 1555,[419] and remained there four months. So that it was not until the early months of 1556, at the earliest, that the engravings could have been executed. But, as the book did not appear until the beginning of 1558,[420] it may be that they were still in process of execution in 1557.
In the same year with the publication of Thevet's 'Singularités,' an octavo edition appeared at Antwerp, with the imprint of Christophe Plantin, and a privilege from the King of Spain, dated Brussels, April 20, 1558. The haste with which this reprint was prepared shows the interest with which the book was regarded. The woodcuts of the Antwerp edition are nothing more than wretched copies of those in the Paris edition. We find among them, however, in chapters 56, 58, 67, and 74, cuts of animals bearing the cipher of Jost Amman.
II. HORÆ IN LAUDEM BEATISSIMÆ VIRGINIS MARIÆ AD USUM ROMANUM. (Here the mark of T. Kerver, without the cross.) Parisiis, apud Thielman Kerver, in via sancti Jacobi, sub signo Cratis.
Duodecimo, 1556. Signatures A to M, and A to C vi. Border decorated with birds, with the small engravings of 1529. M. Niel owns a copy of this book bound with Tory's toolings. It has the Pot Cassé on the edges. Another copy, belonging to M. Portalis, is bound with the prayers (in French) described on page 219.