Quarto, Troyes, 1850 and 1859. The first fascicle of this book, which consists of a collection of old woodcuts gathered by M. Varlot in the printing-offices of Troyes, contains two signed with the Lorraine cross. They are nos. 50 and 188. The first represents the Coronation of the Virgin; we may join with it a piece in the same manner representing the Visitation, no. 51 in the same collection; and no. 5 (the Virgin holding the Child Jesus) of the fascicle published in 1859. These cuts, which are in format a small folio, doubtless formed part of a series of engravings relating to the Virgin and intended for a book of Hours.
MM. Alexis Socard and Alexandre Assier, in their work entitled 'Livres liturgiques du diocèse de Troyes' (8vo, 1863), also give, on page 79, an old Troyes woodcut, small folio, signed with the double cross, representing the Descent of the Holy Ghost on the Virgin and the Apostles. It is 135 millimetres high by 60 in width.
No. 188 of M. Varlot's fascicle, which is only one inch high by two wide, represents a harvest. It was undoubtedly one of a series of engravings illustrative of the twelve months. MM. Socard and Assier saw it in a book of Hours printed at Troyes in 1583, by Jean du Ruan, who seems to have inherited a portion of the woodcuts of Jean Le Coq, printer, of the same city. We find also in M. Varlot's collection two woodcuts marked with the letters G. T., which may have been Geofroy Tory's earlier mark, before he had adopted a special symbol. These two are no. 84, in the criblé style, and no. 131, in the Renaissance style.[434]
On account of the worn state of these cuts it is impossible to say whether they are originals or copies. It is not impossible, however, that they were executed by Tory for the printer Nicole Paris, or rather for Jean Le Coq, whose mark he engraved also.[435]
VI. Not only at Paris and Troyes do we find woodcuts with the Lorraine cross; we find them also at Orléans, at Chartres, at Poitiers, and even at Lyon, although the last-named city had a most flourishing school of engraving of its own; witness the illustrations of the Bible after Holbein,[436] published by Jean Frellon, in 1547, and those of Salomon Bernard, published by the de Tournes after 1553. But the works executed by Tory for Simon de Colines, Robert Estienne, and the rest, had so spread his name abroad, that there was not a printer of taste in France who did not seek the honour of obtaining some work of our artist. In this way Jean de Tournes, first of the name, who was unquestionably one of the most famous printers of Lyon, had engraved by Tory, or by his widow, borders and pictures in considerable numbers; unfortunately we find very few of them signed, whether because Tory's mark was afterward removed from the others, or because he omitted to place it upon them, in accordance with the wish of Jean de Tournes; for in those days printers were very desirous to appropriate the engravings that they ordered, especially at Lyon, where, nominally at least, no other engraver was known than Salomon Bernard; moreover, it is well to note that that artist, none of whose work is signed, is known only because his name was afterward published by the printers, in the very interest of their publications.
However, I propose to give a list of the pieces signed with the Lorraine cross which I have seen in books published by the de Tournes, that is, by Jean I and Jean II, his son; for it is impossible, in default of any sort of a catalogue, for me to decide what ones are attributable to each of them. As a matter of fact, I should be justified in confining myself to the second, if he had not himself said that he used woodcuts belonging to his father. And, in truth, although we know of no books published by the latter with engravings, except his edition of Petrarch of 1545 (reprinted in 1547), and his book of Chiromancy and Physiognomy, also of 1545, octavo, everything seems to indicate that those marked with the Lorraine cross were made for Jean I, who died about 1550.
The first book that I shall mention is an octavo volume, without title, described thus by M. Didot in his 'Essai sur la Gravure,' col. 235; 'Pamphlet without title, printed on one side only, with this imprint on page 1: "A Lion, Ian de Tournes, 1551." The border, composed of arabesques in white on a black ground, has at the foot the Lorraine cross. Twenty-two of these engravings represent scenes from the theatre of the ancients; the ninth bears the Lorraine cross.' This pamphlet was reprinted in 1556, as we shall see in a moment.
The second book that I shall mention is an octavo volume, without date, entitled: 'Thesaurus amicorum,' which is in the Bibliothèque Nationale. It contains three series of borders: (1) Borders with arabesques in black on a white ground (one of them is signed with a very small Lorraine cross); (2) Borders with arabesques in white on a black ground (one of these also is signed with a small white cross); (3) Borders with grotesque subjects, licentious and otherwise. These last, none of which are signed, represent figures analogous to those that are found in the 'Songes drolatiques' attributed to Rabelais, and seem to be modelled upon them.
In the first part of the book, the borders, 32 in number, are empty[437]; in the second part, they enclose medallions of famous characters of ancient times, with mottoes in all sorts of languages. There are 96 of these portraits. They were reproduced, with many others, in a book printed in 1559, under the title, 'Insignium aliquot virorum icones' (octavo).[438] In the dedication, to G. Tuffano, 'gymnasiarchæ Nemausensi,' Jean de Tournes, second of the name, the printer of the book, informs us that he undertook it in order to utilize the woodcuts left by his father. 'Cum pater jamdudum haberet hasce icones inutiles ne omnino perirent, hæc pauca, quæ huic opusculo insunt, ex variis auctoribus accumulavi....' In this book the medallions number one hundred and forty-three; none are signed, but they are altogether in Tory's manner.