[165] It might perhaps be interesting to publish this book to-day (it is now very rare), scrupulously following the first edition, as has been done in the case of Palsgrave's Lesclaircissement de la langue françoise.
[166] The floriated letters engraved by Tory which appear in the course of the book, and of which the entire alphabet is given on the verso of folio 78 of the first edition, are replaced in the second by letters of an entirely different make.
[167] Histoire de l'Imprimerie, p. 99.
[168] It will be seen that I apparently had most excellent grounds for saying in my first edition that Tory lived until after 1550. Could one imagine that a historian of Berry, a townsman of Tory and friend of Jean Toubeau, could blunder so stupidly concerning the date of our artist's death? La Caille even makes him live until the close of the sixteenth century.
[169] [For the Latin original, see Appendix [X], f.]
[170] [Tory's signature referred to consists in the double, or Lorraine, cross found on nos. 5 and 10.]
[171] See Part 2, § II, no. [2] (2).
[172] See p. 38, note [4], supra.
[173] One of our most skilful binders, M. Capé, used this design in his bindings. An example may be seen on a copy of the Hours (quarto) of 1527 in the Bibliothèque Nationale.
[174] It goes without saying that in the numerous quotations which I shall make from these books I shall do away with abbreviations and supply punctuation. To do otherwise would be to give the reader of to-day, who is unfamiliar with the tachygraphy of the Middle Ages, simply a succession of undecipherable puzzles. It is a difficult task to restore the Latin texts according to the first impressions. I have taken it upon myself, so that the reader may have the pleasure of reading without difficulty. What I have said must be my apology for such errors as I may have made in my work of restoration.