Books and Bookmen [36]
tres illustre Royne de Navarre,' Jean de Tournes
employed a pretty allegorical device. Love, with the bandage thrust
back from his eyes, and with the bow and arrows in his hand, has
flown up to the sun, which he seems to touch; like Prometheus in the
myth when he stole the fire, a shower of flowers and flames falls
around him. Groueleau, of Paris, had for motto Nul ne s'y frotte,
with the thistle for badge. These are beautifully combined in the
title-page of his version of Apuleius, 'L'Amour de Cupido et de
Psyche' (Paris, 1557). There is probably no better date for
frontispieces, both for ingenuity of device and for elegance of
arrangement of title, than the years between 1530 and 1560. By
1562, when the first edition of the famous Fifth Book of Rabelais
was published, the printers appear to have thought devices wasted on
popular books, and the title of the Master's posthumous chapters is
printed quite simply.
In 1532-35 there was a more adventurous taste--witness the title of
'Gargantua.' This beautiful title decorates the first known
edition, with a date of the First Book of Rabelais. It was sold,
most appropriately, devant nostre Dame de Confort. Why should so
glorious a relic of the Master have been carried out of England, at
the Sunderland sale? All the early titles of Francois Juste's Lyons
editions of Rabelais are on this model. By 1542 he dropped the
framework of architectural design. By 1565 Richard Breton, in
Paris, was printing Rabelais with a frontispiece of a classical dame
holding a heart to the sun, a figure which is almost in the taste of
Stothard, or Flaxman.
The taste for vignettes, engraved on copper, not on wood, was
revived under the Elzevirs. Their pretty little title-pages are not
so well known but that we offer examples. In the essay on the
Elzevirs in this volume will be found a copy of the vignette of the
'Imitatio Christi,' and of 'Le Pastissier Francois' a reproduction
is given here (pp. 114, 115). The artists they employed had plenty
of fancy, not backed by very profound skill in design.
In the same genre as the big-wigged classicism of the Elzevir
vignettes, in an age when Louis XIV. and Moliere (in tragedy) wore
laurel wreaths over vast perruques, are the early frontispieces of
Moliere's own collected works. Probably the most interesting of all
French title-pages are those drawn by Chauveau for the two volumes
'Les Oeuvres de M. de Moliere,' published in 1666 by Guillaume de
Luynes. The first shows Moliere in two characters, as Mascarille,
and as Sganarelle, in 'Le Cocu Imaginaire.' Contrast the full-blown
jollity of the fourbum imperator, in his hat, and feather, and wig,
and vast canons, and tremendous shoe-tie, with the lean melancholy
of jealous Sganarelle. These are two notable aspects of the genius
of the great comedian. The apes below are the supporters of his
scutcheon.
The second volume shows the Muse of Comedy crowning Mlle. de Moliere
(Armande Bejart) in the dress of Agnes, while her husband is in the
costume, apparently, of Tartuffe, or of Sganarelle in 'L'Ecole des
Femmes.' 'Tartuffe' had not yet been licensed for a public stage.
The interest of the portraits and costumes makes these title-pages
precious, they are historical documents rather than mere
curiosities.
These title-pages of Moliere are the highwater mark of French taste
in this branch of decoration. In the old quarto first editions of
Corneille's early plays, such as 'Le Cid' (Paris 1637), the printers
used lax and sprawling combinations of flowers and fruit. These, a
little better executed, were the staple of Ribou, de Luynes, Quinet,
and the other Parisian booksellers who, one after another, failed to
satisfy Moliere as publishers.
The basket of fruits on the title-page of 'Iphigenie,' par M. Racine
(Barbin, Paris, 1675), is almost, but not quite, identical with the
similar ornament of De Vise's 'La Cocue Imaginaire' (Ribou, Paris
1662). Many of Moliere's plays appearing first, separately, in
small octavo, were adorned
employed a pretty allegorical device. Love, with the bandage thrust
back from his eyes, and with the bow and arrows in his hand, has
flown up to the sun, which he seems to touch; like Prometheus in the
myth when he stole the fire, a shower of flowers and flames falls
around him. Groueleau, of Paris, had for motto Nul ne s'y frotte,
with the thistle for badge. These are beautifully combined in the
title-page of his version of Apuleius, 'L'Amour de Cupido et de
Psyche' (Paris, 1557). There is probably no better date for
frontispieces, both for ingenuity of device and for elegance of
arrangement of title, than the years between 1530 and 1560. By
1562, when the first edition of the famous Fifth Book of Rabelais
was published, the printers appear to have thought devices wasted on
popular books, and the title of the Master's posthumous chapters is
printed quite simply.
In 1532-35 there was a more adventurous taste--witness the title of
'Gargantua.' This beautiful title decorates the first known
edition, with a date of the First Book of Rabelais. It was sold,
most appropriately, devant nostre Dame de Confort. Why should so
glorious a relic of the Master have been carried out of England, at
the Sunderland sale? All the early titles of Francois Juste's Lyons
editions of Rabelais are on this model. By 1542 he dropped the
framework of architectural design. By 1565 Richard Breton, in
Paris, was printing Rabelais with a frontispiece of a classical dame
holding a heart to the sun, a figure which is almost in the taste of
Stothard, or Flaxman.
The taste for vignettes, engraved on copper, not on wood, was
revived under the Elzevirs. Their pretty little title-pages are not
so well known but that we offer examples. In the essay on the
Elzevirs in this volume will be found a copy of the vignette of the
'Imitatio Christi,' and of 'Le Pastissier Francois' a reproduction
is given here (pp. 114, 115). The artists they employed had plenty
of fancy, not backed by very profound skill in design.
In the same genre as the big-wigged classicism of the Elzevir
vignettes, in an age when Louis XIV. and Moliere (in tragedy) wore
laurel wreaths over vast perruques, are the early frontispieces of
Moliere's own collected works. Probably the most interesting of all
French title-pages are those drawn by Chauveau for the two volumes
'Les Oeuvres de M. de Moliere,' published in 1666 by Guillaume de
Luynes. The first shows Moliere in two characters, as Mascarille,
and as Sganarelle, in 'Le Cocu Imaginaire.' Contrast the full-blown
jollity of the fourbum imperator, in his hat, and feather, and wig,
and vast canons, and tremendous shoe-tie, with the lean melancholy
of jealous Sganarelle. These are two notable aspects of the genius
of the great comedian. The apes below are the supporters of his
scutcheon.
The second volume shows the Muse of Comedy crowning Mlle. de Moliere
(Armande Bejart) in the dress of Agnes, while her husband is in the
costume, apparently, of Tartuffe, or of Sganarelle in 'L'Ecole des
Femmes.' 'Tartuffe' had not yet been licensed for a public stage.
The interest of the portraits and costumes makes these title-pages
precious, they are historical documents rather than mere
curiosities.
These title-pages of Moliere are the highwater mark of French taste
in this branch of decoration. In the old quarto first editions of
Corneille's early plays, such as 'Le Cid' (Paris 1637), the printers
used lax and sprawling combinations of flowers and fruit. These, a
little better executed, were the staple of Ribou, de Luynes, Quinet,
and the other Parisian booksellers who, one after another, failed to
satisfy Moliere as publishers.
The basket of fruits on the title-page of 'Iphigenie,' par M. Racine
(Barbin, Paris, 1675), is almost, but not quite, identical with the
similar ornament of De Vise's 'La Cocue Imaginaire' (Ribou, Paris
1662). Many of Moliere's plays appearing first, separately, in
small octavo, were adorned