Hendecasyllabic Poem of the Burgundian Gérard de Vercel, on poor printers.[218]
Therefore hence, away therefore, profane hands of the inauspicious throng of printers; your impure works be off; that by your forbidden coming and impious front you may not stain and soil this heavenly thing. Let no man fail to know: this volume is sacred.
Ah! vile and wretched printers, unskilled to put in print even the trifles of the schools or old women's tales, why do you spoil arts that are holy, and pollute with impure hand the laborious works of the nine[219] sisters?
What do you not put forth from your office that is worthy to be cast forth and buried where the refuse of the stomach is placed?
Therefore hence, away therefore, oh ye profane, ye vile and wretched printers. Be this word enough: sacred is this volume, which our Geofroy, our famous Geofroy, he, I say, of Bourges, taking pity on Pius, unearthed from its Lethæan rust and sleep, employing the guidance and assistance of his friend Longueil.[220]
The book is brought to a close by an 'avis au lecteur' thus conceived:
Tory to the Reader, happiness.[221]
These few corrections, excellent reader, I beg you not to wonder at. I have collected them, such as differ from the readings of the old manuscript, so that you may be able readily to emend the book for yourself. I should lay the burden of the errors on the printers, but the art of printing has this natural peculiarity, that the smallest book cannot be printed from beginning to end without some mistakes. Farewell.
Epigram to the Student by Tory.
If, reader, you are preparing to journey in a fixed course to a hundred towns, to a hundred cities, if you desire to travel, better instructed and on the direct road, to a hundred seaports with their bays, then ever gratefully and carefully hold this little book in your right hand ready to consult.[222]
9
GOTOFREDI TORINI BITURICI IN FILIAM CHARISSIMAM, VIRGUNCULARUM ELEGANTISSIMAM, EPITAPHIA ET DIALOGI.—IN EANDEM ETIAM QUATOUR ET VIGINTI DISTICHA UNUM ET EUNDEM SENSUM COPIA VERBORUM ET INGENII FŒCUNDITATE PULCHRE REPETENTIA.
These verses of Tory on the death of his daughter Agnes form a small volume of two quarto sheets (or eight leaves). The book is dedicated to Philibert Babou; it was printed February 15, 1523, old style (1524), a few days after Tory had conceived the idea of his 'Champ fleury' (January 6, 1524). The printer, who is not named, was Simon de Colines, then living near the School of Law ('e regione scholæ decretorum').
On the last page appears a mark engraved specially for this little book, for it includes a tiny winged figure ascending heavenward, which doubtless represents the soul of Tory's daughter returning to God. This mark reappears at the end of the Hours of 1524-1525, but minus the small figure just mentioned.[223]
As we learn from the text, Agnes, who died August 25, 1522, at the age of nine years eleven months and thirty days, was born August 26, 1512. So that Tory was married at least as early as 1511. We know from another document that his wife's name was Perrette le Hullin.