This so necessary reform spread very rapidly, thanks to the fact that the necessity had already made itself felt, as is proved by the work of Jean Salomon, published in that same year 1533. But it is Tory's especial glory that only those changes which were proposed by him were retained, save a few orthographic signs which have no other purpose than to distinguish words spelled alike but of different meanings—and these signs were introduced later: a, à; ou, où; du, dû, etc.

With however good a will one might seek to deny Tory's precedence in the use of orthographic signs in the French tongue, and to award it to Jean Salomon, who used them in the same year, there are two facts that decide the question in favour of the former: these are, the publication in April, 1529, of his 'Champ fleury' (the first book of which is entitled, 'An exhortation to fix and ordain the French language by certain rules for speaking with elegance in good sound French words'), and the formulation of the 'General rules of orthography of the French language,' no copy of which is known to exist, it is true, but for which Tory obtained a license to print on September 28, 1529, four years before Salomon's work appeared.

Nor must we lose sight of the fact that Tory was from Bourges, that is to say, from the same province as Jacques Thiboust, Seigneur de Quantilly, 'friend of books, and distinguished penman,' who was Jean Salomon's Mæcenas. There is nothing improbable in the supposition that Thiboust had had his interest aroused by Tory, who is likely to have been a crony of Thiboust in Paris by a two-fold claim,—as a Berrichon and as a 'friend of books.' It seems to me that the alias 'Montflory' assumed by Salomon is an allusion to 'Champ fleury.' That, in my opinion, is why he wrote it 'Montflory' or 'Florimond,' indifferently, the word being an anagram rather than a real surname.

As the opportunity offers itself, I will add to M. Francis Wey's notes a few remarks which may some day assist in writing the biography of Jean Salomon, of whom nothing is known except the fact, told us by himself, that he was an Angevin.

We know now of three different editions of his work. The first, dated 1533, with no indication of the month, was printed in that year in three pages and a half, octavo, under this title: 'Briefve doctrine pour deuement escripre selon la propriete du langaige francoys.' We do not know where or by whom it was published, but it certainly was printed at Paris, where Salomon undoubtedly lived, and probably by Antoine Augereau, as was the one next described, which seems to have been modelled upon it. Indeed, like it, it is generally found between the same covers with an edition of the 'Miroir de l'âme pécheresse' (of Marguerite of Navarre),—an edition without date, name of place or of printer, which, therefore, should also be attributed to Antoine Augereau and to the year 1533. This edition, which M. Brunet does not mention,[517] has on the first page: 'Le Miroir de lame pecheresse, auquel elle recongnoit ses fautes et pechez, aussi les graces et benefices a elle faictz par Jesuchrist son espoux.' It consists of nine half sheets in octavo, printed as four (signatures a to i). On the last leaf is a note to the reader wherein forgiveness is asked for the first corrector (he who is called to-day 'the corrector of first proofs'), who has inadvertently omitted three verses. 'Divers other trivial errors may peradventure be found before or after, but they must needs be charged rather to the variety of the copies than to the negligence of the correctors or to the haste of the printers.'—As I have said, it is at the end of this pamphlet that we find printed, with separate signatures of its own, from a to d, the little book described by M. Wey after the copy in the Bibliothèque Nationale which contains the 'Briefve doctrine.' But one essential point, which M. Wey has forgotten to mention, is that in the first edition not a word is said of the accent or the cedilla; there is no mention of anything except the apostrophe.

The second edition, printed at Paris by Antoine Augereau, in December, 1533, at the back of another edition of the 'Miroir de l'âme pécheresse' (called 'Miroir de tres chrestienne princesse Marguerite, reine de Navare'), is two-thirds larger. It was probably published (like the preceding one) by the Queen of Navarre's secretary, Jean Thiboust, after a manuscript which the author had dedicated to him as his Mæcenas. Indeed, we find at the head of this reprint the words 'ex manuscriptis authoris,' which seems to indicate further that the author was dead. A point worth noting is that the 'Briefve doctrine' again forms a part of an appendix distinguished by separate signature letters (and folios) from Marguerite's poem, and bearing the same title as in the earlier print, despite the additions that had been made to it (presumably based upon Tory's publications), especially with respect to the cedilla and the accent, which, moreover, are used throughout the volume.

The third is the one which is still in manuscript at Bourges. It contains several passages more than the preceding; but these passages, which are of very debateable merit (as M. Wey, who reproduces them in his report, declares), were probably added by one Jean Milon, of Arlenc in Auvergne, calling himself a retainer ('serviteur') of Thiboust, who revised the 'Briefve doctrine' about 1542; so much at least we may infer from the date of some other pieces in the collection containing it, which was presented, in 1555, by Jacques Thiboust to the Collège de Bourges, whence it found its way to the public library of the same city. It is exceedingly interesting to find this document in Geofroy Tory's native place. It is as if chance had chosen thereby to remind us of the source of the orthographic reform proposed by Jean Salomon.

To be entirely fair, we ought to say that certain other writers had even anticipated Salomon. Thus Jacobus Silvius, otherwise called Jacques Dubois, had published through Robert Estienne, on the 7th of the Ides of January, 1531 (January 7, 1532, n. s.), a French grammar in Latin, wherein he suggested a complete system of orthographic reform, including the acute accent, the apostrophe, the cedilla, etc.; but his plan was so complicated that it could not be followed in its entirety. Moreover, the signs proposed by him were, for the most part, impossible of adoption throughout a book. For instance, the cedilla consisted of an s placed about the c. The merit of Tory's system, over and above its priority, was its simplicity. So we may say that it was generally adopted after 1533.

VI

TRANSLATION OF THE LETTERS PATENT OF FRANÇOIS I, APPOINTING CONRAD NÉOBAR KING'S PRINTER FOR GREEK.[518]