But the most noteworthy result produced by the publication of 'Champ fleury' was the reformation of the old types. That book not only contributed to the abandonment of gothic letters, but brought about the remodelling of the old roman letters. Robert Estienne, among others, re-cast at this time all those that had come down to him from his father, the first Henri (or, to speak more accurately, from his father-in-law Simon de Colines), and replaced them by types of a new shape, which were cut, I think, by Tory (for his pupil, Garamond, seems not to have been capable of doing it at this time), and which continued to be used, almost without change, down to the time of the Revolution. It is in this sense only that it can properly be said that Tory perfected the types of Josse Bade; for I think that he did not cut any type for that celebrated printer, who was established in Paris long before Tory turned his attention to engraving, and who died in 1535, a few years after the publication of 'Champ fleury,' without changing in any way his method of printing. It was Tory too, doubtless, who cut Robert Estienne's italic type; for it bears a strong resemblance to Simon de Colines's, which I have already attributed to him.[130]
The sensation caused by Tory's book, in foreign countries as well as in France, is evidenced also by the writings of his contemporaries. In Paris, Antoine du Saix, author of the 'Esperon de discipline,' expresses himself thus in an epistle in verse dedicated to his friends,[131] among whom we find mentioned René Massé, also a friend of Tory, and several other littérateurs of the time:--
Geoffroy Thory, qui divine as heu main Pour figurer dessus le corps humain La lettre anticque, ouyant que plume ay prise Pour te imiter, ce bourgeon ne meprise, Raisin sera, sil a temps de meurer [mûrir].
In London, Leonard Coxe, alluding to the grammar published shortly after by his compatriot Palsgrave, exclaims: 'Learned Geofroy, he has fulfilled the wish so often expressed in thy "Champ fleury," for here we have the French language taught thoroughly, by virtue of rules duly authorized.'[132]
Tory probably received the title of king's printer in 1530, but I do not find that he assumed it earlier than 1531, and, failing documentary evidence, I cannot accredit him with it at an earlier date. It was, I fancy, his appointment which led the authors of the 'Art de vérifier les dates' to say that 'François I established the Imprimerie Royale in Paris' on his return from the Abbaye de Veyen, where he had espoused, on July 4, 1530, Eleonora, sister of the Emperor Charles V.[133] It is the fact that at that time Tory was entrusted with several 'royal printings' concerning this marriage of the king. Thus he published, March 16, 1530 (1531, new style), a little work of Guillaume Bochetel, entitled: 'Le Sacre et coronnement de la Royne, imprimé par le commandement du Roy nostre sire.' It is a thin quarto of 12 leaves, printed with a certain sumptuousness, and the license, signed 'de la Barre,'[134] is thus conceived:--