Again, all the authorities agree that Claude Garamond was a pupil of Tory. Now, what could he have learned from his master, if not the art of engraving types,—he who did nothing else in his whole life?
Furthermore, it is impossible to doubt that Tory engraved types when one runs through his 'Champ fleury.' Note especially what he says on folio 34 recto, where, having given a drawing of a capital A reversed, he explains it in the technical terms of the engraver.
'This,' he says, 'is done to help and give hints to goldsmiths and engravers, who, with their burin, graver, or other tool, engrave and cut an ancient letter reversed [à l'envers], or, as we say, to the left, so that it may appear to the right when it is printed and placed in its proper aspect. I have purposely made it white, and its background black, the opposite of the one that is drawn to the right, so that no one may be misled. For, as I have said, I have seen and do see many persons who are misled. Before the letter to be printed is finished, it is made twice reversed and twice to the right. In the first of the reversed there are the punches[285] of steel, in which the letter is wholly left-handed. The matrices have the letter to the right. The letter then cast is, as I have said of the punches, left-handed. Then finally on the printed paper the whole appears to the right, and in its proper aspect to be read currently. I had forgotten to say that the broad leg of the A is one tenth of its square in width, and the other leg one third as wide. The transverse limb should be three fourths as wide as the broad leg, as you may see by the drawings herewith made and duly proportioned.'
After this, and knowing as we do the relations between Geofroy Tory and the Estienne family, it will not be deemed extraordinary that I attribute to our artist the italic letters of Simon de Colines, engraved about 1525, and the roman and italic letters of Robert Estienne, engraved a little later.
But Tory not only engraved letters, that is to say, punches on steel, as some authors have stated: he signalized himself above all by his engravings on wood, and he illustrated almost all the books of his time, which fact is almost wholly unknown. I shall be asked, doubtless, upon what evidence my opinion is based. It is this: In the license to print the book of Hours, granted to Tory by François I on September 23, 1524, we read:[286] 'Our dear and well-beloved maistre Geofroy Tory ... hath now caused it to be made known and shown unto us that he hath of late made and caused to be made certain pictures and vignettes "à l'antique," and likewise certain others, "à la moderne," to the end that the same may be printed and made use of in divers books of Hours, whereupon he hath employed himself a very long time, and hath made divers great expenditures and outlays.' Evidently the words 'he hath made' do not here apply to the drawing, but to the engraving of these pictures and vignettes, which he had previously drawn. Moreover, Tory himself betrayed his profession of engraver on wood in a charming vignette which he used as an initial in 'Champ fleury,' and which is reproduced on page 1. For we see therein, besides a compass, a square, etc., a pen and several varieties of knives used in wood-engraving; all of which justifies the remark of M. Renouvier: 'Tory possessed the rare faculty of using the graver as well as the pen.'
But, I shall be told, it avails nothing to prove vaguely that Tory dabbled in wood-engraving, if we can point to no works of his in that branch of the art,—for no one has done so hitherto. I propose to try to gratify the reader's desire, by proving that there is a way to recognize the engravings executed by Tory.
Many persons have already observed that the principal engravings in Tory's books, those which are most individual, as, for example, the Gallic Hercules (reproduced on page [141]), and that of the Pot Cassé which accompanies the description of that emblem in 'Champ fleury' (reproduced on page [21]) bear a mark; but this mark they dare not attribute to him, because it is constantly found upon engravings, alone or accompanied by initials, for more than a century. M. Robert-Dumesnil, in his interesting work entitled 'Le Peintre-Graveur français,' published in the course of his article on Woeiriot,[287] who himself used this same mark, a catalogue of engravings signed with the double cross,—which he calls the cross of Lorraine or of Jerusalem,—extending from 1522 to 1632. He concludes that this mark was 'frequently employed in France, as a fictitious signature, on engravings on wood, by artists whose names will probably remain forever buried in oblivion.'
To banish this phantom, which caused M. Renouvier himself to pause on the pathway of truth,[288] it is sufficient to come to close quarters with it. This is what I propose to do; but first I must thank M. Robert-Dumesnil for having satisfactorily cleared up one important point. Until his book appeared, almost all the engravings marked with the double cross had been attributed to Woeiriot; or, rather, the engravings of the latter had added to the perplexity of classifiers. By identifying Woeiriot's work, M. Robert-Dumesnil has simplified the problem considerably. Only a small number of pieces remain to be ascribed to their authors, and as to these M. Robert-Dumesnil expresses himself thus: 'None of the works executed prior to Woeiriot's birth and the beginning of his career as an artist can be by him; of the others we hasten to say that not one seems to us to have been designed or executed by him.'
Nothing could be clearer. Let us add, to close the discussion, that Woeiriot did not begin to engrave until long after Tory had ceased, as he was barely two years old when Tory died; and, furthermore, that his cross is almost always accompanied by his initials; sometimes, however, he uses the cross alone, but in that case the date prevents confusion. Take, for example, the 'Emblesmes et devises chrestiennes composées par damoiselle Georgette de Montenay,' the first edition of which was in 1571. It is impossible to attribute these engravings to Tory, who died nearly forty years earlier.