. The G is still inclined to the gothic, but the second letter is altogether roman. In my judgement, this monogram should be translated by the words, 'Godofredus faciebat,' or 'fecit.' It is true that the ascription of these engravings to Tory has been contested; but Jules Renouvier, whose taste was so unerring, and who cannot be accused of infatuation for Tory, did not hesitate to adopt my hypothesis. 'In the last of Vostre's Hours,' he says, in the pamphlet that he published concerning that bookseller, 'we see, besides the plates executed in the old French manner, which have not disappeared as yet, other plates in the Italian and German manners, subjects treated in an altogether novel style: the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Adoration of the Kings, and the Circumcision, are composed of small figures in a large ground; the design has recovered all its delicacy, in its clearly drawn forms, and the cutting is done with no less diversity than care. Here, luckily,' continues Renouvier, 'a monogram enables us to attribute the engravings to their author. It is a G alone, or enclosing an F, subscribed on a shield or in a cartouche hanging from a branch. They have been claimed for Geofroy Tory, and with good reason, for the manner in which these plates are executed accords with what we know of that excellent artist.'
It is, perhaps, to these engravings, so successfully executed, that we should ascribe the partiality that Tory afterwards displayed for books of Hours, of which, as we have seen, he put forth several editions, in diverse formats, and with a large number of engravings on wood done by himself.
1516-1518
Here is to be placed Tory's second journey to Rome,[319] from which he returned more Italian than ever, in respect to art.
1519-1520
Under this date, which was when Tory was working at the manuscripts I have described above, I shall place, albeit somewhat conjecturally, two small engravings on wood, signed with the letters G T, which appear in a publication of M. Varlot entitled: 'Illustration de l'ancienne imprimerie troyenne' (4to, 1850). They are numbers 84 and 131, the first in the criblé style, the second in the style of the Renaissance. My ascription of them to Tory is based upon the facts that they are of his time, as we may infer from the one in the criblé style, and that the initials G T are entirely consistent with that period of the life of our artist, who sometimes signed his name in full, Geofroy Tory, as witness his Hours of 1524.
The first of these engravings, number 84, represents a Descent from the Cross. The letters G T are at the foot of the plate, and are some distance apart.[320] In the same collection there is another engraving of the same series, but not signed—number 78. It represents a bishop blessing a sick man who lies entirely nude before him. These two are 48 millimetres wide by 62 high.
Number 131 represents a scene from Terence. The letters G T are side by side at the foot of the plate, which is 33 millimetres high by 55 wide. In the same collection, numbers 132 and 133, are two other woodcuts of the same series, but not signed. Lastly, in an edition of Æsop, published recently at Troyes, by the printer Baudot, we find a woodcut which probably had the same origin, and found its way into this volume by chance. These four engravings are evidently from an edition of Terence in a small format; I have been unable to find it.