The "Emblems" of Georgette de Montenay were also in the burlesque style of Alciati, but they had an advantage, as the author assures us:-- "Alciat fist des emblèmes exquis, Lesquels, voyant de plusieurs requis, Désir me prist de commencer les miens, Lesquels je croy estre premiers chrestiens." This orthodoxy does not make them more intelligible, but the engravings of Woériot, unskilful as they are, import an element of interest which surpasses the rest. It was always at Lyons, the rival and often the master of Paris in typography, that the author printed his work. By the privilege dated 1566, five years before publication, we see that it is permitted to Peter Woériot, engraver of the Duke of Lorraine, to portray, engrave, and cut in copper the said figures called emblems for the time and term of five years (18th October, 1566). Peter Woériot sometimes signed his prints with the small Lorraine cross adopted by Geoffroy Tory's workshop, as may be seen in our engraving. Copper plate engraving had by this time established itself, and the works that were so illustrated spread themselves. Du Cerceau published his admirable collection of _Plus Beaux Bastiments de France_ in folio 1576-79, which had numerous plans and views of the royal and princely castles. Thevet put forth his _Cosmographie Universelle_ and his _Hommes Illustres_, the latter adorned with skilfully engraved portraits. In Paris the publishers Mamert Patisson, who married the widow of Robert Estienne and took his mark, Adrien le Roy, and Robert Ballard, published the celebrated _Ballet Comique de la Royne Faict aux Nopces de Monsieur le Duc de Joyeuse_, composed by Balthasar de Beaujoyeux, valet de chambre to Henri III.; and in this book, in which were put hasty etchings, the King displayed all his immodesty and depravity. The Book has often had the unconscious mission of transmitting to posterity the unworthiness of its author or of its heroes. From this time the Book has left its golden age to enter into the boastings of courtiers and political abstractions. [Illustration: Fig. 62.--Engraving by P. Woériot for Georgette de Montenay's _Emblèmes_.] Among the publications opposed to the Government of the time, the two associates James Tortorel and John Perrissin, of Lyons, had published a celebrated collection of plates on the religious wars that stained the reign of Charles IX. with blood. At first engraved on metal, these plates were worn out, and were gradually replaced by others engraved on wood, on which several artists worked, among them James le Challeux and also John de Gourmont, one of the most celebrated wood-cutters of the sixteenth century. This was a work composed of single leaves in folio size, which had an extraordinary sale among the religious people of the time.