Licence: In copyright
Credit: Antoine Vérard / by John Macfarlane. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
28/244 page 20
![same source we learn that the Legende doree of 1490(^91], of which also the only known copy is at Vienna, is copiously illustrated. This may be the source of many cuts of a religious nature found in Verard’s books. The illustrations of his books of chivalry cannot be traced back farther than the Orose of 1491 and the 'Josephus of 1492 (Nos. 16, 21). Many of the cuts in the latter appear to have been designed for a Bible, but this edition remains to be discovered. In the same year appeared the Art de Bien Mourir, the cuts of which are frequently used in later books. The Bible des Poetes of 1493[94] supplies a number of full-page cuts closely adapted to the text of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, of which the book is a translation, and afterwards used for far different purposes. From the Lancelot of the same year come a few full-page cuts afterwards commonly used in books of chivalry. The Epistres SainEl Pol of 1507(08] is adorned by a number of full-page cuts {e.g.> No. xliii.) from the Cite de Lieu printed at Abbeville in i486. These however are found in several undated books that have no privilege in the colophon, and were probably therefore issued before January, 1507[o8]. Also, just before this date we find in Verard’s books a number of cuts of a most peculiar heavy style, of which No. 45 is an example. The Postilles of 1511-12 contain a large number of new cuts, but they mark the end of Verard’s career. By a fortunate chance all the sets of cuts above-mentioned make their first appearance (/.?., most nearly fit the text they adorn) in dated books. One undated book adds considerably to Verard’s stock, namely, the Perence (No. 152), which must have been issued between 1500 and 1503. The cuts in this are produced by numerous small blocks of persons and scenes, capable of infinite arrangements, with or without alteration in the legends. Of this set Nos. xxxix.-xl., respectively, are repro- duced as specimens. Cut No. 40 is one of a set very commonly used, first appearing in the Regnards trauersans (No. 149), which dates it between 1500 and 1503. There are a certain number of sets of illustrations that only appear in one or more editions of a single book, either because their themes did not adapt them for frequent use, or because they](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28040181_0030.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
