At a time which I am unable to fix with precision, but not earlier than the month of September, 1531, Tory printed another book, in octavo, with borders made up of plants, animals, insects, birds, etc., like those in the quarto Hours of 1527, but, naturally, on a smaller scale. I have never seen this book, but its existence is established to my satisfaction by the publication of a book of Hours, at a later date, by Olivier Mallard, with the same borders and vignettes. I can give with certainty neither the title nor the date of printing of Tory's book; but the date of the engravings is readily determined approximately, thanks to certain ornaments of Mallard's book. For instance, we find in it, as in the Hours of 1527, the crowned F and the salamander of François I, the crowned L and the biparted shield (France and Savoy) of his mother, who died in 1531, and a blank shield which suggests the widowhood of François, and consequently proves that these cuts were designed before July, 1530. As for my ascription of these cuts to Tory, it is due to the style of the borders, which are copied from the Hours of 1527. Moreover, he has added a special symbol, namely, the coat-of-arms of Bourges (three sheep, placed two and one, and wearing collars), which appears now and again at the foot of the page, beside the symbols of François I and his mother. As I have said, I do not know the title of the book in which Tory first used these cuts; it seems to me, however, that we may fairly conclude from the use Olivier Mallard made of them that it was a book of Hours; Tory probably decided to publish an octavo edition of his Hours 'à la moderne' of 1527, as he had published in 1527 an octavo edition of his Hours 'à l'antique' of 1524-1525. Indeed, it may be that the book in question is the one thus described by M. Brunet: 'Horæ in laudem beatissimæ Virginis Mariæ ad usum Rothomagensem.—Parisiis, ad insigne Vasis effracti. 1536.' Small octavo, roman type, line engravings.
It will be seen that the book is said to be printed at the sign of the Pot Cassé, without mention of the printer's name. This may mean that it was printed by Tory's widow, who published Macault's work in the same way in 1535.
We shall speak elsewhere of Mallard's book, but this is the place to mention the engravings it contains, which doubtless appeared also in Tory's book. In Mallard's publication of 1541 there are sixteen different borders, the same one being always placed on the recto and verso of each leaf, and nineteen of the plates of the 16mo edition of 1529. The two lacking are number 1 and number 21. [The engravings of The Visitation are reproduced below.]
SECTION III.
WORKS PUBLISHED BY TORY FOR FRANÇOIS I.
1
LE SACRE ET CORONNEMENT DE LA ROYNE, IMPRIME PAR LE COMMANDEMENT DU ROY NOSTRE SIRE. (Pot Cassé no. 6.) On le vend a Paris, en la rue Sainct Iaques, devant lescu de Basle, et devant leglise de la Magdaleine, a lenseigne du Pot Cassé.—Avec privilege.