Thus it appears that Geofroy was the oldest of the brothers and sisters, as he is named first in the document. Now, as two of his sisters were of marriageable age in 1507, and as he is called maistre, it is probable that he himself was more than twenty-five. That is why I have placed his birth about 1480.
2. Of his Descendants.
Jean Toubeau, printer and bookseller at Bourges, who died at Paris in 1685, while on a mission for his native place,[503] wrote the following in the preface to his 'Institutes consulaires,' printed by himself in 1682, three years before his death: 'I have not been impelled to undertake and write this work by the examples of the illustrious members of my profession. Nor is it the example of those of my own family who have given their works to the public: Geofroy Tory, professor in the University of Paris, and a printer and bookseller in the same city, who was so prolific that, proposing to put forth a book which should teach the scope and proportions of those beautiful roman letters which we use to-day in printing, he could not forbear to produce a book overflowing with learning, which was followed by numerous others of instruction, which are so well known that it is needless to give a list of them here, especially as M. de la Thaumassière gives them a whole chapter in our history.'
It is evident from this passage that Toubeau was related to Tory, but it is not clear how the relationship came about; and La Thaumassière does not mention Tory in his 'Histoire du Berry,' printed a few years later by François Toubeau, Jean's son, despite the promises which he seems to have made to Jean, who had transferred to him the duty of making known to posterity that illustrious son of his province.
The only author able to assist us at all in our investigations is Moréri, who, in the article on Jean Toubeau in his great historical dictionary, says that he was the great-great-grandson of Tory, on his mother's side. This statement should be exact, and the article appears to be written from information furnished by the Toubeau family; but all that we can determine from it is that Toubeau was a descendant of Tory in the fourth degree. Whether he descended from a son or daughter of Geofroy, I have been unable to discover. To elucidate this fact, I wrote to M. Auguste Toubeau, judge of the civil court at Bourges, and this was his reply, dated March 5, 1856: 'I should have been glad to give you the information you desire about Tory. But I have no documents or family papers which establish his relationship to Jean and Hilaire Toubeau. I do not know what connection there was between them and Tory, and I learned that there was such a connection only from what Moréri says of it.'
Failing family papers, I made fruitless efforts to fix the relationship between the Toubeaus and Tory. Finding it impossible to reach any certain result, I have abandoned this search, which has no bearing upon the history of our illustrious typographer. The Toubeaus alone are interested in the solution of the question; I leave to them the task of proving their kinship.
POSTSCRIPT.—It may be surmised that Bonaventure Torinus, bookseller of Bourges, who caused to be printed at that city, in 1595, by the widow of Nicolas Levez, the 'Epitome juris civilis,' by an unknown author, and 'Julii Pauli receptarum sententiarum libri V,'[504] was Tory's son, for he wrote his name in Latin in the same way that Tory wrote it; but was it from a daughter of Tory or from a daughter of this Bonaventure that Toubeau descended? It is impossible for me to say. The lateness of the period at which Bonaventure makes his appearance leads me to believe that he did not see the light until Tory had reached an advanced age. Indeed, if we compare the dates, we shall find that this son of Tory cannot have come into the world before 1530, for, starting from that year, he would have been sixty-five years old in 1595, when his 'Epitome juris' was printed, and there is no reason to believe that he died very soon thereafter. For my own part, I believe that he was not born until after the publication of 'Champ fleury,' and that his Christian name was an allusion to his late birth.[505] In that case, we can understand why he did not succeed to the paternal establishment: he was only two or three years old at Geofroy's death—too young to think of taking his place; so that that duty fell to Geofroy's pupils, whoever they may have been. As for Bonaventure, the family traditions naturally led him back to Bourges, and the trade that he adopted brought him still nearer to his father.
II
VERSES IN HONOUR OF GEOFROY TORY, PRINTED AT THE HEAD OF PALSGRAVE'S GRAMMAR.[506]
'Ejusdem [Leonardi] Coxi ad eruditum virum Gefridum TROY[507] de Burges[508] Gallum, Campi floridi authorem, quem ille sua lingua Champ fleury vocat, nomine omnium Anglorum, phaleutium.