This little volume, printed in Greek and Latin, two columns on a page, was called to my attention by M. Lornier, barrister, of Rouen. Opposite the first page of text is a small engraving, signed with the Lorraine cross, representing the penance of David. David is on his knees, with a book before him and his harp at his right hand; he is gazing at God the Father, who is seen in the sky blessing him. Doubtless this engraving appears in other books of earlier date. It is 73 millimetres high by 55 wide.
ENGRAVINGS OF UNCERTAIN DATE.
I. FIGURE DE L'ANCIENNE ET DE LA NOUVELLE ALLIANCE.
A large plate, 35 centimetres in width by 27 in height, divided into two parts by a tree at the foot of which is Man, thus placed on the boundary of the two worlds. The tree bears only withered branches on the left side (the old alliance), whereas, on the right (the new alliance), it is green and flourishing.
In the compartment at the left we see Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Eve is offering Adam the apple. Beneath them is the word 'peche.'[423] Lower still is a skeleton on a bier, with the words 'la mort' beneath. Above the Garden is Mount Sinai, whereon Moses is receiving the tables of the law; beneath, on the right, the 'terrestrial Jerusalem,' wherein are devout persons being devoured by serpents, with the serpent of brass in the midst, and above it the words, 'Similitvde de la ivstification.' Moses appears on the right; at the left, and a little lower, Hagar and Ishmael; lower still, the prophet pointing out to Man Jesus on the Cross at the right.
In the compartment at the right we see God standing on the terrestrial globe, with the words, 'Iervsalem celeste'; above, 'Mont Sion,' on which stands a woman's figure, with the words 'La Grace' over her head. An angel bearing a cross descends from Heaven (where are the words, 'Emmanvel Diev avec novs') amid rays of light which fall upon the woman. Lower, at the left, is another angel announcing the birth of Christ to the shepherds. Near by, at the right, the Christ on the Cross, with the words, 'nostre ivstice,' and the Paschal Lamb, with the words, 'nostre innocence'; below, Jesus coming forth from the tomb, with the words, 'nostre victoire'; still lower, at the left, St. John Baptist pointing out to Man the Christ on the Cross; the Forerunner is indicated by the words, 'Lenseignevr de Christ,' in a cartouche; above St. John are Sarah and Isaac.
In each of the compartments is a number of figures which apparently correspond to some vanished text.[424] There are eight in the one at the right and nine in the other. 'Man' is marked with a zero. I am unable to give the origin of this plate, which is in the Cabinet des Estampes in the Bibliothèque Nationale, and was for a long time attributed to Jean Cousin. It was M. Devéria who removed it from that artist's work and placed it with Tory's, whose double cross it bears, at the left, below the cartouche containing the words 'Lenseignevr de Christ.' I believe that it belongs in some large folio Bible; for I have seen the subject treated in a more or less summary fashion[425] on the title-pages of several Bibles, in French and other languages. I will mention particularly the following, all of which are in the Bibliothèque Nationale. (1) A French Bible, printed at Antwerp in 1530, by Martin l'Empereur; (2) A Bible in old Saxon, printed at Lubeck in 1533 by Ludowich Dietz (the same woodcuts reappear in an edition in Danish, issued by the same printer, at Copenhagen, in 1550); (3) A Bible in Latin, from the text of Erasmus, published in 1543 or 1544, with two engravings by Cranach; (4) A Bible in Flemish, printed at Antwerp in 1556. I will mention also Luther's Latin Commentaries ('enarrationes') on the Bible, printed at Nuremberg in 1555, with an engraving on the title-page dated 1552.
Whatever its source, this drawing was reproduced in 1562, on a large enamelled plate in tinted grisaille, attributed to Pierre Rexmond, enameller, at Limoges. The sketch for this plate was published in 1843, after a copy in the collection of M. Baron, in the volume entitled 'Meubles et Armes du moyen âge,' a large quarto, published by Hauser, dealer in prints on Boulevard des Italiens.[426] It is no. 127 in the collection. In this drawing the groups are arranged in chronological order, the circular form of the plate making it impossible to retain the arrangement of the engraving. But the various subjects and their respective inscriptions are identical, save for the errors in orthography with which the Limousin artist has besprinkled the latter. The two Jerusalems are separated by two trees, which, starting at the outer border of the plate, formed of Renaissance arabesques, join their heads at the centre, where there is a medallion containing the face of Marguerite de Valois, sister of François I.[427]