Beschreibung:

HORAE, use of Rome, in Latin. Horae, in laudem beatiss. Semper virginis Mariae secundum consuetudinem curiae romanae . Paris: Simon de Colines for Geoffroy Tory, 17 February 1525.
HORAE, use of Rome, in Latin. Horae, in laudem beatiss. Semper virginis Mariae secundum consuetudinem curiae romanae . Paris: Simon de Colines for Geoffroy Tory, 17 February 1525. 8 o (197 x 138 mm). Roman types 74 (text), 98B (privilege), Colines' device. 33 lines. 148 (of 152, lacking G1.8 [supplied in facsimile] and i4.5) of 152 leaves. Red printing of rubrics and large capitals. Ornamental metalcut initial opening the privilege, 13 text-width woodcuts, 4-piece woodcut borders, title-page border, shield on D4r painted in red and black. (Lacking 4 leaves, pale stain in gutter margin of F1.8 and several leaves in quire S.) Late-18th or early-19th century red velvet (recased). Provenance : Caesar Vuliengul (early inscription on title); acquired from Sandbergs Bokhandel, 1968. FIRST EDITION, second issue of 'THE FIRST FRENCH BOOK WHICH FROM BEGINNING TO END WAS A HIGHLY CONSCIOUS AND DELIBERATE WORK OF ART' (Ivins). Tory designed the classical-Italianate woodcuts and borders, and they were executed by an anonymous workshop that signed its work with the Cross of Lorraine. Tory had been granted a six-year royal privilege for these 'histoires et vignettes a Lantique', and they were not to be copied by other Horae publishers in any size. The borders variously incorporate Tory's name, motto and emblems, and royal emblems. "This is Tory's first set of Horae cuts--a deliberate break in the tradition of French Horae illustration and a reaction against the rapidly declining quality of the work of the Kervers, the Hardouins, and their imitators. The elements destroying the French cuts were German techniques, improperly handled, and Tory turned naturally to their stylistic opposite, the Italian woodcut--restrained and deceptively simple in outline, but not without sophistication" (Mortimer). Mortimer further notes that Tory's "antique" style is carried out in the borders in harmony with the illustrations, which some have compared to the Aldine 1499 edition of Colonna's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (see lot 16). Tory and his printer, Simon de Colines, shared publication. The first issue had Colines' name and device on the title; the second issue substitutes Tory's name, device, and address below the identical title-setting. A third issue under Tory's name contains at least three reprinted sheets, and gives the title and colophon in French. Bohatta 1095-1097; Mortimer French 303; Rothschild I 28 (2nd issue).