Geoffroy Tory, born at Bourges in 1480, continued after Vostre and Verard the onward march of illustration of the Book. He was a sort of encyclopædist, who knew and foresaw everything, but with a singularly subtler and finer genius than his predecessors. There is now very little doubt that at first Tory was an engraver and printer. Moreover, he published with Jean Petit one of his first volumes, the geography of Pomponius Mela, printed by Gilles de Gourmont in 1507. Tory was then an erudite and diffusive commentator. Later he published a book with poor engravings (_Valerii Probi Grammatici Opusculum_, 1510), waiting until his good star should place him on the right road. He had for his mark, say the bibliographers, the cross of Lorraine [Symbol: double cross], small enough to be lost in the ornamentation of his plates. Really this sign is found in Tory's mark--the "Pot Cassé"--the broken jar--and also sometimes in the letter G, which was his ordinary signature. This opinion, which we will not try to contradict in a popular work like this, appears to us to err, as others used this mark, as may be judged from the essentially different touches of engravings bearing the cross of Lorraine, and particularly those of Woériot in the middle of the century. If M. A. Bernard[A] may be credited, Geoffroy Tory cultivated all the sciences with equal success. For our purpose, suffice it to recognise his right to one of the first places in the art of decoration of books of hours. Doubtless his travels in Italy had contributed to modify his taste and to detach him a little from the sober and simple manner that then characterised French engraving; but he nevertheless preserved the indelible traces of the origin of his art, in the same way as some people cannot correct their provincial accent. The _Heures de la Vierge_, which he designed, and which he had engraved about 1520, on account of Simon de Colines, is marvellously surrounded by ornaments, until then unknown in France; at the same time, and in spite of other tendencies, it is purely a French work, and the specimen given here is a convincing proof. [Footnote A: _Geoffroy Tory, Peintre et Graveur, Premier Imprimeur Royal, Réformateur de l'Orthographe et de la Typographie_: Paris, 1857, 8vo.] [Illustration: Fig. 48.--Full page of the _Heures_ of Simon de Colines, by Tory.] [Illustration: Fig. 49.--_Heures_ of Geoffroy Tory. The Circumcision.] [Illustration: Fig. 50.--_Heures_ of Simon de Colines, with the mark of the Cross of Lorraine.]