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.
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![been inserted. Another pradtice of Verard’s was to insert small blocks in borders that did not belong to them (see Nos. 91, 179, 180, 147). This last is a remarkable instance, as each border encloses two cuts, a small one from the Horce, together with one of two representations of S. Jerome, producing a most bizarre effedt (see cut No. xxxviii.). Fate after Verard’s Death.—To trace the subsequent history of the cuts used in Verard’s books is a matter of no great interest, perhaps, but a few fa£ts are here recorded. Cut No. 36 is found in a late but undated Mirouer de la redemption humaine} A Lancelot2 published by Jean Petit in 15 3°[?] contains cut No. 26. The quasi- device of Verard (plate No. lxxviii.) is on the title-page of La translacion de la bulle de la croysadet etc., 1516.3 Two cuts from Verard’s Terence are in Le Livre du faulcon des dames [1525].4 The cuts of the Art de bien Mourir afterwards went over to Eng- land, and some of these are found as late as 1568 in The Booke of Nurture (T. East : London, 40), having thus a career of at least seventy-five years. Initials. The initials used by Verard, especially on the title-pages of his book, have always been much remarked, so much so that the appearance of a remarkable L on a title-page of a Paris book has often been enough to secure its ascription to Verard, if no other printer’s or publisher’s name were there. A series comprising nearly all of Verard’s L’s is given in the Appendix, and the appearance of each has been noted in the bibliographical descrip- tions. Their appearance does not as a rule afford any clue to the chronology of the undated books, as their use extended over too long a period. L No. 4, for instance, first appears in the title-page of the Bible des Poetes of 1493 [4], and must have been worn out in April, 1509, when we find it, recut, in the Eneide. 1 Brit. Mus. 1009. f- x- a Bib. Nat. * M. E. Picot’s Catalogue of Library of Baron Jama de Rothschild (No. 2727). 4 Ibid. (No. 571).](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28040181_0033.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
