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Geofroy Tory

Note 445 — SECTION II. PRINTED BOOKS ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS BY TORY OR HIS PUPILS. (continued 2)

George Burnham Ives translation

For instance, the anonymous author of a book entitled Notice sur les Graveurs, printed at Besançon in 1807 (2 vols., octavo), attributes to Salomon Bernard, whose period of activity he places between 1550 and 1580 (vol. i, p. 63 ), the engravings of Petrarch's Triumphs, which appear in an edition of 1545, and a Resurrection of the Dead, dated 1547 (vol. i, p. 64), which dates are inconsistent with those mentioned above; he also attributes to him (vol. i, p. 65) the theatrical scenes which we have with good reason ascribed to Tory, whose cross appears on one of them; and, lastly, he attributes to him the story of Psyche, in 32 duodecimo cuts, and the medallions of Jacques Strada's Epitome des Antiquités (Lyon, 1553), his authorship of which is very doubtful. But there is no question at all concerning the following pieces, which certainly belong to Salomon Bernard:—

I. The figures of the Bible, to the number of 251, reprinted very frequently after 1553. In an edition of 1680, printed by Samuel de Tournes, at Geneva, whither the second Jean withdrew about 1580, because of his religion, is the following note: 'The figures that we offer you here are from the hand of an excellent craftsman, known in his day under the name of Salomon Bernard, called Le Petit Bernard, and have always been held in esteem by those who are learned in works of this sort.'

II. Claude Paradin's Devises héroiques, containing 184 engravings, besides a border on the title-page. Large octavo, Jean de Tournes, 1557 ( Bibliothèque Nationale). The license at the end of the volume discloses the titles of several other volumes which Jean de Tournes was then intending to publish, particularly the two following, which appeared the same year.

III. The Metamorphoses of Ovid; octavo, 1557; 178 engravings.

IV. L'Astronomique Discours, by Jacques Bassentin; folio, 1557; with a large number of astronomical plates.

V. Hymnes du temps, by Guillaume Gueroult; quarto, 1560; 88 pages, with borders and drawings. In the avis au lecteur we read: 'I hope that you will find some pleasure herein, for that the whole is the work of a goodly hand; for the invention [of the engravings] is of M. Bernard Salomon, an excellent painter as there has ever been in our hemisphere.'

VI. Virgil's Æneid, French translation; quarto, 1560; with 12 vignettes.

VII. A book of Thermes, in eighteen orders; printed at Lyon in 1572, by Jean Marcorelle.—At the tenth therme is a genie carving on a shield the letter S, the initial of Bernard's baptismal name.

A large number of vignettes, and of letters in grisaille, used by the printers of Lyon, are also attributed to this artist.

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