pgm alo te lp La t de 4 we à 44 A Op edhe Ent Le Lae i a Ce age tr ibid Eb tide on pu PR Juil x ale aa A ee 7 re ORM Cpr RER USE RCE ORNE ane No . a A PRE ED alae % Tu seb ‘4 a F neat ¥ ee ee ee Nein & a . CHAMP FLEURY ty M Pmavvib PLEURY- BY GEOFROY TORY fies INSLATED INTO ENGLISH AND fem OLATED BY GEORGE B.IVES THE GROLIER CLUB :NEW YORK Sec, rolier Cl Eee us S 2 E ui eh » 5 US ie : : : eed = : DA , | | Ses: DA eke ew) | i 3 RS 3 (a £ ; : : GNT . 4 ps Lite: Aa 1 à J 7 à ne 5 = Ay æ = ae s =e ; s] | The Committee on Publications of The Grolier Club certifies ' that this copy of George B. Ives’s translation of Geofroy Tory’s CHAMP FLEURY is one of an edition consisting of 390 copies on antique wove rag paper and 7 copies on larger hand-made paper. December, 1927. + FLEURY. Wherein is contained the Art & Sci- ence of the proper & true Proportions of Attic Letters, otherwise called An- tique Letters, and in common speech Roman Letters, proportioned accord- ing to the human Body and Face. This Book is licensed for ten years by the King, ourSire, & is for sale in Paris on the Petit Pont at the Sign of the Pot Cassé by Maistre Geofroy Tory of Bourges, Bookseller & Author of said Book, and by Giles Gourmont, also a Bookseller,on RueSainct Jaques at the Sign of che Trois Coronnes. PÉCENS EPP O RETTEN Ov EARS. This whole work is divided into Three Books. In thé First Book is contained the exhortation to establish and order the French tongue by fixed rules for speaking elegantly in good and sound French diction. In the Second the invention of the Attic Letters is treated,and their proportions are compared to those of the natural body and face of the perfect man. With many fine conceits & moral lessons concerning the said Attic Letters. In the Third and last Book are drawn in their due proportions all the said Attic Letters in their alphabetical order, of their due height and breadth, each by itself, with instruction as to their right fashioning & correct pronunciation, both Latin and French, as well in the ancient as in the modern manner. - In two sheets at the end are added thirteen different fashions of Let- ters. These are, namely: Hebrew, Greek, and Latin Letters; French Letters, and these in four fashions, which are Cadeaulx, Forme, Bas- tarde, & Tourneure. Then follow the Persian, Arabic, African, Turk- ish, and Tartar Letters, all five of these in the same Alphabet. Then come the Chaldaic, the Goffes, which are otherwise called Imperial & Bullatic, the Fantastic Letters, the Utopian, or, as one may say, Volun- tary. And, lastly, the Floriated Letters (Floryes). With instruction as tothe manner of making ciphers of letters for gold rings, for tapestries, windows, paintings, and other things as need may arise. Here follows the duplicate of the privilege given by our Lord the King to Maistre Geofroy Tory of Bourges, Bookseller and Author of this present Book, living in Paris, for Histories, Vignettes, Friezes, Borders, Headings, and Interlacements, and other Figures used in printing this Book, and Books of Hours for divers uses and of divers sizes. And the said Privilege is for the time and period of ten years beginning on the day of the date of the printing of the said Book and Hours. 1 PRIVILEGE OF OUR LORD’ THE KING. SRancois, by the grace of God, King of France, to the Pro- 4&|\ vost of Paris, Bailiff of Rouen, Seneschal of Lyons, and to all other Officers of Justice or to their Lieutenants, and to each of them as it shall appertain to him, greeting: Our dear and well-loved Maistre Geofroy Tory of Bourges, book- seller, living at Paris, has caused it to be told and made known tous that, for the showing forth, enrichment, and embellishment for all time of the Latin and French tongues, he has in these last years made and composed a book in French prose entitled ‘The Art and Science of the proper and true Proportions of the Attic Letters otherwise called Antique Letters, and in common speech Roman Letters, proportioned according to the human body & face, which book he has caused to be shown and presented to us, praying and beseeching us, to this end, to give & grant to him Privilege, permission, & licence to print, or to have printed, the said book; together with certain Vignettes in the antique and in the modern style; also Friezes, Borders, Headings & Interlace- ments, for the printing of Hours, for such uses & of such sizes as shall seem good to him, during the period and term of ten years, beginning on the day of the printing of the said Book and Hours; with proroga- tion for a like time for divers Histories and Vignettes in the antique style by him heretofore printed; and that during the said period it shall not be lawful or allowable for any booksellers and printers of our King- doms, Provinces and Lordships, other than the said Tory, or those to whom he shall for this purpose entrust these books & other things de- scribed herein, to print them or to have them printed in any form. We give you to know that, having considered the foregoing, being favour- ably inclined to the petition and prayer of the said Maistre Geofroy Tory, and having regard and consideration to the trouble, labour, ex- penses, and outlay which he has been required to bear & sustain, as well in the composition of said Book as in the engraving of the said Histo- ries, Vignettes, Friezes, Borders, Headings, and Interlacements for the printing of Hours, as has been said, for divers uses and of divers sizes, we have given and granted and by especial favour do by these presents give and grant to him, for these and other reasons us thereto moving, leave, licence, permission, and Privilege to print, or to have printed by his servants, agents and clerks, the said Book and Hours, of such sizes iil and for such uses*as shall seem good to him, during the said term and period of ten years, beginning on the said day and date of the printing thereof ; together with the prorogation aforesaid, for a like term often. years, for the said Historiest and Vignettes by him heretofore printed; enjoining & ordering you respectively by these presents that you suffer and permit the said Maistre Geofroy Tory this our present gift & grant, licence, permission, and Privilege, to enjoy and make use of fully and peaceably, neither offering nor causing to be offered any hindrance to him therein; and, furthermore, that you suffer not nor permit, in any manner whatsoever, any other Booksellers or Printers in our said King- dom, Provinces and Lordships to print or to have printed, during the said period, the said Book and Hours as aforesaid; under pain of a hun- dred silver Marks, to be paid to us, & confiscation of the said Book and Hours wherewith they shall have set at naught our will. For such is our pleasure. Given at Chenonceaux, the fifth day of September, in the year of grace One Thousand Five Hundred and Twenty-Six,and of our reign the Twelfth. Thus signed: By the King, Breton: & sealed with yellow wax on a single tag. And in confirmation signed: Lormier: sealed with green wax ona double tag.t * The Hours, for which much of Tory's finest work was created, varied according to the place where they were to be used; Horae ad usum Sarum, etc. | That is, historical pittures. ‘History, a pictorial representation of an event or series of events.” — NEW ENGLISH DICTIONARY. See, for example, pages 8,74, and 75, infra. t Queue: ‘Tag, the trip of parchment bearing the pendent seal of a deed.’ —N.E.D. iv Geofroy Tory of Bourges offers humble greeting to all true and devoted Lovers of well-formed Letters. 1Oets, Orators, and others learned in Letters and Sciences,* when they have made and put together some product of their studious diligence and toil, are wont to present it to some great lord of the Court or the Church, lifting him up by letters and laudation to the knowledge of other men; and this to flatter him and to the end that they may be always so welcome about him, that he seems to be bound & obliged to give them some great gift, some benefice, or some office, as reward for the labours and vigils they have put to the making & composition of their said works & offerings. I could easily do the like with this little book; but, considering that, if I should present it to one rather than to another, some feeling of en- vious despite might be caused, I have thought that it would be well of me to make of it a present to you all, O devoted Lovers of well-made letters, without placing the great before the lowly, unless it be in so far as he loves letters more, and is more at home in virtuous things. Thus the Prelates & great Lords, who are eminent, all, in goodly virtues, will have their part therein, whilst you will not lose yours. Tam vexed that some have sought to persuade me from setting forth what I have written for you in this work of ours, & that they have tried to make of me an ungrateful man in wishing me not to teach a very beautiful and goodly thing. They remind me of those who, when they have some unknown sheet or book, do not make it known to their bro- ther, or their father. Methinks such men are so wicked and so covetous that, if all the flame & fire in the world were extinct save only a single candle which they had lighted, and that none could have fire but from their single candle, they would not consent that their fond mother should light one thereat, to have fire for warming and nourishing their little brother. They are of the nature of a beast which Pliny and So- linus affirm to be so vicious, that, knowing that its urine stiffens and congeals into a precious stone, which is called in Greek Auyxoupiov,¢ and which is like the amber stone that sets fire to straws, it will not permit it to come into the hands and use of man, so that it covers it and hides it in the earth as secretly as it can. Thus did the noble artificer of the windows of Sainte Chapelle at Bourges, which the Duc de Berry named V * That is, various branches of knowledge. ‘Sciences’ is used in this sense throughout the book. + Latin, lyncurium, ‘a hard transparent gem... formed of lynxes’ urine; probably the hyacinth or tourmaline.’ See Pliny, Nat. Hist.virx, 38, 57; Solinus (Caius Julius), 11, 38. 1. These numerical references aretolongernotes by the trans- lator, placed at the end of this volume. Jean had made. This artificer was so ungrateful & greedy of his skill that he would never impart it to any man, not even to his son, so it is said. The windows he made with such art that the Sun, however brightly he shines, can in no wise pierce them with his rays; which is a very fine thing, and without parallel. Had he but been willing to teach this art, a thousand other men since him would have brought forth many fair and goodly works, which have not been made, nor ever will be. Would God that the inventor of gunpowder had done the like, and had died without hands and with closed mouth: hundreds of thousands of men might have lived longer, who have been most cruelly slain. Such are the execrable kinds of knowledge that should not be taught; but the goodly and excellent ones should be proclaimed, to the end that every man may occupy himself therein and strive to do good work. Albert Diirer, the noble German painter, is greatly to be praised, who has so well set forth his art of painting by drawing the figures of Geometry, Fortifications, and the proportions of the human body. He is worthy to be held in immortal memory.’ Let us not then be unmindful to teach & say freely what may be of profit, and let us with good heart give pleasure to all who live, even as we would that they should do to us. A pearl buried in dung is lost and useless; but when it is set in gold, be it alone or with other precious stones, it is much more fitly disposed and to the liking of the men who have it before their eyes. And so, being unwilling that our Attic Let- ters, in their true proportion, should be altogether unknown, I have drawn them all for you by number and measure, to the end that you may use them at your good pleasure, and may make of them as many large and as many small as shall seem well and good to you, and this whilst keeping always the number of points and curves required for each of them. Here I would fain beg & admonish you that when you shall wish to use Attic Letters, or Greek, or others, in mottoes, in sentences, or other- wise, you place and write them in Tablets, or in open spaces, to the end that each letter be seen and stand in a straight line, in full face, and in ood order. I see some who place them in Scrolls, wherein very often a syllable finds itself divided into parts more than an ell asunder, which is contrary to the rules of Grammar. Item, some letters lie crosswise, as it were, and others have the feet askew, which is contrary to the design of Nature. The nature of Letters, which are made on the pattern of vi the human body, is to stand in their requisite & proper aspect, upright, and intact. But if somebody should reply to me that ona piece of gold, silver, copper, or some other substance, there are letters whereof some, with respect to others, are found to have their feet out of line, or askew, I would answer courteously that it is well done, & that one can turn be- tween his fingers the said piece of gold, or other piece, so as to see each letter straightly and in full face. But in pictures, in windows, in tapes- tries, on walls, & in many other places, one cannot turn the letters save by turning the whole surface whereon they are placed, for which reason it is fitting that they be planted closely there and written on a straight line, one after another. These would fain excuse themselves & say that Scrolls serve to fill the blank spaces. Saving their honour, they serve only haste, & the cause of this misuse is the bands of chaplets & crowns of leaves, branches, and flowers, which the ancients brought into their feasts to flit about here and there and to give charm to the said feasts. He who would write in Scrolls should not write lengthwise, but across; for should one desire to write but three or four verses lengthwise, the scrolls must needs be longer than from here to the Isles of Molucca, & especially if he would write in large letters. The fashion of writing in scrolls is a great abuse in many ways, & chiefly in this, that some write one and the same word or syllable half within the scroll and the other half on top of it. It is great folly to try to do something without seeking out the rea- son. The device of writing in scrolls comes from far distant and almost unknown antiquity, but none the less I will tell it to you. It came from the ancient Lacedæmonians, who in time of war had two truncheons made, of exactly the same length & thickness, & gave one to the Prince who was going to war, and kept the other until they should have occa- sion to write to him in secret. And when they wrote to him they took a strip of parchment, or leather, or some similar thing, long and narrow like a girdle, & wrapped it edge to edge around the length of the trun- cheon which they had kept; then wrote upon their parchment along and around their said truncheon in such wise that the greater part of the letters were a half or a third or very little way over either edge and place of jointure of their said parchment; then they unrolled it & sent it all unrolled to their said Prince, who, as soon as he received it, placed it around his truncheon,and thereupon, because the two truncheonswere of the same size, all the letters fitted together exactly, as when they were vii written. They did this to the end that if, perchance, the enemy should surprise their couriers or messengers, they could not piece together the letters written thus across the parchment. And remembering this, the ancient painters placed scrolls in the hands of princes, then in the hands of the Prophets, and of the Sibyls likewise, & thereafter in many other waysand fashions, until at the end the thing was misused ina thousand places, & without reason. That it ts true that the aforesaid ancient Lac- edæmonians wrote in this wise, as is said above, read the seventeenth book & ninth chapter of the Notes Artica of Aulus Gellius. Read, too, the first Proverb of the second Hundred—that is to say, Centon—which Centon is also in the second Chiliad—that is to say, Thousand—of the Proverbs of Erasmus, where it is written, Triffis Scytale | baneful secret dispatch] and you will find there set out at length all that I have said.* Let us then putaside these scrolls and write on good open tablets and other like things, to the end that your letters may be seen face to face. And note that the space between the lines should be always as wide as the letter I is high. The space between the letters must be always of the width either of an IJ, oran F, or an S, or an M, or even wider, according to the place to be filled & the sentence to be written. In brief, the Attic Letter is so noble that it would fain be at full liberty,as you will be able to see in this present work, which I have called ‘Champ Fleury’ for the grace and smoothness of the name, and which I have entitled ‘The Art & Science of the proper & true Proportions of the Attic Letters, which are otherwise called Antique Letters, and in common speech Roman Letters.’ Take it, therefore, in good part, an it please you, O devoted & worthy lovers of well-made letters, and believe that what I have done has been done with zeal and hearty good-will. Praying our Lord JESUS to give to you all increase in well-made letters and excellent virtues, with all sound health of body and soul. At Paris this XX VIII day of April on the Petit Pont at the sign of the Pot Cassé. viii TABLE Names of the Authors and worthy persons quoted and mentioned in this Work, some of which are written in Latin and some in French, according as the pronunciation is more pleasant to the ear. A Agrestius Alain Chartier Albert Durer Alde Alcman Alexandre de ville Dieu Albinus Andreas Cratandrus Antonius Orobius Appius Claudius Arnol Grabans Architrenius Arius Asconius Pedianus Astyages Aulus Gellius Aulus Albinus | Aulus Antonius Orobius Auance - Ausone Auguste Cesar Augustin Justinian B Baptiste Mantuan Baptiste le piteyable Baptiste Albert Beda le venerable Beroal Boccace Bramant Bude Fa Cadmus Carmentis Caper Grammaticus M. Cato Martianus Capella Cælius Rhodiginus Catulle Jules Cesar S. Cipryan Chastelain Chrestien de Troyes Charlemaigne Charles Bouille Chrysoloras Cicero Cimenez de Cineros Cornele Tacite Codrus Vrceus Constantin Lascaris Cretin Q. Curse D Dantes Ma Dame Dentragues Dioscorides Diomedes Gram [maticus ] Didymus Donatus Donatel E Ennius Erasme Estiene de la Roche, otherwise called de ville Franche Euclides TABLE F Festus Frere Rene Masse, Chronicler to the King Frere Lucas Paciol Frere Francois Cimenez de Cin- eros Francesco Petrarcha Fulgentius Placiades G Gaguin Galeotus Martius Narniensis George Chastellain Gellius ‘Grecismus’ I. Groslier H Habraham Hayeneufue Hercules Hesiode Hieronyme Auance S. Hierosme Hieremias Higine Homere Horace Hugon de Mery I Jaques Faber Jehan Groslier Jehan Lineuelois Iehan Lemaire Jehan Pontan us] Jehan Boccace Jehan Perreal, otherwise called Jehan de Paris x Jehan Baptiste le piteyable Io, Grammaticus Josephus _ Juvenal Iules Cesar L Lactance Laurent Valle Lascaris Lapocalipse Leon Baptiste Albert Le Maire Leonard Vince ‘Le Liure du ieu des Eschecqts’ [The Book of the Game of Chess] Lineuelois Lucian F. Lucas Paciol ‘Lunettes des Princes Lucretius M Masse Ma Dame Dentragues Marcellus Viroilius Mecrobe Marcus Cato Maurus Maistre Simon du Mans Martianus Capella Martial Martius Narniensis Maistre Pierre Patelin S. Mathieu Mela Mesieres Michel Lempereur Michel Lange Morus Langlois Moyse N Narniensis Nesson Nicostrata O Orace Orobius Orus Apollo Oscus & Voscus Ovide P Paisant de Mesieres Paciol Patelin Petrarcha Persius Phocas Philippes Beroal Pierre de Sainct Cloct Pittacus Plaute Platon Placiades Pline Plutarche Pompone Mela Pontan[us | Polyphile Probus Gram [ maticus ] Prodicus Pythagoras TABLE Quintilian Quinte Curse Raoul Raphael Durbin [da Urbino] F. Rene Masse, Chronicler to the King Reuclin Rhodiginus S Sainct Cipryan Sainct Mathieu Sainct Herosme Servius Maurus Simon Grabans Simon Hayeneufue Sigismunde Fante Soline Ts Terentian Terence Theocrite Theodose Gaza V Varro Vitruve Voscus & Oscus Vrban x Xenophon Z Zacharias Prophete * Tory's arrangement, though not alphabetical inthe modern sense, has been followed exad- ly, the French word or phrase being added when the transla- tion belongs under a different letter. The pagination of the present edition is substituted for the folios of the original. A DASRE List of Latin and French Words mentioned in this Work, according to the numbers of the Folios, and in Alphabetical order.* (Aage) Life everlasting, in the writinos of the Egyptians 183 Aisa triangular letter 26 Aasvowel,syllable & word 79 A as interjection 79 A is used to indicate the be- ginning 78 A inverted 84 A with a compass 85 AMO 80 Ab aure rejuncti 4 Abbreviations, French 124 Acrisius 74. Aeneas 67 Aevum (Aage) 183 African Letters 179, 180 Aha 80, 111 Ah & Vah 110 Ajax 25 Alpha 78 (Alemans) Germans 101,103 111,146 (Amoureux) Lovers 103 Angelus 17 Apostrophe 138 (Apices) Points 162, 163 Argus 19, 20 Arius, his inordinate use of the aspirate 110, 111 Arabic Letters 179,180 Attached by the ear 6 Aurenges 52 Augeratus 97 X11 B Bacchus 74 Basiliscus serpens 183 Basilisk, immortal serpent 184 (Belle fable) A fine fable 19,64 (Beau segret) À fine riddle in Virgil 39 Beatrice ro iy (Beotes) Boeotians 139 Bourges 103, 135, 155 Burgundians 120 (Breve) Short sentence 133 Bretons 135, 142 Bruges 115 C | Cisa Latin Letter OI Citons 103 (Caqueteurs) Great talkers have their tongues pierced 7 (Canetieres) Duck ponds in Rome reli Carolus 117 Cappadocians 117 Cappa 117 Cadeaulx (Letters) 174,175 Ceres 74, Ce, as suffix O1 Gi 143 Charon 6 Charlemagne 14 Chartres | 14 Cheopine and Pinte are de- rived from the Greek 17 Chain of Gold in Homer 64 TABLE (Chancon ancienne) Old ballad 90 CHRISTVS 110 Chi 118 Chut LST] 141 Cilicians 117 Cygnus 17 (Corps) Units 30 (Corps) Units of the letter 30 Comparison of ManwithanI 47 Compass and Rule 85 Coliseum, the, in Rome 126 Confirmation of the tradition herein set forth concerning the Attic letters 155 Correspondence of Greek and — Latin letters 168 Conclusion of this Book, with its fine reasoning 159 Cretans 117 Cross, the 77 D D is a purely Latin letter 94 Dame Memory 39 Danze 74 Dames of Lyons 84,96 Dames of Paris 84, 138 Dactyl 112 Dagues 164 (Degres) Stairs and stairways of the Ancients 49, 50 Decorum 57 (Decem Nestores) Ten Nes- tors 65 Delta 94 Deltolon 94 (Decies centum) Ten hun- dred 115 Diverse opinions concerning the invention of letters 13,14 Difference in meaning between Minerva and Pallas 46 Division of the human face 52,53 (Dix hommes) Ten men like Nestor 65 (Dix corps) Ten units in each letter 65 _ Diphthong AE 80 (Dittes) Say ‘Io’todenote joy 90 Digamma, Æolian 99, 100,146 Definition of the Point 157,158 Division of the equilateral Square 81 Divers names of letters used in Printing a iy) Double letters 62 Dreux 14 (Droicte) Straight line,the 30 Druids 14 Aouidat 14 E (Ecossois) Scotch,the 06,07 Egyptians, the 105 (Elle) the letter L is reversed [rebus | 120 Empsitem 12 Enigma, a strange and note- worthy 44, 45 Eneas 67 Ephesians, the 77 Epitaph in Picard dialect 93 Epitaph, an ancient, found at Lyons 100 (Escripture antique) Ancient writing QI X111 TABLE (Escriptures) Writing by pic- tures was invented by the Egyptians 105 Ex, in compound words 148 F F for other consonants 100,130 F, Æolian digamma 130, 146 Fable 19, 20, 64 Flemings, the 113 Flageolet of Virgil 40-42 Fountain in Athens with nine pipes 37 Forest, people of 120 Fruges 115 G G for C 103 G large and À small 103 Gascons 89, 141 Gamma placed above another Gamma makes an F 99 Geryon 6 Gladiolus 24 Gold, shower of 74. Goffes [ Letters] 179, 182 Grammarians of the village 111 Greeks 126, 137 H Hercules, the Gallic 4-8 Hercules in youth 150, 151 Hemitonium 122 Homonem Il (Huit) the figure 8 136 Hyacinthus 24,25 Hyacinthiol 24,75 I Iand O are the models for all the other Attic Letters 22,113 xiv I is the ninth letter of the Alphabet 42 Tand Man compared with each other 47 Japetus 6 (Ieunes amoureux) Young lovers 105 IESVS CHRIST MS Ignorance 69,70 Illatabilis linea 29 (Imper) Oddnumber 26, 40, 45 78, 125 Interjections 99 Ionia 19 Tota 113 IQ 20, 22 lo pæan 23 Io triumphe 23 Io, used as a proverb 23 Italians, the 132, 142 Tuno 19, 22 Jupiter 74 Toto 24 a 3 Karolus 117 i L turned upside down is a Gamma 100 (Langue percee) pierced tongue 6 (La Langue) the Tongue is connected with the ears 7 Language, the French, is very pleasing (Lavarice) Avarice of the Romans 18 (Lair) Air of Paris is clear, soft, and agreeable 21 TABLE (Laspiration) the Aspirate 26,111 Line, the 30 (Largeur) Breadth of each Attic Letter 32,33 (Largeur) Breadthofthel 47,53 (La Teste) the Human head has seven channels of vital spirit 54 Language of the common people in Italy 174 Letter L, has three sounds in pronunciation 118, 119 Laconians 126, 133 Laconismus 133 (Lapocalypse) the Apoca- lypse 127 Largesse 104, 141 La Sapience, in Rome 142 (La goute dor) the Shower of Gold 74 Lambda 143 (La Saincte Escripture) the Holy Scripture is written in three languages 162 ~ (Les premiers Hommes) the First Men 13 Letters, Hebrew 14, 161-167 Letters, the Attic, & why they aresocalled | 19 Letters, Attic, all made from three geometrical figures 26 Letters, the Attic, are twenty- three in number 32, 68 Letters, the Attic, are made ac- cording to the proportions of the human body 43 Letters, the Attic, should have a Savour of Architecture 49 Letters for Ground Plans 5152 Letters, tractable 61 Letters, double 62 Letters, Hebrew, are used as figures in reckoning 167 Letters of the Alphabet in Greek are used as figures 78 79, 115 Letters for printers [types] 85 Letters used for abbrevia- tions 123 Letters, Greek, are all written between two equidistant lines | 132 Letter, Canine 134 Letter, Pythagorean 151 Latin Letters 171-173 Letters, French 174 Lettre de Forme 174, 176 Lettre Bastarde 174,177 Lettre de Tourneure 174,178 Letters, Persian, Arabian, African, Turkish, and Tartar 179, 180 Letters, Chaldaic 179, 181 Letters, Goffe, Imperial, and Bullatic 179, 182 Letters, Fantastic 183-185 Letters, Utopian and Volun- tary 184, 186 Letters, Floriated 184, 187 Letters are so noble & divine that they must not be de- faced in any way 189 (Levangile) the Gospel forthe feast of St. Denis is sung in Greek in the church of St. Denis in France 18 XV TABLE Le point 29 (Les trois) the three Graces handmaids of Venus 55 (Les) the S wrongly pro- nounced 63 (Les) those who know not the dimensions of Attic Letters 66 (Le Monde) the World is in the shape of a Cross 77 (Le Signe) the sign of the Cross 81 (Le Picard) the Picard pro- nounces the Cvery well 92 (Le Soleil) the Sun in the con- stellation Libra 120 (Linguae) the Tongue con- nected with the ears 7 (Linsatiable) insatiable avarice of the Romans 18 Lisflambe 24, 25,75 Linea illatabilis 29 Line, straight 30 Line, perpendicular 30 Line, curved, perfect, and im- perfect 30, 31 Line, triangular 31 Liquids 61 (Lieux) Places on which to set the fixed point of the Com- pass to draw Attic Letters 87 Lyonnese 143 (Lieu) Position for points of punctuation Litera longua 121 Lympha 115 (Lhomme)the Man of Vulcan 2 (Lhomme) Man divided into ten parts 44 Xvi (Lhomme) Man is six times the length of his foot 44 (Lhomme) Man tn Contem- plation has his Head raised & hisfeeton the Earth 46,47 (Lhomme) Man, his parts in- dicated by Letters 56,57 (Lhomme) the perfect man 56 (Lhomme) Mana little world 77 (Louanges) Praise of Paris 15,16 Lorrainers 135 M M has three sounds IR RNEE 3 M with N 143 Marquetry 58 (Manseaulx) people of Le Mans 135 Mapich Method of forming syllables in Hebrew with lettersand points 166 Method of making ciphers in gold rings or otherwise 189 Mercury 2002 Memory is always easily set in . motion 39 Memory and Moderation are akin 39 Mention of the Dames of Lyons 84,96 Mention of the Dames of Paris 84, 138 Mention of Printing Types 85 Mention of the Gascons 84, Mention of the Germans 89,101 103, 110, 146 Mention of the Picards 92,96 103, III, 143 TABLE Mention of the ancient Latins 94, 95,97; 100, 102, 14.6 Mention of the English 96 Mention of the Normans 96, 123 Mentionof the Lorrainers 96, 135 Mention of the Scots 96 Mention of Bourges 103, 135, 155 Mention of Jesters 103 Mention of Rebuses 104 Mention of young lovers 103 Mention of the Device and Mark of this Book 105,106 Mention of the Flemings 113 Mention of the Cappadocians, Cretans, and Cilicians 117 Mention of the Burgundians and people of Forest 120 Mention of the Greeks 137 Mention of the French language 127,128, 137, 174, Mention of the Laconians 13 Mention of Paris 135 Mention of the people of Le Mans 135 Mention of the Bretons 135,142 Mention of the Bæotians 139 Mention of the Toulousans & Gascons 141 Mention of the Italians 83,84, 92, 93, 132, 142, 147,148 - Mention of the Lyonnese 143 Minerva 2, 46 (Mille) Thousand 116 Momus 2 Moses 14, 179 (Moralite) Allegory of the fable of Io DiN22 (Moralite) Allegory of the fable of Hyacinthus (Moralite) Allegory of the perpendicular and hori- zontal lines 37, 38 (Moralite) Allegorical fig- ure of Virgil’s flageolet containsthe [andtheO 41-43 (Moralite) Allegory of the Broken Jar (Pot Cassé) 105, 106 24,25 (Montees) Stairways and stairs of theancients 40,50 Mosaic 58 Moly 74 Movadikov 137 N Ne 138 Nature D Nestor 7,65 Neptune 2 Nine Muses 37, 38 Nine steps in the letter Zeta 157 Nile river in Egypt 94 Nympha 115 Noteworthy fact about H 26 Noteworthy fact about Q 33 Noteworthy criticism of the commentatorson Virgil 41 Noteworthy fact about the Greek Letter Phi 55 Notable reason for pronounc- ing properly 63 Noteworthy fact about the — compass and rule 85 Notable rule for the number of centres 89 Notable Secret 117 TABLE Notable inconsistency in the Bible 127 Names of the horses drawing Apollo’striumphal chariot 73 NON PLUS 106 Numbers that are odd bring good luck 125 Number of persons requisite for a banquet 140 Names of points used as vowels in the Hebrew language 163 Names of the Hebrew letters 162, 163 Names of the Greek letters 168 Names of the Chaldaic let- ters 179 O Osallegorical meaning of 126 O, Vocative Adverb 127 Ogmion 4 Oration 4 (Oraison) Prayer 9 Orthography 102 (Ordonnance) Arrangement ofthe nine muses & Apollo 38 (Ordonnance) Arrangement ofthesevenliberalartsand Apollo 38 (Ordonnance) Arrangement of the nine muses, Apollo, the seven liberal arts, the I, and the O, in the flageolet of Virgil 43 (Ordonnance) Coërdination of the human body with the seven liberal arts 46 xviii (Ordonnance) Codrdination of the Owith the man with feet and hands extended equally 48 (Ordonnance) Coürdination of the cross-stroke of the H with the human body 49 (Ordonnance) Coürdination of the joint in letters with the human body 49 (Ordonnance) Coordination of the length and breadth of the I & the O with the human face 53,54 (Ordonnance) Coordination & correspondence of faces and letters in perspective 60 (Ordonnance) Codrdination of the Homeric Golden Chain with the I 64 (Ordonnance) Disposition for the Triumph of Apollo 74 (Ordonnance) Disposition of the A made from three ls upon the flower of the Lis- flambe 75 p | P is formed from B 129 (Parolle empanee) Feathered words 7 Parrhasia 16 Parrhasians 15, 16 Paris and its praise 16, 17 Paris without peer ALES Parrhisians 17 Paradisus 17 Pallas 46 TABLE (Parler rondement) Speak- ing round] 126 (Per and Imper) Even and odd 26,27,40,78 Phi 55 Pinte & Cheopine are words derived from the Greek 17 Picards 143 Pythagoras 150, 151, 152, 153 Plane surface 30 Plan of the Coliseum at Rome 52 (Plaisanteurs) Jesters 103 Point 29, 158 (Pot Cassé) Broken Jar and what it signifies 105, 106 Points, square, hooked, and triangular 158, 159 Points, various 159 Points in Hebrew are vowels 162 Protinam 12 Primitives 13, 14 Pronunciation of letters 119 Pronunciation of Hebrew letters 162, 163 Ilpertov 57 (Puncta) Points 162, 163 Q 33 Qand V 132, 133 Q changed to C 132 Q is never a final Letter —133 QVV for CV and vice versa 132 (Quarre) Square 30, 126 (Quatre) Four Cardinal Virtues 52 (Quatre) Four Hebrew Let- ters almost identical with four others 163 R R,a canine letter 134 (Raison) Explanation of the Circle and the Square 48 (Raison) Explanation of the Cross-stroke of the A in re- lation to the virile member of man 48 (Raison) Explanation of the Cross 77 Reason why we write three As at the beginning of the Lat- in and French alphabets 78 (Rameau d’or) The Golden Bough of Virgil 67 Radius 82 Raphe 164 Rule for making Attic Letters 78 Rule of orthography 102 Rebuses 103, 104 Res 164 (Rondement parler) Speak- ing roundly 126 S 62, 63 S forR 135 Sor ST 140, 141 ST 141 S & D 155 (Sigma) = 137, 138 Sandal of Venus 2 Sapience,La,School in Rome 142 Sanguem 12 (Sens moral) Allegorical mean- ing of Virgil’s Flageolet 41-43 (Sens moral) Allegorical meaning of the Letters L, M,N, and O 125 xix TABLE (Sens moral) Allegorical meaning of the Pythag- orean letter 151, 152 (Science) Knowledge 67, 70 Signification of the Four Car- dinal Virtues with Attic letters 53 Signs of the Aspirate and of Lettersnotaspirated 108, 109 Sicily 94 Sigma 137, 138 Silence 139, 140 Spondee 112 Superficial plane 30 Al 1e 143 TE 143 TN 143 TR 143 Tau 143 Teth 143 (Ternas scio) I know three letters 80 The sign + indicates the spot where the fixed foot of the compass should be placed 83 Thrasicles 37 Theta 143 Toulousans 141 Triangle 31 Triangle, the, is one of the no- blest figures in geometry 95 Three twigs on the Golden Bough 70 Triquetra [Sicily | 94 Tyre 14 Tissue of Venus 2 ©, ®,X,and P 169 ONT Ae 143 V V for E 96 V is sometimes pronounced after G,sometimesnot 102 Vaha 80, 111 Vau 145, 146 Venus 2 (Vent meridian) South wind is pestilential, and (Vent de Bize) East wind is health-giving 51 Virtues 150, 151 Visages in perspective 60 Virgil conceived an allegory of a Golden Bough 67 (Voix florisante) Flowery Language 7 Volupe 12 (Volupte) Pleasure 151 Vowels, Latin 70 Virtue, the way of 151 Vreus [ basilisk ] 183 X X equals C&S, or G&S 147 b | Ypsilon — 149 REL: 149 Z Zeta for two S’s and also for S&D PE 154 Zetetæ 155 To the Readers of this Book, humble Greeting. T iscommonly said & truly, that there is great natural virtue in herbs, in stones, &in words. To give examples thereof would be superfluous, so certain is this truth. But I would that it might please God to give me the power to effect so much by my words & requests as that I may be able to persuade some persons, even if they are not willing to do hon- our to our French tongue, to refrain at least from corrupting it. I find that there are three kinds of men who divert themselves by striving to corrupt & disfigure it: they are Skimmers of Latin, Jesters, and Jargoners. When the Skimmers of Latin say, Despumon la verbo- cination latiale, et transfreton la Sequane au dilucule et crepuscule, puis diam- bulon par les Quadriuies et Platees de Lutece, et comme verisimiles amorabun- des captiuon la beniuolence de lomnigene et omniforme sexe feminin? it seems to me that they not only deride their fellows, but themselves. When the Jesters, whom I can justly dub Slashers of Language, say, Monsieur du Page, si vous me baillex une lesche du jour, je me rue a Dieu, et vous dis du cas, Vous aures nasarde sanguine,” they seem to me to do as great harm to our language as they do to their clothes, by slashing & destroying be- yond reason what is of more worth when whole than when maliciously torn and mutilated. And so likewise, when Jargoners talk in their evil jargon and debased language, it seems to me not only that they are ear- marked for the gibbet, but that it would be well that they had never been born. Albeit Maistre Francois Villon, in his day, was vastly ingen- ious in this wise, yet he would have done better to have learned to do other more worthy things. But, at most, a fool who does not act the fool wastes his time. I might give some examples of the said jargon; but to avoid such evil knowledge will pass it by, and say that I would that such corrupters of decent speech were so well advised and wise as to reflect that a man who wishes to be truly at home in unsullied virtue ought always and in all places to doand say fine and goodly and honourable things. We know men by their deeds & their words. Let us so do therefore that our words shall be sound and acceptable in all good sense and in honour. Let us accustom ourselves to speak well and write well. So doing we shall find that it will be to our advantage, and that our words will have such great power that they will convince others by many an excellent saying. * It is difficult to translate this so as to make sense. * Tory's spellings, it will be noticed, are in most cases very different from those now in use; but in this matter he himself, like all writers of his time, was far from con- sistent. Vocale was used in the sense of ‘vowel’ a hun- dred years after Tory wrote, although ‘voyelle,’ the word now used in that sense, had then come into the language. “Harper meaning ‘to play up- on the harp,’ is found in Vol- taire. + Juvenal, |awhirl thinking on a thousand little con- ceits, some serious & some joyous, among which there came to my minda certain An- tique letter which I had lately made for my lord the Treasurer for War, Maistre Jehan Groslier, Counsellor and Secretary to our Lord the King, lover of well-made letters and of all learned persons, by whom also he is much loved & esteemed on both this & the other side of the moun- tains, And whilst thinking of this Attic Letter, there came of a sudden into my memory a pithy passage in the first book & eighth chapter of the De Offictis of Cicero, where it is written: Non nobis solum nati sumus; ortusque nostri partem patria vendicat, partem amici.t Which is to say, in substance, that we are not born into this world for ourselves alone, but to serve & give pleasure to our friends & country. For this reason, de- siring to employ myself in some degree for the public good, bethought myself to show forth & teach in this little work the manner of making symmetrically, that is to say, in their due proportions, the Attic letters, wherein I see many men on this side of the mountains, who would fain make use of them,to be far from expert, to sucha degree that they know not of what dimensions and shapes they ought to be. I might treatalso of the lettre de forme and dela baStarde, but for this time, with our Lord’s assistance, I shall draw the Attic Letter only. Some have tried to turn me from my purpose, saying that I ought not to make it so public, but _ to keep it secret for myself. Saving their honour, I think not, and that I should not be avaricious of this useful knowledge. I might have dis- coursed and written in Latin, which I could well do, as I believe,and as anyone may know from the little Latin books which I have had printed * The Epiphany, or Twelfth Night. + The proper reference is 1,7, 22. Cicero ascribes the say- ing to “Plato. * An idiomatic phrase ex- pressing indifference. 2 CHAMP FLEURY and placed before the eyes of zealous students, both in verse & prose.4 But wishing to embellish our French tongue a little, and tothe end that the common people may make use of it, together with those whoare well versed in letters, I choose to write in French. Iam sure that soon some envious backbitér will appear, who will say that I aim to play the part of a new author, and will exert himself to decry my instruction and teach- ings. But I know from the ancient poets and philosophers that Momus was a knave who could never do aught but deride; as when he derided the sandals & robe of Venus, saying that there were too many sparkling and jingling spangles on it,and that they made over-much noise. Inlike _ manner he derided Dame Nature, for that she had placed the horns on the head of oxen and cows rather than on the shoulder, that they might strike with them more fiercely. He derided also the bull of Neptune, the house of Minerva, & the man of Vulcan; but chiefly this said man because Vulcan had made neither window nor wicket in his stomach, so that through these one might know what he was thinking and resolv- ing in his said stomach, which is full of concave places & convolutions. Of this said Momus you can read in Proverb CCCLX XIII of the first Chiliad of Erasmus, and in a book written by Leon Baptiste Albert, en- titled Momus.5 | | de say nothing in this work which I do not prove by authors wor- thy of faith, and by demonstrations as natural as they are manifest in Geometry; as may be seen from the figures hereinafter drawn by the compass & rule, which are tools of great certainty in measuring truly. | bine not be derided by Momus alone, but by three sorts of men, namely, the unlearned, the half-learned, and the much-learned. The unlearned will snap at me like poor ignoramuses, since learning hasno enemy save ignorance. The half-learned also will defame me, not un- derstanding what I shall say. Nor will the much-learned spare me,wish- ing & thinking to acquire renown by rebuking & correcting my errors, if there be any; and if perchance there be none, they will declare that a sheep has five feet instead of four, saying that a tail a foot long is as good as another foot, but as Erasmus says in his proverb CLX XXII, Carpet hac citius aliquis quam imitabitur (they will reprove me rather than resemble me). Against these evil speakers I will quote a fine ancient motto; and will say Acyovuow a Oelouaiv, eyeruoav ou pelet pou Dicunt que volunt, dicant non eff cure mibi. That is, they may say what they will, I care not. Susque deque fero.* Whatever they may say, I shall THE FIRST BOOK 3 not cease to write in French, like a Frenchman, reminding them that Vitruvius of old was reproved and derided because, not being a Greek by birth, he wrote in Greek, as can still be seen in the greater number of the terms and tools and other things relating to architecture which he mentioned in his book.6 N giving instruction how to make the Attic Letters aforesaid, I shall devote myself, with our Lord’s assistance, to setting forth, in their accustomed order, one after another, the qualities of each one accord- ing to the rules of grammar. I can see lying in ambush someone who would gladly find fault, and would strive to injure me if he could, or if he dared, but who, fearing lest, if he should show himself, I should in- stantly put him to silence by piercing his tongue with my trustworthy compass, and beating him with my unerring rule, will hold his peace, methinks. || Seam write, then, in French, in my own poor fashion and mother- tongue, and shall not fail, albeit I come of lowly & humble forbears and am poor in paltry goods, to give pleasure to the devoted lovers of well-made letters. I know that it is said in the ancient proverb men- tioned by Erasmus in Proverb DXVIII of his first Chiliad, that sepe est etiam olitor valde opportuna locutus,*and that Pliny said: Nullum esse librum tam malum, vt non aliqua parte prodesse queat: There is no book so bad that it may not be good for something. And thereupon I dare to say that, with the aid of God and of this book, you will be able to make and draw the Attic Letter in its proper proportions, as small or as large as you may choose, in so far as the compass and the rule can do their work, Erein, perchance, Ishall appear a new sort of man, because no one has yet been known to teach by writing, in the French tongue, the form & qualities of letters ; but, wishing to enrich our language in some degree, I am content to be the first humble index finger to point the way to some noble mind who shall strive the harder, as did the Greeks and Romans of old, to establish and order the French tongue by fixed rules for pronouncing and speaking properly. Would God that some noble lord might bethink himself to offer rewards and handsome pres- ents to those who could do this well. LC is true that the style of Parliament and the speech of the Court are excellent; but even so, our language might well be enriched by certain fine figures & flowers of rhetoric, both in prose and otherwise. * Often a kitchen gardener has said the aptes things. * 111, 2, 18. They have an eloquence of their own.’ Tory published an edition of Mela im 1507. + Line 111. 4 CHAMP FLEURY Weare bynature eloquent above all other nations,as Pomponius Mela says; for he declares in the third book of his Cosmography, where he ts speaking of the character of the French: Habent tamen et facundiam suam:* The French are naturally eloquent and fine speakers. So, too, the satirical poet [Juvenal] says, in his fifteenth Satire:+ Gallia causi- dicos docuit facunda Britannos: France, he says, taught the English to plead and to speak rightly. I Cite Latin poets & orators to show that we havea gift of great beauty in our noble French tongue. I might well cite the Greeks in like man- ner, but from among them I will take only a short preface to the Gallic Hercules, written by Lucian, Greek orator & philosopher. I will give the translation from Greek into Latin by Erasmus, and then I will translate it from Latin into French. In Latin it reads as follows: Erculem Galli lingua gentis vernacula Ogmium vocant. Porro Deum ipsum noua quadam atque inusitata figura depingunt. De- crepitus est apud illos, recaluaster, reliquis capillis, si qui reliqui sunt, plane canis, cute rugosa, et in aterrimum exusta colorem, cuiusmodi sunt Nautæ isti. Charontem potius aut lapetum quempiam ex his qui apud inferos versantur, diceres. In summa, quiduis potius quam Hercu- lem conijceres ex imagine. Atque tali specie quum sit, tamen Herculis ornatum gerit, vt qui cum leonis exuuium indutus sit, tum clauam dex- tra teneat, tum pharetram humeris aptatam portet, tum arcum tensum Izua pratendat. Denique modis omnibus Hercules est. Hac equidem arbitrabar in græcanicorum deorum contumeliam perperam facere Gallos, quum eiusmodi fingerent effigie, quo nimirum illum talibus picturis vlciscerentur, quod olim in regionem ipsorum incursasset, pre- das agens id temporis quum Gerionis armenta estigans occidentalium gentium plerasque regiones peruastaret. Atnondumetiam dixi id quod erat in imagine maxime nouum atque mirandum. Siquidem Hercules ille senex ingentem admodum hominum multitudinem trahit, omni- bus ab aure reuinctis. Porro vincula cathenulz tenues auro electroue confectæ, pulcherrimis istis monilibus assimiles. Atqui cum vinculis vsque adeo fragilibus ducantur, tamen neque de fugiendo cogitant quum alio qui commode possint, neque prorsus obnituntur, aut pedi- bus aduersus trahentem obtendunt, sese resupinantes,verum alacres ac Læti sequuntur, ducentem admirantes. VItro festinantes omnes, et laxa- tis funiculis, etiam anteuertere studentes, perinde quasi grauiter laturi THE FIRST BOOK 5 si soluerentur vinculis. Ne illud quidem pigebit referre, quod mihi vi- debatur omnium absurdissimum. Etenim quum non inueniret pictor vnde cathenularum summas ansas necteret, videlicet dextera jam cla- uam, lua arcum tenente, summam Dei linguam perterebrauit, atque ex hac religatis cathenulis eos trahi fecit. Ipse nimirum ad eos qui duce- bantur, vultum et oculos conuertebat arridens. Hac ego quum diutius assistens essem contemplatus, admirans, hesitans, indignans,Gallus qui propius astabat, nostratium literarum non indoctus. Id quod decla- rauit, quum græcanicam linguam absolute sonaret, philosophus opi- nor ex €0 genere philosophorum quod apud eos esse fertur. Ego tibi hospes, inquit, picturæ istius ænigma explicabo, nam videre vehemen- ter ad eam attonitus ac stupefactus. Orationem nos Galli nequaquam _arbitramur esse Mercurium, quemadmodum vos Græci, verum Her- culi illam tribuimus, propterea quod hic Mercurio longe robustrior ex- titerit. Nam quod senex fingitur, nihil est quod mirere. Siquidem vna facundia consueuit in senecta demum absolutum vigorem ostendere, simodo verum vestri dicunt poetæ,obduci tuuenum densa caligine pec- tus. Contra, Senecta posse quiddam dicere rudi iuuenta melius ac præ- clarius. Hinc videlicet apud vos et Nestoris lingua melle profluit, et Troianorum concionatores lirioéssam edunt, videlicet floridam quan- dam vocem. Nam liria, si satis commemini, flores appellantur: proinde quod ab auribus vinctos ad linguam trahit senex hic Hercules, qui non aliud quam ipse est sermo, ne id quidem debes admirari, qui quidem non ignores linguæ cumauribus esse cognationem. Neque vero ad con- tumeliam illius illud pertinet, quod ea pertusa est. Nam memini, in- quit et iambicos quosdem versiculos e comcedijsapud vos dicere. Siqui- dem viris locacibus extrema lingua perforata est omnibus. Quin de eodem hanc in summa habemus opinionem, vt, quicquid egit, id ora- tione,facundiaque confecisse putemus, vt pote virum sapientem, ac per- suadendo pleraque sibi subegisse. Iam tela illius nimirum rationes sunt acute, missiles, cite, atque animum sauciantes, vnde pennigera dicta. Hectenus gallus. The translation of this preface is as follows: HE French in their mother-tongue call Hercules Ogmium, are represent him in painting in a novel and unaccustomed fashion. They represent him as a bald old man, having only a very few sparse hairs behind, and those all gray and white. His skin is wrinkled, and 6 CHAMP FLEURY burned black with the heat of the sun, as we see that old seafaring men are coloured ; you would say that he was a veritable Charon, or an Iape- tus, who dwell in the lower regions. In fine, to see him you would think him anything other thana Hercules. None the less, in this special pic- ture he carries the habiliments of the said Hercules, in that he is clad in a lion’s skin & has in his right hand a cudgel, & wears a quiver slung about his neck, and in his left hand a bent bow. In sum, he is a true Her- cules. Ithought ofa surety that all these thingswere done by the French - in derision of the Greek gods, conceiving that they fashioned him thus for revenge because of old, when he journeyed far to the West seeking the oxen and cattle of King Geryon, he made incursions & forays into their French country, laying waste many regions there. But Ihave not yet told what was most singularly novel and wonderful in this picture. Verily this old Hercules drew after him a marvellously great multi- tude of men & women, all attached to oneanother by the ear. The bonds were little chains of gold and amber, beautifully made, and resembled collars. And although they are all led and drawn along by these fragile chains, yet is there not one who tries to escape, though they could easily do so if they should wish. They do not hold back or turn or twist foot ot head, but all follow, light of heart and joyous, wrapt in admiration of him. All, of their free will, make speed to follow him, and slackening their bonds, strive to walk faster than he, as if they would be sorry to be released. And surely it willnot be amiss to tell also of that which seemed to me most unfitting. For when the painter found no place to attach the ends of these chains, seeing that in the right hand was the cudgel and in the left the’ bow, he pierced the tongue of the God Hercules, to which all these chains were attached, and thus made all the said men and women to be led behind him. Hercules turned his face and his eyes toward those whom he led, showing to them a gracious aspect & amiable countenance. I had stooda long time on my feet, says Lucian, beholding these things, marvelling much at them, doubting their truth, & waxing wroth, when a certain Frenchman standing near,who was not unversed in the Greek letters, since he pronounced them well & perfectly—a phi- losopher, I believe, of the school of philosophers commonly found in France—said to me: ‘My friend, I purpose to make clear to you the rid- _ dle of this painting, for you seem to me to be greatlyamazed & astound- ed by it. Among us we do notascribe eloquence to Mercury, as you do in Greece, but we ascribe it to Hercules, because he is much lustier than THE FIRST BOOK 7 Mercury. You should not be astonished because he is old, for eloquence and fine speaking are wont to show forth their utmost vigour in oldage, that is, if your poets speak truly,when they opine that the mind of youth is engirt by a murky obscurity, & that age, on the contrary, says down- rightly what it desires to say, much better & more clearly than untaught youth ; and therefore,among you Greeks the speech of Nestor is com- pared to flowering honey. In like manner the ambassadors of the Tro- jans bedeck their language with flowers, and their orations are called Lirioessa: liria, in Greek, if I remember aright, are flowers. And this that you see—that this gray-haired Hercules draws on with his tongue all these men held fast by the ear—has no other meaning than that lan- guage adorns; and be not amazedat this, since you cannot fail to know that the tongue hasa certain connection with the ears. Nor shouldthere be aught of censure because his tongue is pierced, for I remember that in your comedies there are iambic verses which say that men who are great talkers always have their tongues pierced. And for this cause we French are, in fine, of this opinion, that whatever Hercules does he does by force of his eloquence and fine language, like a wise man who can well convince by subjugating what he will. The arrows in the quiver are his arguments, which are keen, penetrating, and nimble, transpiercing our hearts & wills. And therefore you say that speech is pennigera, that is to say, feathered, like an arrow. * HUS concluded the French philosopher, whom we can plainly perceive to have been one of the Druids, of whom many an au- thor makes pleasant mention. E see, then, by the words of Lucian behind the mask of this alle- , gory, that our language is so full of grace that, if it be spoken by a discreet and wise man, of mature age, it has such great efficacy that it persuades sooner and better than the Latin or the Greek. The Latins and the Greeks admit as much when they say that this Hercules was Gallic, not the Latin Hercules, or Greek Hercules. Il Have seen this allegory splendidly portrayed in Rome, near the Tur- ris Sanguineus, not far from the Church of Saint Louis, wherein the said Hercules and those whom he leads with his tongue by the earsare very well disposed—a little better than they are in that which is de- scribed on the first leaf of Pomponius Mela, which was printed by one named Andreas CratandrusBasiliensis, This Andreas places in the god’s * Although sufficiently close for this purpose, Tory’s ren- dering of the Latin is rather a paraphrase than a transla- tion.7 8 CHAMP FLEURY left hand a bow discharging an arrow, while he holds the cudgel in his right hand ; whereas, in the other, the bent bow must needs be without an arrow; the arrows remain in their quiver, and if Hercules would dis- charge one, he must put the end of his cudgel on the ground, & the han- dle upright,against his stomach. The better to present the thing to the eye, I have made, below, a drawing, which is according to Lucian and according to the said portrait that Isaw at Rome, and also according to the translation from Greek into Latin which my lord Budé has placed in his annotations on the Pandects, at the passage where it is written: Ex L. pri. De fer, cor. §. Quod ait prator.® HERE FOLLOWS THE DRAWING OF FHE FRENCH RERCUEREs LE HER- CV- CES FRAN- COIS if with our eloquence there were fixed rules, it seems to me, under correction, that the language would be the richer and more perfect. And thereanent, because I remember and can give good reason why such rules could be maintained in this regard, and because I see every day many persons, learned and unlearned, goastray and use barbarisms and inept words, I say that for the preterit tense one can make such a rule and say: Henever the infinitive ends in re, the third person singular of the preterit should be preferred in it. as batre, batit ; faire, feit; vaincre,vainquit. Plaire and its compounds, which are complaire and des- plaire, are exceptions, for they make their preterit in eur: pleut, compleut, and despleut. Boyre, also, and croire make beut and creut. In like manner, eSre makes its preterit fut; croiffre, creut; and paire, peut. And whenever the infinitive ends in er, the preterit must end in a,as fraper, frapa; denser THE FIRST BOOK 9 [danser], densa ; saulter, saulta ; and not frapit, densit, or saultit,as many say. Cognoistre and others with the same ending are exceptions, for they make their preterit in ewt,* as do the infinitives in oir: cogneut; concevoir, conceut; aparcevoir, aparceut. Infinitives in ir make their preterit in ##: faillir, failli; cueillir, cueillit, and not cueilla,as many unthinking per- sons say. Have made this little illustrative digression, to the end that some studious mind may grasp the opportunity of the subject I put before his eyes. H° who would lay his foundation well should, in my opinion, make use of the works of Pierre de Sainct Cloct & of the works of Jehan Linevelois, who have narrated the life of Alexander the Great in long lines, which the author who wrote in prose the Game of Chess,? alleges to consist of twelve syllables, & to be called Alexandrine verse, because, as has been said, the life of Alexander is told therein.t These two authors have in their style great majesty of ancient language; and I think that, if they had lived in the days when well-made letters were in their prime, as they are to-day, they would have surpassed all Greek and Latin writ- ers. [hey have, I say,in their compositions the perfect gift of every grace in flowers of rhetoric & ancient poesy. Although Jehan le Maire makes no mention of them, yet has he taken & borrowed from them the greater part of his fine language, as one may well perceive in reading attentively in his works and in theirs. Also one might well make use of the works of Chrestien deTroyes, and especially his Chevalier de I Espee, & his Per- ceval,which he dedicated to Count Philip of Flanders. Hugon de Mery, too, in his Tornoy de Lentecrift, and Raoul in his Romant des Elles. Nor is Paysant de Mesieres to be despised, who makes many a fine little coup- let, in his Mule sans Frein among others. Ihave lately seen and held in my hand all these aforementioned venerable ancient authors, written on parchment, which my lord and good friend, Brother Rene Masse of Vendosme, Chronicler to the King,'° generously and of his good-will showed to me. He uses them to such good purpose in making perfect his Chronicles of France, that I can honestly say of him,— Cedite, Romani scriptores, cedite, Græci; Nescio quid maius nascitur Iliade.t Give place, give place, ye Greek and Latin writers; of Rene Masse is born a thing more beautiful and greater than the Iliad. * These, of course, are excep- tions to the first rule, in the same category with ‘esire,’ “croiStre,’ and ‘paisire.’ So the verbs in ‘oir’ are exceptions to the rule following relating to those in ‘ir.’ + ‘The exaét origin | of the French word | is disputed, some deriving it ... fromthe name of Alexandre Paris, an old French poet who used this verse, and others from the fait that several poems on Alexander the Great were written in it by early poets Cone by the said Alexandre Paris).’—N.£.D. t Propertius, 11,34, 65. The poet is speaking of Virgil. *In classical Latin‘Clavam Herculi extorquere’ was a pro- verbial expression meaning something impossible of ac- complishment. “Both senten- ces are from Ælius Donatus’s commentary on V'irgil. 10 CHAMP cBLEURY NE might, further, make use of the works of Arnoul Graban, and of Simon Graban his brother. Dante Alighieri, Florentine, as says my aforementioned good friend Brother Rene Masse, makes honour- able mention of thesaid Arnoul Graban. Andof thisArnoul I have seen, in the Church of the Bernardins at Paris, a picture wherein there is a prayer to the Virgin Mary which begins, ‘En Protestant, and the first letters of the verses of the last couplet contain his name and surname which aree Arnoldus Grabans me. For him who could obtain the works of Nesson, ’twould be a great joy to use the pleasant language which is contained therein. I have seen of them naught save a prayer to the Vir- gin Mary, which is printed in the first impression of the Calendrier des Bergiers. The last impression does not contain it, [know not why. Alain Chartier and George Chastelain, Chevalier, are authors well worthy to be read often, for they are very full of most dignified and heroic lan- guage. The Lunettes des Princes, too, is excellent for the graceful language that is contained therein. One might also make use of the fine Chron- icles of France which my lord Cretin, lately Chronicler to the King, has written so well that neither Homer, nor Virgil, nor Dante ever sur- passed him in excellence. And to show how much of grace our French language has when it is well controlled, I will set down here in passing a rondeau which, it is said, a woman of eminence in all good qualities, Madame Dentragues, made & composed. Also two useful little lessons whereof I know not the authors; and I will commend goodly minds to other excellent French works, there to do what Virgil did of old in read- ing the works of Ennius: Extrahere aurum de Sercore—Extract gold from dung; and of Homer: Extorquere clauam de manu Herculis—Snatch the cudgel from the hand of Hercules.* The rondeau is as follows: OUR le meilleur et plus seur chemin prandre, Te te conseille a Dieu aymer aprandre; Estre loyal de bouche, cueur, & mains; Ne te vanter, peu moucquer, parler moings, Plusque ne doibs scauoir ou entreprandre. RRs tes subiectz ne te chaille reprandre, Trop haultains faictz ne te amuse a comprendre, Et cherche paix entre tous les humains. Pour le meilleur. THE FIRST BOOK 11 NG don promis ne faiz iamais attendre, Et a scauoir sans cesser doibz pretendre: Peu de gens fays de ton vouloir certains; A ton amy ne dissimule ou tains, Bien me plaira si a ce veulx entendre, Pour le meilleur. The first of the said lessons is as follows: I tuas maistre, sers le bien, Dis bien de luy, garde le sien, Son secret scele, quoy quil face, Et soyes humble deuant sa face. The other lesson: E souffre a ta femme pour rien Mettre son pied dessus le tien: Le lendemain la bonne beste Le vouldra mettre sus ta teste.!* [; it be true that all things have had a beginning, certain it is that the Greek language, and the Latin as well, were for long unpolished and without rules of grammar, as our own is to-day ; but virtuous and stu- dious writers took pains and diligently strove to reduce them to fixed rules, the better to put them to worthy use in writing and committing to memory the useful branches of knowledge, to the profit and honour of the public weal. | iB the time of the father of Latin poets, Ennius, who said in his rude language, before the Latin tongue was purified,— Vulturis in syluis miserum mandebat homonem ;* and in the time of the poet philosopher Lucretius, who said in his first book,— Visceribus viscus gigni sanguenque creari;t and also in the time of the comic poet Plautus, reputed and called the favourite of the Muses, who said, in his comedy Casina,— Non ergo istud verbum empsitem titiuillitio——t * Annales, 11, 33. + Tory printed ‘sanguem- que’; but as Lucretius (1,837) wrote sanguenque, which is the form that Tory criticises, the word is so spelled here. t ‘Casina,’ 11, 5, 39. Com- mentators and editors are not agreed as to the frange word ‘empsitem.’ * “Casina,’ IV, 2, 5. The following line is fromthe same play, V,3, 13. + That is, the Latin lan- guage. As the ‘good authors’ he mentions are mainly post- classical, Tory’s comments carry a severe Stricture on the language of the classical au- thors.14 12 CHAMP FLEURY and a little farther on,— Facite vostro animo volupe,—* and again, Hac dabo protinam, et fugiam,— men didnot yet write either according to rule or grammatically; where- as afterward the said Latin tongue was so well polished that it would to-day be shameful & foolish to say homonem, sanguen, empsitem, volupe, and protinam. There are a thousand other forms of speech of like sort, which Hieronymus Avantius, a native of Verona, sets down at the be- ginning of the annotations which he has made with such careful dili- gence on the works of the ancient poet Lucretius, which I leave for the curious and lovers of antiquity,and which you can see and read your fillof, in a dialogue entitled Osci et Volsci Dialogus ludis Romanis actus. ‘Hen Donatus,Servius, Priscianus, Diomedes, Phocas, Agrestius, Caper, Probus, & other good authors of like sort had appeared, they polished it and put itt in such order, that it progressed from good to better in its perfectness, so that the Romans, who held sway over the greater part of the world, prospered more & won more victories by their language than by arms. Would God that we could do likewise,not that we might be tyrants and rulers over all men, but that, having our lan- guage well ordered, we might commit to memory and to writing the goodly arts and sciences. I see now that, if we wish to acquire some cer- tain kind of knowledge, we must beg and take it, as if by stealth, from the Greeks and Latins; and they have naught to get from us, or from what we are able to learn. Our language is as easy to regulate & put in order as the Greek tongue was of old, in which there are five varieties of dialect—the Attic, the Doric, the Æolian, the Ionic, and the Common, which differ from one another in the declination of nouns, the conjuga- tion of verbs, orthography, accents, and pronunciation, which a Greek author, Johannes the grammarian,& many others, discourse of & show very fully. In the same way, we might well do with the language of the Court and of Paris, with the Picard, the Lyonnais, the Limousin, & the Provencal. I would set down here some of the differences and similar- ities, were it not that I do not wish to take too much time hereon, and I leave it for those better informed than I to attend to it. if Make no doubt that sometimes new words appear in our language, and, as Horace says in his- Ars Poetica,— THE FIRST BOOK 13 Multa renascentur, qu iam cecidere, cadentque Que nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet vsus.* Many words are reborn which were long since abandoned, and those which are current to-day will be abolished again, if usage wills. Usage and time bring and take away many words, old and new; and to this effect Pontanus says in his first book, De —Aspiratione: ‘Lapse of time made Messalamfrom Messana; valerium from valesio; furium from fu- sto; lites from sclitibus; locum from scloco; lemures from remulibus; ordeum from fordeo; Cassandram from Cassantra; from what was Odysseus, Vlys- sem; liberum from lebero; heri from here; sibi from sibe; curauit from coe- rauit; velocem from voloce; me from the accusative mee; bellum from duello; from @éjo, in which the I is doubled, aio; compesce from comperce; credas from creduis; des from duis; hespruginem from hesprug; and a thousand others.’ Pass all these things by, and return to our subject of letters; but it seems to me that it will not be without profit if, first of all, I write here of their origin and invention, as I have been able to read in divers authors, both ancient and modern. S to the invention of letters, there are different opinions. Priscian says that the Chaldeans were the original inventors.'5 Lactantius says, in his Insitutiones Divina, that the Egyptians first devised and de- signed them, like all other useful things, both of the hand and of the mind, which they invented, & this by favour of the temperate climate of the country where they live. And they themselves say that they were thefirst men. It isPlato’s opinion that letters have existed of all time, just as he believed that the world had always existed. Pliny, also, in chapter LV I of the seventh book of his Natural History, is of opinion that let- ters were always Assyrian; nevertheless he quotes diverse opinions. Jose- phus, Pomponius Mela, & the poet-historian Lucan are of opinion that the Phœnicians, who are in Syria, invented the letters. Lucan says,— Pheenices primi, famz si creditur, ausi Mansuram rudibus vocem signare figuris. t That is to say, the Pheenicians, if report is to be believed, were the first who tried to represent the voice of man in written forms and in letters, The said Josephus has left it in writing that the children of Adam in- vented the forms and characters of letters, and that they wrote in two * Line 70. Translated by Tory after quoting. À ‘Pharsalia,’ 111, 220. * Annales, X1, 14. 1 ©. Curtius, ‘Alexander,’ IV, 2. Ÿ ax, 16, § “De Bello Gallico, v1, 13, 14, 16, 18. 14 CHAMP FLEURY columns, leaving them to make known to their descendants the innu- merable ills, great hardships & tribulations which were to come. Abra- ham, the ancient philosopher and the prince of ruling patriarchs, was, in the opinion of some persons, the first inventor of letters. According to others, Moses first gave the Jews knowledge thereof; from whom the Phœnicians acquired the knowledge, & then the Greeks from the Phoe- nicians. Cadmus,according to Cornelius Tacitus,* & according to Pliny in the above-mentioned chapter & book, gave them to the said Greeks. Quintus Curtius, in his Book IIT], says that the inhabitants of the city of Tyre knew & taught them before any others, when he writes: Tyr4s, si fame libet credere, literas prima aut docuit, aut didicit.* That is to say: the city of Tyre, if report is to be believed, first taught or learned letters. Hercules, as Cicero says, in his book, De Natura Deorum,t gave them to the Phrygians. Nicostrata, who was called also Carmentis, as Cornelius Tacitus says, took them from Greece to the Latins. St. Cyprian the martyr says that Saturn first brought them into Italy, and taught how to stamp them on coins. St. Jerome narrates that Esdras, after the Cap- tivity of the Hebrews, invented them because they were lost, and made them in other shapes & characters which the said Hebrews still use to this day. I Should like right well to say who of their inventors brought them into France; but we are so poor in historians and followers of well- made letters, that I cannot recall an author of repute who has left a suf- ficient record thereof. Gaguin, however, says in the fourth book of his chronicles of France, that in the time of the King & Emperor Charle- magne, four disciples of the Venerable Bede whose names were Clau- dius, Joannes, Rabanus, and Alcuinus, came to Paris,and began to teach letters for pay, and that at the time the University took its beginning. But it does not follow that the making of letters and writing had not theretofore been practised. Long before Julius Cæsar came to France, the philosophers known as Druids were in the region of Chartres, at a place which is still called Dreux, & gave instruction there to all comers, making them learn by heart numberless thousands of letters. I cannot truly say here, or affirm, what manner of letters they taught, whether Hebrew, or Greek, or Latin, or French; but it is probable that they were Greek letters, as appears from the fact that Cæsar speaks of them in the sixth book of his Commentaries, § and that their appellation, Aouda, is Greek. I can also venture a conjecture that the Hebrew letters had THESFIRST BOOK 15 been known there before; for I have seen in the hostel of Fescamp, with- in the University of Paris, a great stone whereon are carved many fine Hebrew letters. I have seen two other stones carved in Hebrew, which are set in the courtyard wall of the house from which depends the sign of the Trois Boittes, on rue de la Harpe, facing the end of rue du Foing. Another I have seen near the Cordeliers, which was found on the spot where a newly built house now stands, between the Porte de l’Univer- site, through which one goes to Sainct Germain des Pres, and the said Cordeliers, and of which half the letters can still be seen, inasmuch as they have been recarved; and the stone is used for a gutter to drip on. I doubt not that there are many others of the same sort, which I have not been able to see, which are in houses here & there, concealed in the earth. HE Hebrew & Greek letters were abolished by Julius Czsar ; for he and the Romans were such great gluttons of renown that they desired not only to conquer kingdoms and nations, but that, while they destroyed laws, customs, usages, and all other excellent things, and de- molished epitaphs and sepulchres, their victories and their arrogance should be kept in men’s minds through their Latin letters, thinking to surpass the Greek language, which they were not able to do, inasmuch as the said Greek language is composed of letters more fitly disposed, so that it is incomparably more fertile, more copious, and richer than their Latin. HE Greeks were instructors of the Latins in all manner of know- ledge ; witness Priscian, in the first book of his work on Grammar, entitled Dec Accidentibus Litere,when he says: Porro Graci quibus in omni doëtrina authoribus vtimur* ‘The Greeks, he says, ‘are our instructors in every sort of knowledge.’ Efore Cesar came hither & brought in his train his Latin language, the Greek letters may have been, and in fact were, current here; in- asmuch as, a long period of time and a great number of years earlier, as Baptiste of Mantua says in one of the books that he wrote to narrate the life of St. Denis, when Hercules journeyed beyond Spain, totheisles of the Hesperides, he passed through this country ;and when he was on the island of this city of Paris,t he took so great delight in viewing the country & the river Seine, that he began to build there; then, desiring to proceed with his enterprises, he left a company of his men-at-arms, who were called Parrhasians fromthe name of their province of Greece, *Book1, 4. The original has ‘Postremo’ for ‘Porro.’ + The Île de la Cité. 16 CHAMP FEEURY on the coast of Asia, the name of which is Parrhasia. These Parrhasians left their names here, and by the change of A to I, the inhabitants of this city, were, and are to this day, called Parrhisiens. Hereafter these Parrhasians, living here, built on said island, and began, under a kindly and favourable horoscope, this noble city of Paris, which is to-day, more truly than Athens was in the olden time, the fountain-head of all branches of knowledge ; the standard of every virtue; the theatre of noble men ; the high seat of great minds; the sanc- tuary of devout souls, and the treasure chamber of all good things; in whose honour I shall very gladly quote in this place some fine verses of the poet Architrenius—as Baptista Pius bears witness in Chapter LXITI of his Annotations, when he says:— Altera regia Phoebt Parrhisius, Cyrrhea viris, Chrysea metallis, Græca libris, Inda studijs, Romana poetis, Attica terra sophis. Mundi rosa. Balsamus orbis. Sidonis ornatu. Sua mensis, et sua potu. Diues agris. Fœcunda mero. Mansueta colonis. Messe ferax, Inoperta rubis, Nemorosa racemis, Plena feris. Piscosa lacu. Volucrosa fluentis. Munda domo. Fortis domino. Pia regibus. Aura Dulcis. Ameena situ. Bona quælibet. Omne venustum. Omne bonum. Si sola bonis Fortuna faueret.16 HAT isto say: Paris is a marvellous royal abode,wherein the glori- ous sun commonly breathes its gracious & divine aspect, bringing thither innumerable noble minds dedicated to the Muses, like those who dwelt long ago in the city of Phocis in Greece, called Cyrrha. Paris abounds in all sorts of precious metals, and isa very Greece in the mul- titude of books; a true India in useful knowledge and study; a second Rome in poets;an Athens in learned men. Paris isthe rose of the world, the balsam of the firmament. Paris is a second Sidon in outward splen- dour, abounding in all manner of food and pleasant beverages, rich in tilled fields, fecund in pure wine, & refined in her people. Very fertile in every kind of useful grains, without brambles and without worthless bushes; very abundant in vineyards and arbours; forests full of wild beasts, and the true birthplace of all good fish. Girt about by her beau- tiful river Seine. Spotless in her houses, strong in her Lord, venerable THE FIRST BOOK 17 and lovable in her kings, delightful in her clear, soft air, delectable in her situation. In short, in Paris is to be found every respectable virtue and the treasure-house of all good, if Fortune choose to be always kind to her. Aptiste of Mantua, above-mentioned, in the passage cited, intro- duces St. Paul speaking to St. Denis, and saying :— Venies duce flumine tandem Parrhisios gentem vestris qua traxit ab oris Et genus et nomen; sed primæ barbara nonam Lingua notam vitio fandi succedere fecit. HAT is to say:“Thou shalt go’ says St. Paul to St. Denis, ‘along the noble river Seine to the Parrhisians, who had their origin & their name from one of your Greek nations. This nation was called Parrha- sian, but the common speech has changed the first letter of the alpha- bet, which is A, to the ninth, which is I, and they say Parrhisian,’ Il Can say further, with good reason, that the Greek letters were here before the Latin, since even to-day we have in use in our French lan- guage words and phrases which are more Greek than Latin, like Para- disus,- Angelus, Cygnus, and a thousand others, whereof few take notice because of the lack of rules in our language. E call a beautiful garden an earthly paradise (paradis) ,that is to say, Paradisus. An angel (ange ) is nothing more than a mes- senger,which is, in Latin, nuncius; thus we see that angelus—or in Greek, Ayyeloo—and amgeare much more akin and alike than munciusand ange. In like manner, cygnus, or Kuyvoo,* ismuch moreakin tothe French word cygne, than to the Latin, which is olor. However, who shall not choose to believe what I have said, let him amuse himself by reading the fifth book of Dec Asse, at the beginning of leaf CX CV of the edition of Ven- ice, which is called Aldine, and he will see how Monseigneur Budé tes- tifies in choice words to the fact that the names of the measures used in this noble city of Paris still have, for the most part, names like the Greeks, as are cheopina and pinta—cheopine and pinte. Melodia is nearer to the French word melodie than is the Latin concentus 7 I could give a thousand other similar & more manifest examples; but, with our Lord’s assistance, that shall be for another time. Aguin wrote in Book IIIT of his Chronicles that the books which St. Denis wrote of the celestial hierarchy, and which were sent by * The common Greek form is KUKVOG. * Michael IT, “Byzantine Emperor, 810-829. + Louis I (814-840), King of the Franks and Holy ‘Ro- man Emperor, who was com- monly known as Louis the Pious, or ‘Le Débonnaire.’ t That is, in the time of St. Denis who lived in thethird century, A.D. 18 CERAM PIP DE UY: theEmperor Michael of Constantinople*toKing Louis le Piteable,t son & successor of Charlemagne, were written in Greek.18 It follows there- fore that the Greek letters were current here before the Latin ones, since they were more highly esteemed, & the said Latins were in those daysi still in the uncouth and rude stage, as one can plainly see in the works of the authors &writersof that time, likeGrecismus,!9 Tardivus, Alanus de Parabolis, Floretus, Compotus, Alexander de Villa Dei, and many others, who are not worth calling to mind because of the crudeness and rude language of their works, rather Latin-y than Latin, that is to say, without elegance and without flowers of rhetoric. Oreover, when St. Denis, St. Rusticus, and St. Eleutherus came from Athens to Paris to give instruction in the Christian faith, like the Greeks that they were, they taught it in Greek rather than in Latin, in memory whereof we see that, even to this day, on the feast of St. Denis, the religious of the church & convent of l’Abbaye St. Denis in France chant the gospel of their high mass in Greek. For which rea- sons, let anyone deny it who will, it seems to me that the Greek and Hebrew letters were current here before the Latin, & that what so in- creased the authority of the said Latin was only the arrogance and insa- tiable avarice of the Romans, who desired to destroy utterly the afore- said excellent ancient & divine tongues, and to put theirs above them, which falls far short of them in every element of perfection, as they can well judge who know all three, or only the Greek and Latin. My lord Budé, diamond and pearl among learned and well-lettered Parrhisians, has written most elegantly of the likenesses between the Greek & Latin letters, in the third book of his excellent work De Asse, and can therein abundantly satisfy those who desire more ample knowledge of the said Greek letters. F I had been able to find written mention of our letters de forme and bastarde, or, as I have said before, if I could have found any man will- ing and able to instruct me about them, I would have set them in order, according to their true proportions; but, God willing, that will be for another time. At this moment] will discourse only of the Attic Letters, which are commonly called Antique letters, and, by abuse, Roman let- ters. But first I beg good students & true lovers of well-made letters to forgive me if I have beena little long in thus digressing to lament the sterility of our hands, which are too ill-cared-for to write well. THE BIRST BOOK 19 fees said Attic letters are properly called Attic, and not Antique, or Roman; because the Athenians made use of them before the Romans or any man in their Italy, however much the said Romans and Italians have made parade of them in their sumptuous palaces and tri- umphal arches, as one can see in Rome, by the ruins that are found here and there in a great part of that city, surrounded by duck ponds. Purpose to say here a thing unknown to many studious persons, how- beit I know that there are tens of thousands more learned than Iam. It is that this said Attic letter was invented in a country of Greece called Jonia,which is,as Pomponius Mela says,* at the edge of Asia Minor, be- tween Caria and Æolia. Ionians first invented, drew, & proportioned it. But theAthenians,whowere the sovereign lords & masters of allGreece, brought it into use and credit, so that it has and still retains their name. . To show that it is true that the Ionians invented these Attic letters,and that not only the Athenians, but all other nations made use of them, Pliny says at the end of Book VII of his Natural History, in chapter LV II: Gentium consensus tacitus primus omnium conspirauit vt lonum lite- ris uterentur. That is to say: by the universal agreement of all peoples, the Ionian letters were used by all. This invention was converted into a legend, as the Greeks were wont to do in all matters; as can be sufh- ciently seen in Boccaccio’s book De Genealogia Deorum.t ge pretended that Jupiter was once enamoured of the daughter of King Inachus, to such a pitch that, in order to have his pleasure of her alone, he surrounded her with darkness. But Juno, sister & spouse of Jupiter, perceiving that darkness, jealous spouse as she was, suspected what was toward, and came down to earth to see what that darkness sig- nified, it being broad day. Whereupon Jupiter, seeing her approach, in order to conceal his actions, changed his love into the shape of a beau- tiful young cow. But Juno did not give over her purpose, & began slyly to praise the cow’s beauty, & finally asked her husband for her as a gift. Jupiter, finding himself at a loss for an excuse, could not deny her, and gave the cow to her. And straightway, when she had her for her own, she thanked him ; and, being in haste to take vengeance for the affront, she gave her in charge to her shepherd, one Argus, who had in his face and all over his head a hundred eyes, which never slept all at the same time, but two by two, while the others kept watch. This Argus treated her harshly, often beating her with his heavy cudgel,throwing stones at her head and tail and legs, driving her hither and yon during the great * ‘Cosmographia,’ 1, 2, 66. + The Greek custom of convert- ing all things into legends is shown by the work as a whole rather than by any particular passage. 20 GHAMPsrPGE GURY: heat of mid-day, to make her to be stung & bitten by the hornets & big flies. Then, driving her back with blows to her shed, he gave her naught to eat but the bitter bark and tough twigs of trees. The poor creature would gladly have told the said Argus who she was; but instead of try- ing to speak, she bellowed & gazed at him, weeping bitterly the while. Upiter, seeing the hardships that his love had to endure, & the cruelty of Argus, one day changed his messenger Mercury into the form of a shepherd keeping kids & lambs,and sent him to Argus, who was tor- menting the said cow among the fields and valleys. Mercury came up, leading his flock, & playing most melodiously on his pipes, so that Ar- gus called to him to come and rest on the grass beside him where he lay at full length in the shade of a cliff. Mercury saluted him, & then, after they had talked a while & wished each other well, he began to play up- on his pipes even better than before, so that Argus took great delight therein. But Mercury, the better to carry out his purpose, ceased and be- gan to talk and discourse in praise of music so that he awoke in him the desire to learn that art and to play upon pipes. Thereupon, moved by Mercury’s words, Argus begged him earnestly to play again upon the pipes, which he did at once, and with such skill and so melodiously that he lulled him into slumber so profound that all his eyes, which were, as has been said, a hundred in number, fell asleep at once; whereupon Mercury took his shepherd’s knife and cut off his head. HE beautiful cow, seeing that she was delivered from him who had so tormented her, was very glad, & went away, wandering here and there, until she came toa place where her father, Inachus, had been changed intoariver-god, otherwise called a sea-god. This Inachus,know- ing naught of his daughter’s unfortunate plight, and thinking that she was in truth a cow, offered her handfuls of tender and sweet-smelling grasses, & patted her affectionately, touching her with his divine hands on brow and back and flanks, until, as he went and came about her, he saw his daughter’s name written in the place where the beautiful cow’s foot had pressed the earth: a name of two letters only—I and Q, from which name the country was called Ionia, and its people Ionians. Hen Inachus saw his daughter’s name thus written, & knew that she was changed into a cow, he began to cry out: ‘My daughter and dear love, I have sought thee so long over mountains and valleys and have never been able to find thee; but not dreaming of such good fortune, I have met thee, and unthinking, recognized thee. ite BiRST BOOK 21 V'idius Naso, a little before the end of the first book of his trans- formations & poetic fables which he calls. Metamorphoses, narrates this fable most happily, as is his excellent custom. I would gladly quote it all, because of the pretty wit in which it abounds; but it would take too long; however, I will write down a part of it. Decerptas senior nat porrexerat herbas, Ja manus lambit, patrijsque dat oscula palmis, Nec retinet lachrymas; et si modo verba supersint, Oret opem, nomenque suum, casusque loquatur. Littera pro verbis quam pes in puluere duxit, Corporis indicium mutati triste pergit, Me miserum exclamat pater Inachus, inque gementis Cornibus et niueæ pendens ceruice juuence ; Me miserum ingeminat, tu ne es quæsita per omnes Nata mihi terras; tu non inuenta reperta es.* That is to say: Old Inachus offered plucked grasses to the beautiful young cow, his daughter, who licked & kissed his hands, unable to keep from weeping and wailing. If she could have spoken, gladly would she have asked aid, & would have told her name, narrating her misfortunes; but the writing that her foot made as she walked on the dust was a sad proof of the transformation of her lovely maid’s body into a cow. In- stantly, when her father, Inachus, perceived the said writing, he began to cry out, clinging to the horns of his daughter, lamenting in the shape of a snow-white heifer: ‘Oh, unhappy me!’ said Inachus; ‘alas, my child, [have sought thee in innumerable places, & never until this hour have I been able to find thee.’ Tovanni Boccaccio, a very learned and studious man, has told this whole fable at great length in Book VII, Chapter X XI of his De Gencalogia Deorum, setting it forth very clearly in its allegorical mean- ing, as those may see who choose to consult that work. But in this place, and for my purpose, I will interpret the allegory as I understand it,and I believe that you will think that it is well interpreted. Say, then, that we are to understand that Jupiter, who was enamoured of Inachus’s fair daughter, is the soft air of Ionia, that pleasant abid- ing place, where bright minds found the strength to invent art, letters, and knowledge in general, even as we see that the air of Paris is much more clear and soft & agreeable than that of any other place in France, * ‘Metamorphoses,’ 1, 645. 7° 22 CHAMPOPE BURY and that all useful knowledge and excellent virtues have always, from her foundation, flourished & prospered there, and grown in sovereign perfection; to such a degree that she has no peer in all Christendom; and, being a place surrounded by walls with eleven gates, she is superior in excellence to any kingdom on earth. I do not mean to decry other places in order to exalt her, but there is a common proverb that Paris is without a peer. if Return to my allegory, & say that by the fair daughter of Inachus, lo, is meant knowledge, which is given by Juno, who represents Riches. Few persons attain to wide knowledge without the aid of money; and for this reason we see that poor scholars, who wish to attain perfection, struggle & strive to have some kindly Macenas, or some Pollio—that is to say, some good man who will assist them to be maintained at school and in their studies. Rgus, with the deformity of so many eyes, signifies those who, of : their rudeness & evil knowledge, persecute good]y letters & learn- ing with their wicked, sterile, and crude teaching, and bring contempt upon men of great learning by imposing upon them new conditions, in order to turn them back and deprive them of all their power. In the hands of such men, knowledge is in durance & is not fed on the sweet herbs of grammar, or on flowers of rhetoric, but on the rough bark of barbarism and the bitter twigs of solecism. Ercury, playing upon his pipe and cutting off the head of Argus, will be interpreted here as the man who is diligent in seeking the purity of all goodly letters and true knowledge, by employing for the better instruction of others both his spoken and his written words, and quelling & putting to shame the inveterate barbarisms of the unlearned, even as we see three noble personages to be doing to-day: Erasmus the Hollander, Jacques Le Fevre of Estaple in Picardy, & Budé, the pearl of noble and studious Parrhisians, who, by night and day, keep watch and ward, and write for the profit of the public weal and the exaltation of perfect knowledge. Return then to our said Attic letters, and as to the legend of Io, I say that these two letters, I and O, are those from which all the other Attic letters are made and fashioned. The A is made from the Ialone. The B is made from the I, and from the O divided. The C is made from an Oalone, divided. The D from an I and O divided. And in like ahi De BOOK. 23 manner all other letters are made either from one of these two, or from both together, as I shall show hereafter, & shall prove, with our Lord’s assistance, by figure & proportion. We may say also that the O is made from the I; but we may well consider that the O is a model for the handles and curves of other letters than itself. Bserve in passing that the IQ, as the name of the fair daughter of Inachus, is written with Lota and Omega, that is with a vowel I,and with Q, which is long in metrical quality; but for my purpose 10 will be written with Omicron, that is, with a short O, for the reason that it is a simple and regular letter, and is better fitted to make a clear demon- stration of the proportioning of the curves of the other letters than is the said Omega, which is itself made from Omicron by writing it twice side by side & touching, in conformity with the rule of grammar which requires that a vowel long in metrical quantity shall be equal to two short ones, and two short to one long. Purpose to set down here another little secret in connection with what I have said, that our Attic letters are all derived in shape and made from the I & the O. It is this—that to commemorate the inven- tion and perfection of these letters, the word Io came into use as a prov- erb signifying exaltation and triumph, as in saying Io pean, Io triumphe. Ovid says in his 41s Amoris,*— Dicite Io pzan, et Io bis dicite pæan. So Codrus Urseus, humorous poet and orator, reading lately in public at Bonoigne la Grasse, composed a Latin ballad to entertain the guests at a banquet, beginning thus:— Io, Io, dicamus Io, Io, dulces Homeriaci.2+ And Horace says, in one of his Odes: + Non semel dicemus Io, triumphe. Say, therefore, that, to show the joy which the ancient Ionians felt in having invented & designed these said Attic letters, theword Iocame into such common use as a proverb expressing joy, that it is still recalled to mind every day. TheGreeks,as their custom was, made a legend of it; indeed, two others besides the one I have heretofore narrated, which I leave for good students to read in the Metamorphoses of Ovid, in the De Genealogia Deorum of Boccaccio, and in Proverb CCCX XXII, of the second Chiliad of Erasmus. ogre Bos Ps T IV; 2, 49. * The passage quoted occurs in the Commentary on Chap- ter LXI. 24 CHAMP FLEURY Eneath the outer husk of fable, Truth lies hid, & can be known only to him who looks upon it & considers it close at hand. There is an- other poetic legend of the inventor of this Attic letter, which I will set down here in brief. It is to the effect that Apollo once loved a comely young man named Hyacinthus, with so great a love that he kept him always in his sight & by his side. One day Apollo was amusing himself by throwing a huge vessel into the air, to test his strength & increase it by exercise; and once, when he had thrown the said vessel, Hyacinthus passed under it, so that it fell upon him and he was killed. Apollo was so grieved, because of his great beauty and of the great love he had for him, that to atone for his life, which by an evil chance had been taken from him, he transformed him intoa lily, of a purple hue, which is called in Paris lisflambe,and made in the said lily two letters, Y and A, which we can still see there in some sort, traced in black and yellow on the petals of the lily. The whole plant is called by some doctors H IPIX, by others Gladiolus. The root has a sweet odour, and is mixed with other sweet- smelling things for keeping linen in chests. Marcellus Virgilius, Flor- entine scrivener, & commentator on Dioscorides, takes great pains, at Chapter LVIIT* of Book III of said Dioscorides, to give it to be under- stood that Hyacinthus is the lily which the Parrhisians call Jisflambe; but I will quote only a few words now, & these are as follows: Siquidem parum deflexa ab Hyacintho antiqua voce Irim Florentia adhuc passim Hy- acinthiolum nominat. ‘It is certain, he says, ‘that the Florentine tongue still calls the plant which is otherwise called Iris, Hyacénthiol, by chang- ing the ancient vowel.’ I have also heard and learned from the Floren- tines & other well-informed Italians that the lisflambe is called in vulgar Italian Hyacinthiol. For which reason it seems to me, under correction, that Hyacinthus and /ésflambe are one & the same. Let him who would know more about it read the said Commentaries of Marcellus Virgil- ius, & he will find there all he needs. Ovid, the fountain-head of sweetly flowing Latin verse, narrates this fable very fully & clearly in his Meta- morphoses, near the beginning of Book X; but I will quote at this time only a portion of it, as follows :— Talia dum vero memorantur Apollinis ore, Ecce cruor qui fusus humi signauerat herbas Desinit esse cruor tyrioque nitentior ostro Flos oritur, formamque capit, quam lilia, si non THE FIRST BOOK 25 Purpureus color his; argenteus esset in illis. Non satis hoc Pheebo est, is enim fuit autor honoris, Ipse suos gemitus folijs inscribit et hya Flos habet inscriptum, funestaque littera ducta est.* That is to say: while Apollo poured forth his grief-stricken lamenta- tions, the blood of the comely Hyacinthus flowed down the grass, and being redder than scarlet, grew into a flower, & took the shape of a lily, yet not of a white and silvery colour, as the lily properly is, but of the hue of the /isflambe, which is purple. And this did not content Apollo, otherwise called Phoebus, for, desirous to be the creator of the renown of Hyacinthus, he wrote his lamenta- tions on the petals of the flower of the lisflambe, placing thereon these two | fatal letters in black, Y and A. The better to explain Ovid’s words, I have placed here a picture of the lisflambe, nearer to reality than it has been pos- sible for me to describe it in words. Irgil, too, in the third Eclogue of his Bucolics, refers to this leg- end invery strange fashion,under the guise of an enigma & obscure words, when he introduces Damcetas and Menalcas, shepherds, contending in song, and Menalcas, in his turn, says: Dic quibus in terris inscripti nomina regum Nascantur flores, et Phyllida solus habeto. That is to say: Tell me, in what coun- tries are born flowers inscribed with the names of kings, & take for your- self alone the pretty shepherdess, Phyllis. Servius Maurus, commenta- tor on Virgil, says that the enigma may be understood to mean Ajax as well as Hyacinthus, because Ajax also was fabled to have been changed * Ovid, Metam., x, 209.73 * Verse 75. 26 CHAMP EB URY after his death into this flower, lésflambe, purple in hue. But for my pur- pose I shall stop at Hyacinthus, & interpret the allegory of the legend thus: that Apollo is reputed & called God of the nine Muses, who are the useful branches of knowledge, and that he also represents the Sun, who breathes into us vigour of mind and body; and he so loved Hya- cinthus,—that is,natural good sense,—that after he had taken from him the vigour of youth & self-indulgence, he changed him into the flower of prudence and wisdom; so that the letters, that is, the memory of the change from self-indulgence to sobriety, remain written and manifest in the said flower of prudence & wisdom. Hyacinthus, it is true, is to-day written, or in other words spelled (orthographie) with the breathing h. In former times the character denoting the said breathing was not writ- ten. But the Greeks, after this legend was invented, began to use it in their regular language over their seven vowels, which are A, E, H, I, O, Y,Q, and over a single consonant, Rho—not as a letter, but as an accent; and they use it only with the said vowels & consonant, above the line of the letters. The Latins made use of it in other fashion than the Greeks, and wrote it on the line, commingling it with several other letters, so that it is considered a true letter. Il Have said that the letter A, which is the first letter of the alphabet, : —otherwise called the A B C,—is made from the letter I; and this is true, representing it in a triangle, which is an odd number. The two feet of the À and the head make the said triangle; but it must be placed within a square, which is represented by the word Hyacinthus, which consists of four syllables, Hy-a-cin-thus. The ancients, wishing to dem- onstrate the extraordinary perfectness of their letters, formed and fash- ioned them according to the proper proportions of the three most per- fect figures of geometry—the circle, the square, and the triangle. And because an odd number was always considered among the ancients as a lucky number, and they held it in such great veneration that it had its place in ceremonies and sacrifices—as we still see in our churches the glorious Trinity; and that for saying high mass there are the priest, dea- con,and sub-deacon ; and as Virgil says, in Eclogue VIII Numero deus impare gaudet,*—that is to say, God loves an odd number,—they made their first letter in the image of an odd number placed upon the square, which is an even number, to givea good opening & fortunate approach to those who may love and wish to study well-made letters. THE FIRST BOOK 27 HE odd number, as Macrobius says in the first book of De Satur- nalibus,* represents the male, & the even number the female,which means that, as by the conjunction of male & female man is engendered, so by the conjunction of letters syllables are made, and by the conjunc- tion of syllables, words. And speech, by the putting together of well- assorted letters, syllables, and words, is found to be good, polished, and flowing. | ae triangle and square are comprised in a circle,which figure con- tains more than any other, & denotes that full & perfect acquaint- ance with the Muses & with goodly learning abides in well-made letters, by means of which one can study and read, write, and set down in books and in the memory, as the philosophers and ancient writers did in days of old, and as we can do by practising day and night in reading and writing. fein) OF THE FIRST BOOK THE SECOND FOLLOWS. * Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis, 1, 6,7; 11, 2,17. - ~ - = ene ; + = 2 : SE : “hs ; + | ' = = . . ‘ , ¥ 2 “ar . - ; ‘ D 4 ~ : ‘ < ; ‘ = CS RE RES ag a CUP. Len. cite. D a = + reat Se RTE = i SO < Piet bade ke a 7 5 THE SECOND BOOK S Tam about to begin to teach howour first letter, A, is to be made from the I, I would beg the good student to learn, first of all, what the Point is; and what the Line is, whether straight or not straight, whether it is what is called curved, or angular; and what the Circle is, what the Square, what the Triangle; and consequently to learn the most common figures of Geometry. For these Attic letters of ours are all made and designed from them, as I shall show, with our Lord’s assistance. And to the end that you may have no excuse for ignorance, I will set down here their definitions, one after the other, and will describe them in the terms used by Euclid long ago. Unctus, he says, es cuius pars non es. That is to say, the point is a mark that cannot be divided. And, as Messire Charles Bouille says in his Geometry, in French, ‘The point is called neither quantity nor measure, but it is the end of every quantity ; it has neither length, nor . breadth, nor thickness.’ *4 Inea, says Euclid, est Jongitudo sine latitudine, cuius quidem extremitates sunt duo puntta. The line is length without breadth, of which the ends are two points. As Bouille says: ‘The line is the first and smallest quantity of all, having length only, without breadth or thickness; as B. Aulus Gellius, in chapter XX of his first book,* says to the like purpose: Linea autem a noftris dicitur, quam YP AMMHN Graci vocant. Eam M. Varro ita definit : Linea est, inquit, longitudo qua- dam sine latitudine et altitudine. Euvdeduc autem breuius, prater missa alti- tudine. TPAMMH eff, inquit, uunoo andateo. Id est longitudo illatabilis, quod, exprimere Uno latine verbo non queas, nisi audeas dicere ILlatabilis.t That isto say: What the Latins call /émea, the Greeks call yeauunv. Mar- cus Varro describes and defines it thus: ‘The line, he says, ‘is a sort of length without breadth or height.’ Euclid describes it more briefly, omitting the height, when he SAYS + YQaHHH EOTI HHHOO andates ; that is to say: the line is length without breadth (é//atable), which cannot be widened ; the which cannot be expressed plainly in Latin, unless you make bold to say, /latabilis. * Noffes Attica, 1, 20, 9. + Gellius manufattured this word (from ‘in’ and ‘la- tus’), to translate Euclid’ s amatc. Tory’s transla- tion is sufficiently close. * In modern French, ‘super- ficie’; in English, ‘plane.’ + Modern French, ‘carreau’ and “carré.” It seems hardly worth while to attempt a dis- tinttion in translating, espe- cially as Tory is inconsistent in his use of the words. 30 CHAMP FLEURY ee recta, says Euclid, est ab uno punélo ad alium breuissima extensio,in extremitates suas ea vecipiens. Che straight line is the shortest distance from one point toanother—that is, between two points, including them both at its ends. When one straight line stands upon another straight line,and the twoangles on either side are equal to each other, and right angles, the said line standing upon the other is called a perpendicular line, because it descends straight (pend droitte) upon the other horizon- tal line. With these two lines—the straight line & the perpendicular— we will make a figure, which is called in Euclid superficies plana, qua ef ab una linea ad aliam breuissima extensio in extremitates suas ea recipiens. We can say in French, superfice,* or plaine, &, as Bouille says, it is the sec- ond & middle quantity, having length & breadth, but no thickness, as in the next square, thus marked—a, b, c,d—of which the length is meas- ured by the line ac, & the breadth by thelineah. =, b His plane, having its four lines and angles equal, is a square (quarreau), but in my style I shall call it quarre,t which, for the making of our letters, I di- vide by eleven straight horizontal lines & other eleven straight perpendicular lines, so that the large square ° d will contain a hundred small squares, which I shall call ‘units’ (corps), because the length of the I, which will be of the same proportions as all the other letters, will be contained in one of these small squares, as is shown in the following figure: if Have left in the middle of this fig- : ure a small white square which is the unit of the said letter I, & which I shall call the unit of each letter,saying ‘this letter’ or ‘that letter’ has so man units of height &so many of breadth. Here are two kinds of lines—a straight line & a curved line. Of the straight line we have already written, & we may b say again that the straight line is that which goes the shortest way from one point to another. The curved line, says Bouille, is two-fold, for there is a perfect curve [circle ] & an imperfect one. The perfect circle isa circumference which returns to the same point at d THE SECOND BOOK 31 which it set out, like the circle abcd, which set out at z and returns to z b at the end, and is called by Euclid, Circulus, qui est figu- GA ra plana, vna quidem linea contenta, qua circunferentia a _ \¢ Vocatur, in cuius medio punttus est, a quo omnes linea vette et ad circunferentiam exeuntes sibi inuicem sunt aquales. “The imperfect curved line,’ says Bouille, ‘isa part of the perfect one, for it does not end at its point of beginning; and this line is called an arc [bow |, because it b resembles a bow—as the line abc’ Hree straight and equidistant lines, contained between three points, make a plane figure called triangular because it has three angles, equilateral or a ¢ otherwise.* An isopleural triangle, says Bouille, is one which has three equal sides and is called a regular and perfect triangle —as abe. | Bserve that in this work I shall often speak of the Centric & Dia- metric line, & by this will be understood the line across the middle of the square in which will be designed all our Attic letters in their or- der. And the better to know and understand it, I have drawn it in the following form: Here are several other kinds of angles and lines, of which I say nothing now, referring the earnest student to Euclid, and to the French Geometry of Messire Charles Bou- ille, wherein he seems to me to have magnified & gained immortality for his name as much as in all his other books and Latin works, which he has written most eruditely. We havenev- er yetseen suchanotherauthor inthe French tongue. Would God that many another would do the like, not from contempt of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin tongues, but to go forward more surely in their domestic course; that is to say, to write in French, like Frenchmen that we are. I Hold in great esteem Maistre Estienne de la Roche, called de Ville Franche, a native of Lyons on the Rhone, who has written and des- cribed for us in good French the whole art of Arithmetic. I see very few Greeks or Latins who write of it better, more truly, or more fully, I see * This definition of a tri- angle leaves something to be desired, butitis asTory wrote it: ‘lignes. . . . equidis- tantes.... angles equila- teraulx,’ are bis phrases. a=Centric and Diametric line b=Perpendicular * Satires, v1, 187.75 + Quoted by Gellius from Cornelius Nepos. t It will be remembered that the distinétion between \ and J, aud between U andV, was not recognized until about the year 1600; W (double V or U) has even now no place in the French alphabet, and is found only in a few words recently borrowed from other languages. 32 CHAMPSELEURY some who would fain write in Greek and Latin, and who are not even able to speak French well. When Juvenal, satiric poet, said: Omnia græce Quum sit deterius multo nescire latine, *— he reproved those Romans who chose to speak in Greek rather than in Latin. Aulus Gellius, a polished author, in chapter VIII of the eleventh : book of his Notles Attica,t says that Marcus Cato once derided and re- buked a noble Roman called Aulus Albinus, who had once been Con- sul, because, being a Roman, he wrote a history in Greek, and at the beginning thereof, begged to be forgiven if he should go astray in his Greek. It seems to me, under correction, that it would be much better for a Frenchman to write in French than in another language, as well for the correctness of his writing, as to give lustre to his nation & enrich his native tongue, which is as fair & fine as any other when it is well set down in writing. If we would use Greek or Latin, let us use them only in quotations from others, as Aulus Gellius and Macrobius do, and a thousand other good Latin authors, who often quote Greek in their Latin text, & let us write the chief of our text in good French. When I see a Frenchman write in Greek or in Latin, I seem to see a mason clad in the garb of a Philosopher or King who would fain recite a play on the stage of the Basoche, or in the Brotherhood of the Trinity, & who cannot pronounce clearly enough, as if his tongue were too thick, nor carry himself well, nor walk fittingly, inasmuch as his feet and legs are unused to walk like a Philosopher or King. Magine a Frenchman clad in the native garb of a Lombard,which is oftenest of blue cloth or sacking—methinks that that Frenchman would hardly enjoy himself at his ease without very soon slashing it & taking from it its true shape of a Lombard gown, which is not ordina- rily slashed, for Lombards do not often deface their property to excess. I leave all this to the wise discretion of scholars, & I shall not encumber myself with Greek or Latin, except to quote them in due time & place, or to speak therein with those who may not know French, or knowing it, do not choose to speak it. O Ireturn to my subject, & say that amongst Attic letters, which are in number twenty-three, that is to say, A, B, C, D, E, F,G, H, |, K, L, M,N, O, P, Q,R,S, T, V, X, Y, & Z, + there are some which are broader than the others. For some of them are eleven points in breadth, THE SECOND BOOK 33 making ten units,as A, D, H, K, O, Q (withoutthetail),R,V,X, & Y; & these are as broad as they are high; that is to say, they are contained & drawn inan equilateral plane, divided, as I have said above, by eleven perpendicular lines and other eleven horizontal lines of equal length. I, which is our standard and most important letter in making all the others in their due proportions, is but three units broad at the top and three whole ones and two halves at the foot. A, D, H, K, O, Q (with- out the tail), R, V, X,Y, and Z are as broad as they are high—that is to say, ten units. M is thirteen units broad, which means that it has three units more of breadth than of height. N is eleven units broad; G, nine and a half; T, eight whole ones and two halves; C, nine whole ones; B, seven; E and L, seven and a half; P, seven whole ones; F, six whole ones; S, six less one fourth. The tail of the Q is four units high, and thirteen long. His letter Q is the only one of all the letters that goes below the lowest line, & I have never been able to find a man who could tell me the reason therefor; but I will tell it & set it down in writing. I have thought & meditated so much on the shape of these Attic letters that I have discovered that the Q extends below the line because he does not allow himself to be written in a complete word without his trusty comrade & brother V (U ), and to show that he wishes always to have him by his side, he embraces him with his tail from below, as I shall draw him hereafter, in his turn. Q is to be sure, sometimes placed alone, as an abbreviation, when it stands for Quintus, or Quintius, or some other like proper name of a man—or of a woman, as Quinta, or Quintia; and in that case, for a woman’s name, it must be turned thus, 0; asthe C is turned, D, when it stands for Catia. But, as I have said, in writing wordsat length, with all their letters, 1t always demands & joins to itself the said V; as we see in these words: Quot, quotus, quoties, quando, aliquando, quatuor, quinque, quinquaginta, and numberless other like words, not in Latin alone, but in French; as who should say quant, qui esset, c’est quelcun, c’est Quentin de la rue de Quiquempoit. Priscian, an author of great repute in olden times, says in his first book,* wherein he treats of the qualities of letters, that Q must always be followed by V to show that the said V loses its force & its sound when written before a vowel in the same syllable; but he does not say why it hasa tail below the line of all the other letters. However, I forgive him; for he does not teach how to write logically or by measure, but only the proper position * Chapter 1v. * May 2, 1519. + See pp.6 and 7 of Dürer s ‘Of the Just Shaping of Let- ters.’ The Grolier Club,1917. t Idem, p.30. § Idem, p.9. 34 CHAMP FLEURY of the letters one after another in orthography. The said Priscian’s words are as follows: Q vero propter nihil aliud scribenda videtur esse, nist ut ostendat sequens V ante alteram vocalem in eadem syllaba positum | posi- tam | perdere vim literee in metro. That is to say, the letter Q is written for no other purpose than to show that the letter V following loses its value in metrical quantity when it stands before another vowel. Fe ere Lucas Paciol of Bourg Sainct Sepulchre, of the order of Freres Mineurs, and a theologian, who has written in vulgar Italian a book entitled Divina ‘Proportione,-® & who has essayed to draw the Attic let- ters, says nothing about them, nor gives explanations; & I am not sur- prised, for I have heard from some Italians that he purloined the said letters from the late Messire Leonardo da Vinci, who died recently at Amboise,* and who wasa most excellent philosopher and admirable painter, and, as it were, another Archimedes. This Frere Lucas has had Leonardo’s Attic Letters printed as his own. In truth, they may well be his, for he has not drawn them in their proper proportions, as I shall show hereafter in treating of the said letters in their order. Nor does Sigismund Fante, a noble Ferrarian, who teaches how to write many sorts of letters, give explanations; & the like is true of Messire Ludovico Vincentino.?7 I do not know whether Albert Dürer explains his theo- ries; but, however that may be, he has gone astray in the proper pro- portions of the designs of many letters in his book on Perspective.28 S, in the first place, on leaf XX XII*t of that book, the horizontal cross-piece of the A is not broad enough; nor is the top of the let- ter properly drawn in its curves; for in one of his A’s he has drawn the top curved forward, in another, curved back, and in a third as the apex of a pyramid, all of which are contrary to reason, according to the true antique design. However, on leaf XL: the first A is more sensible than any of those that precede, or than the two following ones, as those per- sons can see who have, or who may choose to have and see what I say of his book heretofore cited. On his leaf XX XIIIS the first B is better than the second, because in the second the upper loop is too small and the lower too large. The two white ones on leaf XX XII§ and the four on leaf XLi are all faulty, also, in the horizontal line of the lower half. THE SECOND BOOK 35 On the same leaf, the four C’s, both white & black, are much too round and too nearly closed. On leaf XL,* however, the third black C is better than the two before it, except that the upper end should be perpen- dicular. On leaf XX XIII t the white D’s & the two black ones have the line at the foot too thin; so, too, all four on leaf XL.* ~ On leaves XX XIIIIt and XLS the white and the black E are faulty in respect to the middle arm,which should rest on the diametrical line. In like manner the F also is faulty ; for the foot of the said F is too long and too thin. So, too, with the L, which is derived from the E. On the same leaves XX XIII and XLS the G is too nearly closed, & in the first one the short limb is too long, in the second it is too short; and in the three others also. On leaves XXX Vand XLS, in the aspirate (1), the cross-piece is too thin. In the I the foot is too narrow by one unit. In the first K, in black and white, the junction between the two sloping arms is too high, for it should be exactly on the centre line. The second black K is good. The first M & the second, white and black alike, are faulty. The third black one is good. The last on leaf XLI* is the worst of all. All the N’s on leaves XXXVI and XLI* are faulty at the upper end of the first limb, except the third and the sixth. And all have the heel [of the second limb ] cut square,4 after the style of Bramante, as he has drawn it in the galleries of Pope Julius the Second, between the Palace of Saint Peter at Rome & the Belvedere. But some very ancient writers made this heel with a sharp point. Do you make it as it shall seem best to you. : * Grolier (lub ed., p.30. + Idem, pp.11 and 12. t Idem, p.13. § Idem, p.31. | Idem, p.14. {| Idem, p.15. À Idem, p.32. 1 Idem, p.20. À “Talon coupe.’ See draw- ing of the letter N in “Book 111 infra, for a better understand- ing of this phrase. * That is, circular. + ‘Meslongue.’I find no trace of this word, and connect it with ‘melon’ by fer conjec- ture. t Grolier (lub ed. p.27. 36 CHAMP FLEURY Allthe O’s are faulty; for they should all be round, with a uniform cir- cumference,* and not oval or melon-shaped.t All the P’s are good enough. All the Q’sare altogether wrong, as well in the upper part (as Ihave said of the O’s) as in the tail, which is too thin & not properly proportioned. The R’s are good. The S’s are faulty, for the openings are too much closed, or rounded, both the upper and the lower, and the body is ill-shaped. On leaf XX XVII the white T and the black are faulty and irregular; for the upper line should be everywhere equidistant from the lowerline. And the third T, which is not at fault in this respect, is not cut as it should be, for the first arm should be perpendicular & the last ee inclined; and this is just the opposite. The V is very good. The X is too open above. The Y is good. The Z is faulty, for the lower line should be longer than the upper. The first end of this upper line should be perpendicular, and the other end, a half-unit in length, also perpendicular. The lower line should be in- clined, as in the last three and the first. E can forgive the said Albert Diirer, inasmuch as his vocation was painting, and it rarely happens that painters are good gram- marians in the matter of understanding the qualities & proportions of well-formed letters. I know no man who makes or understands them bet- ter than Maistre Simon Hayeneufve, otherwise called Maistre Simon du Mans.29 He makes them so well & of such admirable proportions, that he contents the eye as well as, yes, better than any Italian master on either side of the mountains. He is most eminent in the disposition of ancient architecture, as one may see in a thousand fine drawings & pic- tures that he has made in the noble city of Le Mans & in many foreign cities, He is worthy to be kept in fragrant memory, as well for his up- PHP SuGOND BOOK 37 right life as for his great learning. And therefore, let us without pretence consecrate and dedicate his name to immortality, declaring him to be a second Vitruvius, a holy man & good Christian. I write this gladly be- cause of the great virtues & goodly qualities that I have heard ascribed to him by many good men, of high and low degree, and true lovers of all excellent and honourable things. Would God that France had ten _ like him: then never was Egypt or Greece or Italy so eminent in archi- tecture as she would be. I know no author, Greek, or Latin, or French, who gives such an explanation of the letters as I have given; wherefore I may hold it for my own, saying that I have excogitated it & discovered it rather by divine inspiration than by what I have seen written or have heard. If there be any who has seen it in writing, let him so say, and he will give me pleasure. LL our Attic letters should be & are of a height contained between two equidistant lines, as is the circle of the letter Q; but its tail, as I have said, goes below the line, to embrace its friend and loving com- panion V. if Would here set down another conception of my own, and that is the reason why I choose to divide each square in which we shall draw our three-and-twenty letters into ten units of height and likewise into ten of breadth. It is to point out that the ancients wished to signify, covertly, that the nine Muses, & Apollo,who makes the tenth, are held in honour and sought out by well-made letters, whose appearance depends upon their proper and harmonious proportions. Lucian, in his Dialogue Tz- mon, near the end, has in mind these nine Muses when he introduces the philosopher Thrasicles saying that he drank only of the fountain at Athens that discharged through nine pipes. ‘Porro, he says, potum fons Athenis nouem saliens venis suppeditat3° Truly, he says, the fountain at Athens that discharges through nine pipes furnishes the philosopher Thrasicles with drinking water. Ae D so I show here the said nine Muses and their Apollo arranged symmetrically according to our standard and model letter I. And if you find aught that is pleasing therein, I beg that you will be grateful to me; & ifnot, then I beg that you will forgive me. For, while studying, Icannot refrain from ever imagining some new thing, thinking to give honour & assistance to other students, and to advance the public weal. I leave others to think as they will,and devote myself tothe Muses and well-formed letters. 38 CHAMP FLEURY Bserve in this figure how the arrangement is governed by number and measure, as well in the las — horizontal as in the perpendicular poe Ne. lines; to show that the proper use of all sorts of knowledge comes chiefly te Ge 10: through letters, whether by divine [= "Exaile do. inspiration,whichissignified bythe perpendicular line, or by persistent diligence & hard study, which is sig- nified by the medial horizontal line. In this figure I have placed the nine Muses according tothe orderwhich Martianus Capella3t gives, well aware that Fulgentius Placiades,32 in the thirteenth chapter of the first book of his Enarrationes Allegorica, arranges them otherwise, as may be seen by whoever cares to amuse him- self by reading him in the above-mentioned place. The nine Muses were created by the ancients to signify covertly as many methods for those who seek to acquire knowledge. As is most happily & clearly set down in the thirty-ninth chapter of the book called The Game of Chess, in the following words. ‘There is, then, this order to be observed in acquiring knowledge: firstly, there must needs be a firm resolution to acquire knowledge ; secondly, one must take pleasure therein; thirdly, one must persevere constantly, without any great interval; fourthly, one must learn thoroughly the things whereon one’s mind is fixed; fifthly, one must keep and hold in memory the things learned; sixthly, one must add to one’s knowledge, & invent something new; seventhly, one must study and judge the sentences invented and di- gested, and then call out the best and let the others go. And, lastly, after all this one must make use of the know- ledge acquired, and teach others by means of fine language and excellent method.’ if HAVE not yet forgot, God be praised, that I have said that all our Attic letters are formed from the I, and from the O, which is itself made A trem THE SECOND BOOK 39 from the said I. [have arranged the nine Muses & Apollo around the I. I propose in like manner to arrange the seven Liberal Arts, not around the O, but within it, as you can see in the figure I have drawn here. I make these two diagrams the better to confirm what I have written above, and to show how the good Ancients were so virtuous that they were desirous to establish in the designs of their letters all perfection and harmony, as well without as within the said letters—that is to say, as well when written apart by themselves, as when fixed in the memory of good men. The curved outline which you observe in the O, and the way in which it is set in its square, signify that the seven liberal Arts, enshrined in our memory, must be practised by the constant revolving of the books and instruments adapted thereto. Our memory is always as easily set in motion as the wheel of a mill or of a clock, and it must always be driven by the stream of Dame Diligence and aided by the counterpoise of labour. By the square—the figure hereinbefore called an equilateral superficies or plane—is understood Atrempence,* wherein is the seat of our said memory, which of its nature desires only to exer- cise itself in the seven Liberal Arts & other goodly matters; wherefore I have written at the four corners of the square, the four syllables of Atrempence. But I must not fail to say here that the Ancients by this square understood Dame Mvipocuvu, Mnemosyne, which is as much as to say in Latin, Memoria, & in French, Memoire. According to Hesiod this lady is called the mother of the nine Muses; + that is to say, that they are nourished by Memory, as are also the seven Liberal Arts writ- ten in the drawing. Mvx-uo-ou-vx, too, is written in four syllables, which may in like manner, according to the meaning of the Ancients, signify the four corners of the square, at which one could write the said four syllables, as I have done with —4trempence. And, the better to reconcile them, Memory and Moderation are so near akin that one cannot be without the other. A giddy-pated man, lacking moderation, seldom has any memory, as we learn every day by experience. And, on the other hand, a sober-minded & moderate man is ordinarily more memorative than another & of more acute understanding. For which reason, there- fore, the roundness & motion of the nine Musesand seven Liberal Arts consist in perfect memory, which is divinely represented in this draw- ing of the O, and in its square, heretofore-drawn. Must not omit to tell here a fine riddle of Virgil’s, in his second Ec- logue, called ‘Alexis, to show that harmony finds its way into letters * See the four corners of the drawing. This word, usual- ly written ‘-Attrempance,’ means temperance, modera- tion. + Theogony, 54. * Eclogues, 11, 36. + Æneid, 1, 94. 40 CHAMPIRCEURT & sciences, which is signified in the seven Liberal Arts; for they blend in perfect accord, as do accordant notes in music. Virgil says, in the per- son of the Shepherd Corydon:— Est mihi disparibus septem compacta cicutis Fistula, Dameetas dono mihi quam dedit olim.* ‘T have,’ he says, ‘a flageolet with seven holes, an odd number, which Da- mectas lately gave me.’ By the flageolet, which is long and round and well proportioned, may be meant our two letters, I and O, and by the seven holes, the seven Liberal Arts, which I have written and arranged above. We see commonly that on the upper side of a flageolet there are seven holes arranged side by side; but underneath these is one, for the thumb, which, with the seven Liberal Arts, represents Apollo. And further- more, for still greater harmony, we see also in the flageolet another hole, hard by the farther end, which makes the ninth, and represents the perfect ac- complishment of the union between the nine Muses and the seven Liberal Arts. And if you would again find Cree ; : Apollo Apollo with the nine Muses, the hole rire ialettica near the mouth piece,where the notes of all the other holes unite to make a Rhode single note, will signify the said Apollo. See, therefore, how in shapely letters Geometria the worthy Ancients made use of even she ea and odd numbers, as Virgil did in the Ar GES first book of his Æneid,when he said: ye | ronomia O terque quaterque beati! 7 HEY made use of them, I say, did the worthy Ancients, under- standing thereby, secretly, the seven Liberal Arts & the nine Muses, with | their Apollo. I have drawn here the flageolet of Virgil, the better to put before your eyes the truth of what I say and of my arguments. Musica DHE SECOND BOOK Ere follows the said flageolet as Virgil understood it, and as his commentators have notunderstood it; or, at least, if they have, they have made no mention of it,as any one can see [from what they say] as to the verses quoted, I do not say it to boast, but I have excogitated it in this wise, & studiously worked it out, for I find no man who can tell me this that I have conceived about it. Here, again, it is applied to the nine Muses, to the end that I may, if I can, satisfy both; and the figure will be like this that follows. hither even go further and make of the divine flageolet of Virgil an allegorical representation of our said letter I, upon which all others are based, and likewise of the O; and I will show that our triumphal words, IO, 1O, are found therein, in all sym- metry and harmony. HE figure of the I, and the flage- olet,comprising the seven Liberal Arts, isas follows. Observe in this fig- ure, O yenoble and devoted lovers of well-formed letters, the truth of my words, and the divine intelligence of Virgil, king of all good Latin poets & philosophers, & that what I have here- tofore quoted from the said Virgil is meant to refer covertly to the science and knowledge of letters, all of which take their proportion and form from Apollo AI Grammatica Dialeltica Rhetorica Geometria Arithmetica Astronomia Musica the I, in which I have drawn for you the saidflageolet with seven holes, that is to say, containing in harmonious accord the seven Liberal Arts. 42 CHAMP FLEURY ND see next how I have also designed and drawn the same I and the flageolet containing the nine Muses. You can now employ it at your pleasure, and understand al- legorically all the good reasons and pleasant things that I have hereinbe- 7 Apollo fore set down for you. I am not yet, God be praised, weary, noram I averse to say more, the better to confirm my words and my arguments, whereby to come at last to our triumphal cry, IO. I propose to find for you the O, as I have found the I, in the flageolet of Virgil, & to portray it as well as I can. Although it is a very difficult thing to draw in proper perspective the lower end of a flageolet, which is round when one looks at it frontwise, and to perceive its length and breadth if one sees it in a straight line, none the less, albeit Iam not a good painter, yet will I, with our Lords help, make some little thing which may advantage those who are ear- nest studentsand desirous to learn. But, before I go further, Iwould fain show that it is not without good cause that I have heretofore adapted the nine Muses to the proportions of the I; & to that end I say that the ancient fathers, Greek and Latin alike, to indicate the ideas I have set down above concerning the said I, made it the ninth letter in the order * Or, as we should say, Beta. of lettersin the alphabet, as you can see by repeating Alpha, Vita,* Gam- Ÿ Zeta, Eta, Theta. ma, Delta, Epsilon, Zita, Ita, Thita,+ Iota; that is to say, A, B, I’, A, E, Z, H, 0, I. And in Latin, A, Be, Ce, De, E, Ef, Ge, Ah, I; or, written thus: A,B,C, D, E, F, G, H, I. Wherefore it will be well for good readers to pay close heed thereto, and not contemn the subtle and secret fantasy and the sage opinion of the good Ancients. Now, let us pass on, & come to our other letter, which we have already more than once, & with good reason, called O Triumphant. —— Polymnia ——— Melpomene Erato —— Terpsichore Euterpe Thalia ee and pretend that youare seated ina place of study, and that, on the table before you, you see a flageolet lying, and that you are looking at the lower end, as it were in a straight line: you will find that the end will represent an O lying on its side, as if it were beginning to move and turn like a wheel, The which to make you understand more easily, I have drawn it here as well as I could, and I beg you to take the THE SECOND BOOK 43 invention in good part. I say invention, because I have found noauthor, Greek or Latin or French, who has written or drawn these things as I have now done. I make them only the better to set forth the meaning, the secret, and the allegory of the Ancients, and to give instruction and point the way to the moderns, & to lovers of true, pure, & well-formed letters. The drawing I have promised is this that follows. Pe Bo peche Se et ie hy... | Musica - Geometria: Dialectica HE better to maintain my cause, I will say and prove that our said Attic letters were so well fashioned by the Ancients that they have the proportions of the human body, The man well and symmetrically formed” has in him the nine Muses & seven Liberal Arts in due pro- portion, as I have heretofore said of our two divine letters, I & O. And to make it more clearly to be understood, I have drawn, below, a human body according to my poor understanding. Iam not unaware that Vi- truvius, prince of writers on architecture and buildings, has most thor- oughly examined and measured the said human body, as may be seen in the first chapter of Book ITI of his De Architectura, wherein he speaks De sacrarum adium compositione et symmetri]s, et corporis humani mensura; that is to say, ‘Of the construction and proportions of churches, and of the measurement of the human body.’ But in this place I shall fix its proportions so exactly that I shall find space and room therein for the seven Liberal Arts and the nine Muses, as I have done hereinbefore in our two letters I and O. The great painters and sculptors of times past * Lhomme bien forme à quadre. * Book Vu, 759. 44 CHAMP FLEURY measured man and divided him into ten parts, as I havealready divided our two letters; and that this is true, Vitruvius says in the passage cited: Corpus enim hominis ita Natura composuit, vti os capitis a mento ad frontem summan et radices imas capilli esset decime partis. Nature, he says, has so constituted the human body that the space occupied by the face, which extends from the chin to the [top of the head and the] roots of the hair, is the tenth part of the body. The same Vitruvius, a little further on, again divides the human body into six parts, of the size of its foot, when he says: ‘Pes vero est altitudinis corporis sexta. The foot of a man, he says, is the sixth part of his body. Martianus Capella, in his seventh book,where he speaks “De Heptade, divides the body of man into seven parts, when he says Item septem corporis partes hominem perficiunt.* Item, he says, man is comprised in seven parts. I will pass by the division into six parts, which is known to all, and will pause at that into seven parts, and ten; that is to say, the seven Liberal Arts, and the nine Muses with their in- spirer Apollo, Ewill, therefore, following Vitruvius, make a square, divided as before, that is, into ten units of breadth and as many of height, which said breadth & height of ten units are contained between eleven lines in each direction; & within this square shall be drawn a man with arms outstretched and feet close together, as follows. fine figure shows clearly that our said Attic letters and the human body accord closely in their proportions, in so far that in one and the same square they can be com- prised & drawn with Apollo and the nine Muses,whoare placed within the ten equal units of space into which the surface of the said square is divided. There is an Enigma—that is, a saying of which the meaning is hidden—made long ago in Latin by some shrewd wit whose name isunknown, which informs us that all natural things are made by num- ber and by measure. It is as follows:— ; Apollo Urania Calliope Polymnia Melpomene Clio Erato Terpischore Euterpe Thalia . THE SECOND BOOK 45 Confestum * est numeris quicquid natura creauit, Ter tria sunt septem, septem sex, sex quoque sunt tres. Si numeres recte, sunt bis tria, milia quinque. I Might leave this enigma & its obscure words for the curious to nibble at, in order to discover the things hidden therein; but to keep them from over-tiring their brain, I will come to their aid. It has another meaning than appears on its face; it refers to the orthography and the number of letters contained in these words: #er, tria, septem, sex, bis,and milia. It says, Ter tria sunt septem, which is to say, that in these two Latin words, rer & tria, there are seven letters,as who should say: In his duabus dittionibus ter et tria, sunt septem, scilicet elementa. In the word septem, sunt sex, scilicet elementa : in the word septem there are six letters, And in like manner, in the word sex there are three letters; and in bis three letters, and in milia five letters; all of which is true, and quite evident. It does not mean that fer tria sint septem, that is, that three times three are sev- en, for that would not be true; but, as I have said, it refers to the number of letters contained in the particular words set down. Let us then take the first verse cited above, to return to our subject, and let us say : Con- festum est numeris quicquid natura creauit. Every natural thing is, and is contained in, number, and this number is even & odd, as we can clearly perceive in the face of man & in his members; for of some the number is odd, as the head, the nose, the mouth, the chin, the navel, the organ of generation, and divers others, which I omit for brevity’s sake. There are, as I have said, some of which the number is even, as the two eyes, the ears, the arms, the hands, in which hands also there are even & odd numbers, as the five fingers of one hand, and the ten fingers of two. All these things are too many to set down one after another; wherefore, re- turning to my subject, I say that our letters are so well and naturally proportioned that, after the likeness of the human body, they are com- posed of members, that is to say, of a number of points & lines equally and unequally divided, as I have already shown; & that there are some of XIII units of breadth, some of X, some of VIII, some of VII, some of VI, and some of III; and this we shall see, with our Lord’s assistance, by thenext figure. Oy a square which is of the size of our aforementioned Attic letters I have drawn a man with his arms extended to the outermost lines of the said square, & with his feet close together & extended to the lower- * Query, ‘confectum’ ? 46 CHAMP FLEURY most line of said square; and in the divisions between the lines I have placed Apollo and the nine Muses. It seems to me now to be well, and not without good reason, that I should draw the human body in har- mony with Apollo and the seven Liberal Arts, the better to show forth the perfection, not only of the said human body, but of our divine Attic letters. The figure, as I have drawn it, follows. N this figure you see the man with feet & hands extend- ed to equal lengths, & touching the four corners of the lesser square, for at those points the circle and the square join. The central point of the man thus drawn is the navel; but the central point of the other man, whose arms only are extended, and whose feet are close together, is in the middle of the groin just above the organ of generation. The reason why Ihave adapted the seven Liberal Arts tothe man with feet & hands extended, rather than the nine Muses, is that the said Liberal Arts are more concerned with bodily exercise than are the nine Muses, who are celestial and divine persons, wherein the mind is more active than the body. And fora like reason I find that students, and they who give more serious thought to the qualities & the nature of things, make a distinc- tion between the goddess Pallas and Minerva, saying that Pallas is the Goddess & Queen of all Knowledge, & Minerva of the Artsalone, in which according to the etymology, that 1s to say, the true interpretation, of Mi- nerva,— Que dicitur a minuendis ner- uis33—our limbs &nerves grow weak by dint of the violent exercise that is required therein. Urthermore, the man whose feet are close together toucheswith his head the topmost line of his square, aes COON DY BOOK 47 to signify that the Muses & Sciences are, as I have said, celestial things, to which one cannot attain without exalted contemplation. The man reduced in height by having his legs and arms extended, has his head much below the topmost line of the square, to show that the seven Lib- eral Arts do not require such lofty contemplation as the Muses and Sciences, but are of middling importance, and more easily understood. if Cannot refrain from repeating our aforementioned shout of tri- umph, IO, IO, the more abundantly to establish my words & reasons already set forth, & to show that our Attic letters, which, as I have said, are all made from the I and the O, are so well conformed to nature that they agree in measurement and proportion with the human body; and to make this the more clearly understood, I put before the eyes of all well-wishing lovers of knowledge the following figures, first of the I & then of the O. he this figure we can see that what I have hereinbefore called the unit, to indicate the thickness of the shaft of the I, is equal to the thickness of the head of the human body,which 1. pees F is a tenth part thereof. I have said also HR A Se | that the [hasthree units of breadth | XU rave at the top, that is to say, one unit for | LR VPS its main portion & two for its two ears, | which makes three units. Atthe foot — 7 there are three units and two halves, © - Ro | following the law of nature, which Se says that man standing erect on his |] NI feet occupies more space with his feet he FD than with his head. We can easily AC understand that a man erect on his feet must have them a little apart, otherwise he could not stand firm. It is very evident that a pyramid stands more firm when it rests upon the broader end than if it were set contrariwise. So, fora like reason, our I must be broader at the base than at the top, and this, as I have said, by the width of a unit, which is cut in two, a half-unit being placed on each side of the foot. It remains now to draw the human body within the O, to make clear what we have said above as to the lesser square, and to show that the centre of this O will be found exactly at the centre of the man drawn therein, which is shown in manner following. 48 CHAMP FLEURY HE man in this figure, with feet and hands extended to equal dis- tances, & the O, meet in the square, in the circle, and in the centre, which betokens the perfectionofthe \|_, MOLES... human body & the said O, since the CA Z circle isthe most perfect ofall figures 2 À Ne 7 2 & the most comprehensive. The rec- tangular figure is the most stable and solid, especially when it isa cube, that is to say, having six faces, like dice. ns _—————— ' ll Mustnotomittoshow, bya figure + adapted to our said Attic letters, — how the man with arms extended & standing erect on his feet, and having his centre, not in the navel, like the last one drawn within the O, but in the groin, is a very clear demon- stration of the way to know the precise spot to make the cross-stroke & the joint (brisewre) in the letters which require them—namely, A, B, E, PF, H,K,P, R, X, Y. For brevity’s sake, I do not give a figure or example of all of them, one after the other, but of three only—A, H, and K: ( Je lower edge of the transvetes mé stroke of the letter À here drawn | | Lg is properly placed below the central EE 7 horizontal line of its square, & below + + jl LM the groin of the man drawn therein. All other letters which have a cross- | ae TA À ae stroke ora joint have it above the said horizontal line. But this letter A, be- cause it is closed above & shaped like a pyramid, requires its said transverse stroke to be lower than the central line. Thus this cross-stroke covers the man’s organ of generation, to sig- nify that Modesty and Chastity are required, before all else, in those who seek acquaintance with well-shaped letters, of which A is the gate- way and the first of all in alphabetical order. HE aspirate [H J, then, has its cross-stroke on the central line, just over the groin of the human body, to show us that our said Attic THE SECOND BOOK 49 lettersneed to be so logically made that they may be conscious in them- selves, instinctively, of all due proportion and of the art of architecture, which requires that the body of a pal- h hall be higher f: ET doen | ace or a house shall be higher from = ETES its foundation to its roof than is the roof itself, which represents the head of the whole house. If the roof of a house is too much higher than the body, the thing is misshapen, unless in the case of markets and barns, the roof of which begins, for the most part, near the ground, toavoid the vi- olence of high winds & earthquakes. So, too, our letters do not choose to fear the wind of envious backbiters, desiring to be built stoutly, & to be broken,*as I have said, above their central horizontal line, save only the A, which has its cross-stroke just beneath that line. ye can see in the letter here drawn how the joint of the letter K is at the point of contact with the line passing through the centre of the human body with its feet to- gether, which centre, as I have con- stantly said, isat the groin, The joint of the other letters, which forthe mo- ment 1 omit to draw, relegating them to their alphabetical order, will al- ways be found to be placed upon the said central horizontal line. of the aspirate, that our Attic let- ters should havea savour of architecture. And it is true; for A represents __ the gable end of a house, inasmuch as it is shaped like a gable. The as- pirate H represents the body of the house, for the part below the cross- stroke, which I have called the central horizontal line, is placed there to form lower halls and chambers; and the part above the said line is to form in like manner upper halls, or large and middle-sized rooms. The K, because of its joint, signifies stairs to ascend in a straight line to the I Said but now, when I was treating * “Brisées, that is, to have the ‘briseure.’ 50 CHAMBGLEURT first floor, & thence to ascend, also in a straight line, to an- | other floor. Thean- cients, for the most part, built their stairways only ina straight line, as one can still see in many places, and as I have observed in Rome and throughout Italy ; in Languedoc also, and many other places. If we seek among our letters a presentation of another sort of stairway and stairs, that is,a spiral stairway, in which wetwist about thecentreand shaft of said spiral, the I andthe OandtheS will give usa singu- lar likeness thereof, by reason of the I, which is a straight perpendicular line, & representing the shaft of the spiral, and the O, which is the circle, and the S the winding ascent of the stairs, which thing can be well seen and easily understood by the following figure. THE SECOND BOOK Lt a we demand ground plans in our said Attic letters, we shall find enough for galleries, for halls, and for theatres, which are called in France arenas *, and for Coliseums. TheI may representa plan fora long straight gallery, of uniform size,and whose long face looks to the east or the north. The L for halls & rooms which should have the longer side with their backs to the south, & the shorter side, which we call the foot of the L, facing the east, which is the healthiest situation of all by reason of the back being turned to the south wind, which is pestilential as well to human bodies as to inanimate bodies, and by reason of the long front which receives in its face the wind from the north, which is pure and clean & brisk, by reason of the short front within the foot of the said letter L, whereinto the beauti- ful rising sun peers at dawn, and there remains during most part of the day, instilling sweetness; which thing I have here shown ina figure and drawing for the better understanding thereof, and to put it before the eyes of good students. Say this in passing, because I find that few of those persons who build in the country know how to place their buildings philosophically, that is to say, scientifically & properly, albeit they have abundant space at their command. In cities, where often, by reason of the hereditary partitions that are made from day to day, spaces are restricted, one must build according to the street and according to the locality, butin _ the country one must use judgement that accords with nature & with the health of the human body. Whoso would have ampler knowledge here- of, let him read in Vitruvius, an au- thor most learned in this matter, & in Leo Baptiste Albert, philosopher among modern scholars. The figure _= of the L as a floor plan is as follows. * Avene: “A Theatre for Fencers; a place to jougs in, _strowed with gravell, and hence was that stately. Am- phitheatre of Nismes called des -Arenes.’— COTGRAVE. + ‘Patte.’ 52 CHAMP FLEURY HE ground plan of the theatre, as I saw one ina city on the Rhone near Avignon, called Aurenges, which has its facade, that is tosay its front face, flat, and its rear face round, can be very well observed in the letter D, of which the upright limb will represent the said front face, looking toward the north, & the rear, which is rounded, will have its back to the south. The plan of the Coliseum, which I have seen a thousand timesat Rome, is very manifest and apparent in the O, seeing that the said Coliseum, when it was whole, was circular on the outside and oval-shaped within. I could say many other things on this subject, but for brevity’s sake I will pass them by, and will go on to show how our said Attic letters agree in the number of units of their breadth, ac- cording to the rules of perspective, as the cube drawn below will make clear to us. [ Have said before that A is ten units in height and ten in breadth; F, six in breadth; & I three at the top; which said A, F, and I, are here shown in squares and in perspective, so that we can, in this present figure, recognize the manifest perfection of ourAtticletters,which accord so well one with another that they ob- serve & maintain sym- metrical proportions. I could harmonize thus all the other letters, but I leave them for keen mindstoexercisethem- selves upon if it shall please them so to do. Y God’s grace, I have hereinabove adapted to the human body, as well as I might, our two fundamental & triumphal letters, I & O, also A, H,and K. I purpose further, asa reminder & allegory of the four Cardinal Virtues, which are Justice, Strength, Prudence,and Modera- tion, to adapt them to the head & face of the human body, which I shall divide into four units only, ever to persevere in the most ample demon- stration of the divine symmetry of our said Attic letters. First, then, we will take an equilateral rectangle and we will divide it into four equal THE SECOND BOOK 53 parts; then we will draw therein a human face alone for the first dem- onstration, and will write & place at the four corners, to mark the said four parts, the four Cardinal Virtues, to show that our Attic letters abide perfectly in atruesquare,* whichcon- sists in length and height. T TIC letters, that they may be thoroughly designed & made, T. require, through Justice, careful at- ES Je tention to their height & breadth, ac- cr Wi cording to their shape; through Pru- dence, the use of rule and compasses; TT through Force, a constant and obsti- aN. nate persistence in dividing & meas- uring them & giving them their due Force Moderation proportions; through Moderation, a certain discretion in placing them between the two chief equidistant linesand in setting them at a proper distance from each other, as shall seem meet. Bserve, in this figure, divided into four parts, how the human face adapts itself to the division, & the division to it. The pupil of the eyes, placed upon the central horizontal line, proves to us what I have said above, that every letter having a joint should have it exactly upon the said central line, and not elsewhere. Pon this face, between the eyes, along the nose, & over the mouth, let us draw our model triumphal I, in order to make clearer our arguments, already several times hereinbefore written. Hrewd minds can perceive at this point the divine imagination of the Ancients, who chose to make their model letter as long as from the top- most line of the square to the nether- most, and from the summit of the human face to the base of the chin, & imagined it between the two eyes, — duly proportioned; justas the nose, in a well-formed man, is the measure of the whole body, its dimensions being Justice Prudence multiplied according toa fixed rule. I say furthermore, that the I,which : * perfect of all figures, so the head of Win man, which is almost circular, is more capable of reasoning and imagination D than all the rest of the natural body. Ne A D)” y (a \ C0 Also, the human head contains more of sensuality and force than any other part of the body, seeing that it has within it seven channels and sources of vital spit corresponding THE SECOND, BOOK 55 to the seven Liberal Arts. These channels are the two Ears, the two Eyes, the two Nostrils, 8& the Mouth. The Ears are to invent the names of the letters; the Eyes, to recognize and distinguish them; the Nostrils, to harmonize the voice and the sound made in uttering them; the Mouth, to pronounce them according to their accent, their sound, and their difference. The furred hoods of the Rectors and Doctors in our universities and of Councillors in our cities have been shaped to the curve of the head and upon the perfect circle of the O, to denote that such personages must have their heads absolutely perfect in all knowl- edge and virtue, which consist chiefly, as I have already said, in the true knowledge of pure and well-formed letters, which do not only enrich man, but ennoble him, and give to his name immortality. HE next figure has been drawn to show to the hand and the eye how the land the O adapt themselves to the face of man, not only each a itself, but both together. I doubt not that detractorsand envierswill cry out at this, but nevertheless I shall not fail to set down my conceit and my spec- ulation, to give pleasure and benefit to zealous students. I know, as I have said heretofore, in the First Book, that Learning has no enemy save the unlearned, ce are good for nothing but to find fault with others, and who cannot say a wise word or make a fair stroke of the pen. F these two letters, land O, imposed one upon the other, as you can see them in this figure, the Greeks made still another letter, which they call Phi, which “Phi is equivalent to a P and an H; and they use it in place of F, which they have not among their letters. It would seem that our figure is a sort of rebus, a hieroglyphic thing, and that I have drawn it to make the dreamers dream and rave; but all things considered, it is not so. For, in memory of the three Graces—called in Greek Xagireo, of whom the first is Pasithea, the second Aglaia, and the third Euphrosyne;—hand-maidens to Dame Venus, as Boccaccio narrates in the XXV [XXXV ] chapter of the fifth book of The Genealogy of the Gods ; of which Venus let us believe every virtuous and 56 CHAMP FLEURY decent thing, and of the said hand-maidens the performance of every seemly and becoming duty,—I have drawn the letters land O and the human face together, in order always to approach nearer to the con- summate perfection of our Attic letters, which are XXIII in number; which number is equal to the nine Muses, the seven Liberal Arts, the four Cardinal Virtues, and the said three Graces; which said Muses, Liberal Arts, Cardinal Virtues, and Gracesare, in all, XXII] in number. Nasmuch as I have gone so far in contemplation of well-formed let- ters, it seems to me to be not useless in this place to point out that the number of XXIII letters, likewise that of the nine Muses, the seven Liberal Arts, the four Cardinal Virtues, and the three Graces, was se- cretly constituted & made to agree with the number of vital channels and of the noblest organs of the human body, which also are in num- ber three-and-twenty. Irst for the nine Muses, & for the nine Mutes, we will take the nine channels of vital essence, of which, as I have set down above, seven are in the head, and two others below the belly. Those in the head are the two ears, the two eyes, the two nostrils, and the mouth; the other twoare the virile member and the anus. For the seven Liberal Arts, and for the seven Semivowels, we will take the brain, the lung, the liver, the heart, the spleen, the navel, and the groin. For the four Cardinal Vir- tues and the three Graces, and for the five Latin vowels, the Ypsilon, and the aspirate H, we will take the two hands, the two feet, the two shoulders, and the rump. Thus we shall find the human body and per- fectly formed man to be the model for the disposition of the number of our letters, and in like manner for the nine Muses, the seven Liberal Arts, the four Cardinal Virtues, and the three Graces, already many times combined for argument’s sake; of which thing the better to show forth the truth and to make the reason thereof more manifest, I have here portrayed and drawn two figures of men, one for the disposition of the letters, the other for the said Muses and their companions. Vos can see in this next figure how the number XXII of the Attic letters adapts itself, as I have said, to the noblest organs & regions of the human body; and not without reason; for our worthy Ancient Fathers were so virtuous in their speculations that they determined se- cretly tomake clear that the perfect man is he in whom fine letters and goodly learning are so closely & intimately instilled that all parts and THE SECOND BOOK 57 motions of his body are at- tended by the noble quali- tywhich Cicero in chapter XX XV of the first book of his De Officizs, & at the beginning of the Orator ad Brutum calls in Greek, neenov, and in Latin, deco- rum,34 which means in our French tongue, decent & seemly in all his acts, and, consequently, in all his do- ings & sayings a virtuous man. Efore I draw the other portrait which I have promised, I propose to set down here in writing all the letters as they should be applied to the nine Muses & their companions, & to the most notable parts of the human body, so that youcan the moreeasilysee and understand their per- fect accord as follows: — B. Urania: The right eye. C. Calliope: The left eye. D. Polymnia: The right ear. F. Melpomene: The left ear. G. Clio: The right nostril. K. Erato: The left nostril. P. Terpsichore: The mouth. Q. Euterpe: The anus. T. Thalia: The virile member. L. Musica: The brain. M. Astronomia: The lung. LHOMME LETRE N. Arithmetica: The liver. R. Geometria: The heart. S. Rhetorica: The spleen. X. Dialectica: The navel. Z. Grammatica: The groin. À. Justicia: The right hand. E. Fortitudo: The left hand. I. Prudentia: The right foot. ©. Temperantia: The left foot. V. Pasithea:The right shoulder. Y. Aglaia: The left shoulder. H. Euphrosyne: The rump. * Book Xxxv, I. + Catullus, x, 13; xvi, 16. CHAMP FLEURY fs letters arranged as you see them above are not in their alpha- betical order as commonly considered, but I have wittingly placed and applied them according to my little philosophy, to make it known that their nature and their qualities demand that they be mingled to- gether. In like manner, the Sciences, with the Arts, with the four Vir- tues, and with the Graces; also the Graces with the Virtues, with the Arts, and with the Sciences, just as we see in marquetry & mosaic work that pieces both small and large of divers colours are mingled together in such wise that they make a very beautiful and perfect work, which is called in Latin, Opus vermiculatum, Opus tessellatum et assarotum, whete- of Pliny, in his Natural History* and Vitruvius in his book of Archi- tecture speak amply enough for those who may wish to read & to learn. We see in the springtime that the beauty of a field and of a garden con- sists in the diversity & assembled multitude of divers beautiful plants and flowers, which with their odour give forth a delitounares worthy to be called divine and to live forever. Bee figure opposite you can perceive how the noble & worthy Ancients invented the Sciences and Liberal Arts according as they could profitably be made to adapt themselves usefully to the noblest organs of the human body; & this, as I have said, to show that the per- fect man should be so well equipped in learning and virtue that in all places and in all his words he will be honourable and virtuous. Ure am I that I shall have in this, as in many another passage, critics and backbiters, but, #07 pili faciot—I care not a straw for them. I dedicate myself to the service of the public weal, to lead the unlearned to the contemplation and comprehension of well-formed letters. OU can perceive that this little conceit of mine is not without foundation, seeing that I have, by means of Arithmetic & Geom- etry, brought all our said Attic letters into accord, to show their divine perfection. I beg my readers that, if I have conjectured aright, they will be grateful to me therefor; and if not, that they will do better, if they can, to the end that their knowledge be not Thesaurus absconditus, that . tstosay,a hidden & useless treasure. I know that thereare many shrewd minds who would willingly write many excellent things if they thought they could do it well in Greek and Latin; yet they abstain from it for fear of committing some absurdity or other fault, which they dread; THE SECOND BOOK 59 LHOMME SCIENTIFIQUE Urania Musica Calliope a: Polymnia »\ Melpomene Clio MR £ Erato GAS - Aglaia Pasythea Astronomia Arithmetica LHe i Geometria ay Rhetorica m/s E, Dialectica Um fares | upbrosyne Euterpe PE, i) : - Grammatica Justicia Fortitudo Z Thalia Prudentia .- LTemperantia or they do not choose to write in French, esteeming the French tongue _neither good enough nor elegant enough. Saving their honour, it is one of the most beautiful & graceful of all human tongues; as] have shown, in the First Book, by the authority of eminent Ancient Writers, Poets and Orators, both Latin and Greek. E have observed the agreement & harmony between our letters & the human body in general, & in especial the head of that body; but I propose, following this, to adapt some letters to the full view of the face, others to the half view, and others to the third, and this can be shown by graphic demonstration in the figure that follows, in which three faces only will be drawn, & afterward three letters with the three faces. 60 CHAMP FLEURY A these three faces are so drawn that one is seen entire, the second only half or thereabouts, & the third still more foreshortened, so among our Attic letters 4 | [oll lea Sa PT le amy | (tl squared—that is to say, as broad as they are high. Others are less broad, & others even more restrict- ed in breadth. And this is i of our letters has. In all aN Lee. lid except the Q the height de must always be the same between two parallel lines hae between them the space of ten units, that is to say, ten times the thickness of the L And of this letter Q the body is ten units in height, like the other ing its height, can be seen sometimes as broad as it is high,—and this ina front view,—and | at other times less broad + than high, according as it is turned, so all our let- HAN 4 no; and cores sits, fh Wer ‘1 œ appears in following the : # natural conditions of the Ue JEPA ‘a C ; human body and of the Pasi face as well. We see that therearesomemen larger there are some of which i, Does hy what I have already said, when I wrote how many letters; and its tail of four units, which are in addition to the said ten units, and are outside and below the two parallel lines. ters,as I have said before, must always be equal in KG of body and of face than others, and some more active & brisk and sprightly; some healthier and we have acomplete view, | AE EN = = ZEUS aK units of breadth each one HE next figure shows us that, even as the face of a man, maintain- height, but in breadth, others wiser; some more virtuous, & others less so. In like manner, there LHS ECOND BOOK 61 are letters which are greater & of more value than others. Such are the vowels, without which there can be no true syllable, Greek, Latin, or French. For in every syllable that one can pronounce there is at least one vowel. And very often a syllable—and a word as well—consists of one of the said vowels (which are five in number, namely A, E, I, O, and U) without any other letter. Example of A alone forminga syllable [in Latin]: A-men; forming a word: Ne discesseris a me. Example in French of A alone ina syllable & in a word: A-costumez a bien dire et bien faire. Example of E alone making a syllable & a word [in Latin ]: E-tiam, e-ia, e regione. Example in Frenchwhenitisalone ina syllable: E-stienne est en e-smoy. Example of I forming a syllable and a word [in Latin]: I-tem, i-bo, i. Terence, in Andria: |, pre, sequar.* Our example in French will be only when it forms a syllable, & not a word; for I can neither be nor make a word in our tongue, albeit in figures & in tales it is often put for the numeral one. Therefore, the examples will be I-tem,which came from the Latin into French, and I-ssue de table. O, in like manner, can form a syllable & a word. Syllable: O-lor,o-men. Word: O Mœlibeæ Deus nobis hæc o-cia Lotia ] fecit. Examples in French: O-stier doibt hommage au caignard. O quil est peu de bons amys! The V [U ]Jis used only asa syllable; for in Latin it does not form a word by itself. Therefore, the example will be: U-susu-bique u-alet. In French we can say: U-sage and u-sufruyct. The Picard, to be sure, uses U as a word when he says: U est no fieux. U est men baron. Here are other letters which are tractable, and of such easy virtue that they glide along and, becoming as it were invisible, vanish in certain syllables, having a Mute before them, and do not always leng- then the quality of the vowels placed before them. They are called, in Latin, Liquide, quia liquescunt post mutas positas in eadem syllaba3>> The Liquids, which are four in number,—namely, L, M, N, and R,—are so fluid in metrical quantity, that sometimes they make ‘position’,3® that is to say, extend and make long the preceding vowel, and sometimes leave it short, as in these Latin words, Patris, Tenebra, Stagna; which thing can be seen abundantly in Terentian, where he says:— Ecce stagna madent triplici sic syllaba pacto Temporis accessu non tantum est reddita longa Sed dedit et vireis geminis augere Trocheum.t * AG 1, scene I, 144. + Terentianus Maurus (a grammarian of the late first century after Chris), ‘De literis, syllabis, pedibus, et metris ,’ 11, lines 1104-1106. * Grammatica, edition of 1508, folio cx, recto. + Folio cx, verso. 62 GHAMP FLEURY Aldus, too, in his very excellent Grammar, treats most learnedly of this matter in his Book IIII, in the chapter, De septem modis communium syllabarum, where he says, M et N liquidas, et cetera, down to “Dua praterca Muta inueniuntur aliquando non producere antecedentem breuem : ut M et N liquida.* Which matter I leave for good students to read at length in the said passage; & I say, to the same effect, that the Liquids are like some men, who are great dissemblers and great deceivers, and who know how to achieve their shifts and evasions better and more quickly than to move their fingers. [* our French tongue we can make use of the qualities of these Li- quids only in Orthography, because our tongue is not governed by rules of Grammar, as the Greek and Latin are. Here are other letters which are so capable that one is equal to two, and for this reason they are called in Latin “Duplices, that is to say, double letters. And they are two in number, X and Z. The X is used for cand s, or for g and s; the Z for double s,—or if you would have it otherwise, for two ss,—also for sand d. The Latins have this rule, and we adopt it only very long after them; for, as I have said, our tongue is not yet established by rule like theirs; but it will be at some time if it shall be our Lord’s pleasure. HE Latins, as I have said put X for c and s, or for gands,whenin- stead of writing Regs, regis, and Ducs, ducis, they write Rex, regis, & “Dux, ducis. In like manner instead of writing Patrisso and “Pétisso, they write Patrizoand Pirizo, as the Greeks do; and, instead of writing Gasda, they write Gaza. These two double letters, X and Z, are also sometimes single consonants in respect to the quantity of syllables, as Aldus very learnedly shows in the same Book IIII of his Grammar, in the chap- ter, De septem modis communium syllabarum,when he says: Quintus modus est, cum correptam vocalem suscipit Z, et cactera.t S there are men who have few good parts, and are of little use, ex- cept in their number, like the numeral o,which by itself makes no number, but with others multiplies their value, so it is with the letter S, which is sometimes a quasi-liquid, making the vowel that precedes it long, and sometimes not, and very often vanishes and is lost to sight in respect to metrical quantity. As Priscian says in his first book, where- THE SECOND BOOK 63 in he treats De literarum commutatione, when he says: S in metro apud ve- tuStissimos vim suam frequenter amittit. And Virgil in the Eleventh Book of the Aineid :— Ponite spes sibi quisque, sed hac quam angusta videtis.* And again in the Twelfth :— Inter se coijsse viros et decernere ferro. ¢ I could give other examples of the way it is lost to sight in metre, but I refer the earnest student to Terentianus, an ancient author very serious and learned in his art, and to the excellent Aldus, in Book IIII of his hereinbefore cited Grammar, In tertio modo communium syllabarum. O show the changeable nature of the said letter S, the Ancients represented it as twisted in shape and of medium breadth, as we shall see when we come to fashion and draw it in its due order, with our Lord’s help, and shall say of it, as of the others, some pleasant thing, following the teaching of the good authors. | E make use of the S properly in writing; but in pronunciation I find that there are some who deal but ill with it; for, instead of saying, ‘Deus, deus, meus justusiet fortis Dominus, they stammer & bite off the tail, saying ‘Deu, deu, meu justu et forti Dominu,’ which is a very great fault and too common with many simple-minded folk. A man who would fain be believed, and who wishes that full faith be iven his words, should in speaking pronounce clearly and smoothly all his syllables, no less at the end of words than at the beginning. For when a man does not pronounce distinctly, it seems to the hearers that he is making sport of them, or that he knows not what he says. And they, angered by such language, either turn their thoughtsat once oth- erwhere, or fall asleep, or go from the place where he speaks so vainly, or, which is worse, break in constantly upon his words in their wrath. Icould give examples enough in French, but itwould seem to some that I did it in mockery; therefore I will refrain for the moment, and will continue to show abundantly the divine perfection of our noble and divine Attic letters. if Cannot go further without giving proof that our said letters were invented through divine inspiration. Certain it is that the King of Greek poets, Homer, near the beginning of Book VIII of his Idad, © XT, 300. } XII, 709. * See note 37 to page 66. + Dialogue xx1,Martis et Mercurit. Luck, TS: 64 CHAMP FLEURY imagines that Jupiter said that he alone, with a chain of gold, could draw to himself, if he would, all the other Gods, aye, and with them the earth and the sea.* Lucian, in his Dialogues of the Gods, shows us Mars and Mercury conspiring and muttering against Jupiter because of this said chain,t and Macrobius, one of the greatest Latin philosophers, makes mention thereof in his first book, I Somnium Scipionis, when he says: Cumque omnia continuis successionibus se sequantur degenerantia, per ordinem ad imum meandi, inuenictur pressius intuenti, a summo “Deo usque ad ultimum una se mutuis vinculis religans, et nusquam interrupta connexio. Et hac es Homeri Cathena aurea, quam pendere de calo in terras “Deum jus- sisse commemorat.t ‘He who shall choose,’ he says, ‘to meditate and ob- serve, will find a chain and bond formed of intertwined links, which hangs down from heaven to earth’; which is to say that every inspira- tion, spiritual & corporeal, that we can know here below, proceeds from the sovereign Creator of the whole world. Let us, then, imagine and believe that we see this gold chain hanging down from heaven even to our feet, and this chain ts of a length & breadth duly proportioned and adaptable to the symmetrical figure of our model letter I, and we shall perceive that Homer’s conceit is to be referred to the inspiration and invention of letters and sciences, which have never been and cannot be known without divine aid and quickening. O show the harmony between our letters and this chain of gold I have designed and drawn it here with our said I, to the end that, together with my words, the Philoso- phy which encompasses our said let- Z ters, and which I have observed, may Cie ets be made manifest to the eye. | ‘OU can see in the figure here de- signed and drawn the divine har- mony between our model letter & the Homeric chain of gold, & how I have arranged in such wise that there are just ten links corresponding to the ten : : Ê 4 : ~S A À units of height of the I, & likewise to po A NS the nine Muses & their Apollo, which 1 pa Thave hereinbefore drawn & arranged THE SECOND BOOK 65 together. The reason why I have allotted ten rather than more or less is clearly stated ; but, furthermore, I find that our excellent Ancient Fathers intended to attribute consummate and absolute perfection to the tenth number, inasmuch as it isan even number, composed of both even and odd numbers. Martianus Capella, in his Book VII, where he speaks of the “Decade, is a good witness when he says: “Decas vero ultra omnes habenda qua omnes numeros diuerse virtutis ac perfectionis intra se habet.* The tenth,’ he says, ‘in truth is of surpassing excellence, seeing that it contains and has in itself all the numbers both odd and even, that is to say, all good qualities and perfection.’ Can, therefore, well say, and truthfully maintain, that I have good reason for having fashioned my letters with a height of ten units, which is the noblest and most perfect of all numbers; for the Ancient Fathers determined to place all the numbers & symbols of Arithmetic beneath it, and after it there is no number which has a special name, but always a repetition, as we see when we say onze, douxe, treixe, and so with the other numbers that come after, which mean one, or two, or three, or more, after and with ten. bl aide King of Greek Poets, Homer, wishing to show covertly that the man supreme in counsel is he in whom all useful knowledge is and dwells, introduces Agamemnon, in the First Book of his [éad,wish- ing that he might have ten Nestors, when he says: 4d quem respondens, Agamemnon. ‘Enim vero, inquit, venerande senex omnes sine controuersia Grecos Senatores vincis in dicenda sententia. Atque vtinam fecisses pater Ju- piter; tuque,O Minerua; et tu, Apollo, vt decem mihi ex omnibus Gracis fo- rent tanto consilio viri, Breui profecto Trota nostris manibus capta deleretur. Agamemnon, answering Nestor, said to him: ‘O venerable old man, without doubt thou dost surpass in wisdom and good counsel all the Senators of Greece. O Jupiter, would that it might please thee, & thee, Minerva, and likewise thee, Apollo, that from all the men of Greece I might have ten like Nestor; then would Troy, taken by our hands, be speedily destroyed.’ Set down here these fine things in order to show always more abun- dantly the great and sovereign perfection of our letters. They are so truly measured & proportioned that they fit together like the links of the chain of gold; for the Letters and Sciences are so akin and so loyal to each other that, if you have knowledge of the one, you have free en- VIE, 747 * Verse 365. 66 CHAMP FLEURY trance and access to the other. As we know by experience that in sum- mer, when cherries are good to eat, and when you mean to take one of them on a dish, and mean to take only one, you pluck six or seven, nine or ten more with the first one. Horace, too, in his<_4rs Poetica, remarks on this subject, that is to say, that the tenth number is most perfect: Decies repetita placebunt.* ‘Things, he says, ‘ten times repeated will give pleasure, and withal will be more perfect. I have, therefore, with good reason divided the superficial height and breadth of our letters into ten units, and the chain of gold into ten links, corresponding to our model letter I. There are some who, as laymen speak of arms, say that they should be divided into six only, others into eight, and others into nine. But what they mean by six, or eight, or nine I know not, whether por- tions, or units, or lines. But methinks that they talk more because they think to show thereby that they know something of the matter, than from true knowledge or experience; therefore I leave them to their opinion, ill-founded as it is in reason. FEY persons would have thought that our aforesaid King of Greek Poets, Homer, covertly & under the mask of fable, signified the di- vine inspiration of Letters & Sciences, & their intimate connection; but on searching closely thereinto, it is clear that he so did, whether or no it appears at first sight; and, to give to devoted lovers of well-formed letters the wherewithal to meditate and reflect, I will quote him here, to the end that you may see and fully understand. Tywoert’ emeit’ ooov eut Sewv naetiotos anavt’ Eid’ aye meignoaoe Oeot iva eidete mavreo, DUEIOHV XOUCEIHV E& oupavolev npeuavteo, [avreo 8’ e€antebe Geo, macai redeaivar. A oun av eguoait’ e& oveavobev mediovde (uv’ urarov wHoTWe’ oud’ ei pala nolÂa nanolte A ote bu nat eywv meodewv eSedoimt eoucca, AvTH uev Yai eouoat w’auTH Te Oalacon. DUEIQHV HEV MEV EMEITA TEE EIWV OUAUTTOLO Ancat uv taden’ aUTE WETHOOG MavTa YEVOITO. Toooov eyw megit’ ei euv, megit’ Ju’ avOoumuv. 37 That is to say, in Latin, as Laurence Valla translates it for us: —4ge- dum auream vestim e cœlo suspendite, eaque cuntti Dii ac Dea apprebensa me THE SECOND BOOK 67 hinc detrahite in terram. Nullo id quantolibet nixu poteritis efficere. At cum mihi facere idem ivato libuerit, in terras vos Uniuersos, et in maria vsque detraherem, quin etiam circumligata reste hac ad summitatem Olympi omnia superne alleuarem vt intelligatis quantum ego Des simulatque homines ante- cello. That is, Jupiter is represented as saying:—‘If you would make trial of my powers and strength and would have some knowledge of me, hasten, and hang from Heaven a chain of gold; and if you all, both Gods and Goddesses, can do it, draw me from hence to earth: I know that,with all your strength, you will not be able to doit. But when Jam wroth, if it be my pleasure, I will drag you all hither and thither, by land and sea, & destroy you utterly. And, far more, with this chain of gold I could draw the whole of earth & sea to the topmost summit of Olympus. And by this, know how far I excel and surpass in might both Gods and men.’ Ustly, then, will this chain of gold, which we have imposed upon our I, signify to us, by allegory, that the knowledge & inspiration of let- ters comes to us from Heaven and from God; that these letters are so closely akin and so nearly connected that they all have a share in each other; likewise the Sciences, and consequently the Virtues. Ve a great imitator of Homer, instead of this chain of gold, im- agined a Golden Bough for his Æneas, which means, inallegory, that every learned and virtuous man carries in his hand—that is to say, for his use—a Bough of Wisdom, which is of gold as being the most precious of all metals. The Sibyl, that is to say, divine inspiration, says to Æneas, that is to say, to the devoted lover & observer of virtue, which consists chiefly in letters and goodly learning, the words that follow; and they are written in Book VI of the said Virgil’s Aineid :— Accipe que peragenda prius, latet arbore opaca Aureus et folijs et lento vimine ramus, Junoni infernæ dictus sacer, hunc tegit omnis Lucus, et obscuris claudunt conuallibus vmbrz, Sed non ante datur telluris operta subire, Auricomos quam quis decerpserit arbore fœtus. Hoc sibi pulchra suum ferri Proserpina munus Instituit, primo auulso non deficit alter * Æneid, V1, 136. See the translation of the longer in- clusive passage on pages 69 and 70, in Note 38. + From aivéw 5 68 CHAMP FLEURY Aureus, et simili frondescit virga metallo. Ergo alte vestiga oculis, et rite repertum Carpe manu, namque ipse volens, facilisque sequetur.* | Fee ty that you see a lady named Divine Inspiration, saying to the zealous student and virtuous youth what follows.—‘Hearken,’ she says, ‘to what it is meet that you should do before ought else. There isin yonder earthly forest a Golden Bough hidden ina great densely leaved tree. This bough hasvery softand pliable leaves and twigs, and is sacred to Juno, the Goddess of that place. It is encompassed by a great number of ancient trees and by shady vales. And know that no man can enter into the secret places of the earth until he shall have plucked the said golden bough. For the beautiful Goddess Proserpine has decreed that it be given her asa present. As soon as you have plucked one, there will spring forth another, of gold and of the same form. Therefore, search well and gaze with all your eyes, & as soon as you have found it, pluck it with your hand; for you will easily obtain it, since it will let itself be pulled from its place, as of its own will and at your pleasure.’ Tie this beautiful golden bough, like Homer’s golden chain, sig- nifies Learning; & its leaves, which are three-and-twenty in num- ber, are the three-and-twenty letters of the Alphabet. And he who shall succeed in finding it in the great forest of the miseries of this world & in the valleys thereof, he is an Aineas, that is to say, a man of great qualities and worthy of all praise. For Aweiact in Greek, means a man worthy of all praise & honour. The reason why I say and quote these fine things in passing is always the better to exalt our well-shaped let- ters, & the more zealously to urge goodly minds to devote their hearts and their love to the said letters and sciences. | Have said that this golden bough had three-and-twenty leaves, co- vertly signifying the three-and-twenty letters of the Alphabet. And should any ask me how I know it,I should say that the noble Poet Virgil so taught me, the while I gazed upon his Æneas, seeking the said gold- en bough that he might go down into the dark places of profound med- itation upon the vices & virtues of this mortal life. And if some noble heart would fain learn by touch and by sight where he may find this number three-and-twenty, let him read in the sixth book of the Aineid, where, as I have quoted, Virgil introduces the Sibyl counselling Æneas to seek the golden bough, and he will find that the Poet wittingly and THE SECOND BOOK 69 covertly makes her speak in three-&-twenty verses, of which the first is: Tros anchisiade facilis descensus auerni. And, proceeding, the last verse is: — Vincere nec duro poteris conuellere ferro. Counting these two & those that are between them, we shall find three- and-twenty verses, And should one reply that these are verses, and not letters, [should say that, for the orderly disposition & description of the thing, he wrote three-&-twenty verses; which number he made to cor- respond covertly to the three-&-twenty letters of the Alphabet, without which one can acquire neither learning nor perfect virtue. These mat- ters will not be found in the commentaries on the said passage, for the commentators are intent upon following their style as commentators, while I have been intent upon observation of the significance & allego- rical meaning of the letters. There are those who say that Virgil meant by this golden branch a branch of mistletoe,* which is almost of the col- our of gold, and which has little round white berries like pearls; but, saving their honour, he meant, as I have said, learning, whereof the leaves are letters. If you take away the leaves from a bough, there is no bough left, but a bare limb; so, if you take away letters from learning, there is no learning left, but ignorance. And to place this matter before your eyes, I will draw here a figure and design of each, namely, a bough & a bare limb. But first I will set down the said three-and-twenty verses at length, to the end that students may rejoice for not having to seek them out in Virgil. Tros anchisiade facilis descensus auerni, Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis, Sed reuocare gradum, superasque euadere ad auras. Hoc opus, hic labor est. Pauci quos aquus amauit Juppiter, aut ardens euexit ad æthera virtus Dijs geniti potuere, tenent media omnia syluæ, Cocytusque sinu labens circunfluit atro. Quod si tantus amor menti si tanta cupido est Bis Stygios innare lacus, bis nigra videre Tartara, et insano juuat indulgere labort, Accipe quz peragenda prius, latet arbore opaca Aureus et folijs et lento vimine ramus, Junoni infernz dictus sacer, hunc tegit omnis * ‘Guy’ = gui? * Æneid, v1, 126.38 | Aineid,v1, 149. Tory mis- takenly wrote, or printed, ‘examinum and ‘fumere.’ 70 CHAMP FLEURY Lucus, et obscuris claudunt conuallibus umbræ. Sed non ante datur telluris operta subire, Auricomos quam quis decerpserit arbore foctus Hoc sibi pulchra suum ferri Proserpina munus Instituit primo auulso non deficit alter Aureus, et simili frondescit virga metallo. Ergo alte vestiga oculis, et rite repertum Carpe manu, namque ipse volens facilisque sequetur. Si te fata vocant aliter non viribus vllis Vincere nec duro poteris conuellere ferro.* O, the three-&-twenty verses wherein our golden bough is described, 8 wherein we can imagine three-and-twenty leaves, each of which will have a letter written in it. When the Sibyl says furthermore,— Præterea iacet exanimum tibi corpus amici Heu nescis, totamque incestat funere classem,t she is no longer speaking of the golden bough, but of another; whereof, then, he who shall well perceive Virgil’s secret meaning will find to be true all that I have hereinbefore said and written according to my poor understanding. if Have drawn the golden bough according to Virgil in the verses here- inbefore quoted, which, as I have said, signifies learning; & beneath it the limb without leaves, which denotes ignorance. But note well how, on the said golden bough, I have drawn three twigs, of which the one in the middle, which is the chief & longest one, has nine leaves, where- in are written, one apart from another, the nine mutes, B, C, D, F, G, K, P, Q,T, which represent the nine Muses. Then, on another twig, at the left side, there are seven leaves wherein in like manner are written the seven semi-vowels, L, M, N, R, S, X, and Z, which represent the seven Liberal Arts. Likewise the third, right-hand twig has on it seven leaves, wherein are written the five Latin vowels, A, E, I, O, V, and one Greek one, Y, and with them the aspirate H, which, because it is not deemed a true letter, is written in the lowest leaf. By which six vowels and aspirate, we understand the four Cardinal Virtues & the Graces, of comely grace and virtue. Thus, then, in the said Golden Bough of Virgil are comprised and covertly suggested the nine Muses, the seven Liberal Arts, the four Cardinal Virtues, and the three Graces, which make the full number of the three-and-twenty letters of the Alphabet. | THE SECOND BOOK 71 LE RAMEAV DOR ET DE SCIENCE LA BRANCHE DIGNORANCE O the best of my ability, I have by God’s grace, according to my humble theory & philosophical speculation, adapted the Homeric chain of gold to our model letter I, & Virgil’s golden bough to the nine Muses and their companions. Now if it be our Lord’s pleasure, I pur- pose to extend the said Homeric chain of gold, which I have drawn in the alone, of ten links, which represent the nine Muses & their Apollo, to three-and-twenty links arranged evenly around the other model let- ter, O, which said links will represent, as the leaves of Virgil’s golden bough have done, the three-and-twenty letters of the Alphabet, & like- 72 GCHAMPSRLEURY wise the nine Muses & their companions. All of which matter, to make it the better understood I have drawn below as best I could, leaving it for those who can and will, to do better. he this next figure I have designed and drawn the O in its superficial square, according to its proper measurement of ten units of height & ten of breadth, divided between eleven perpendicular & horizontal lines, as you can easily perceive by the eye and by the compass, to show the accord between the said three-and-twenty links and the three-and- twenty letters which I have written in the rays of the Sun, each by itself, one after another, at the right of each link; and outside, between the rays of the Sun, I have also written & placed the nine Muses, the seven Liberal Arts, the four Cardinal Virtues, & the three Graces, each apart from the rest. And in the very center of the O, I have drawn and por- TT THE SECOND BOOK 74 trayed Apollo playing upon his divine lyre, to show that the linking together and the round perfection of the Letters, Muses, Liberal Arts, Cardinal Virtues, and Graces are inspired by Apollo, that is to say, by the Sun, or, if you like it better so, say by our true God and Creator, who is the veritable Sun, without whose aid all body & spirit is forever numb and vain, & without which we can have no knowledge of letters or of learning, or of any virtue whatsoever. HE circular form of the O, and the circular form of the Homeric chain of gold imposed upon the said O, signifies the conjunction of all good qualities in perfection which every zealous student should have within himself. In geometry every circular figure, solid or not, is the most comprehensive and most perfect of all. When Horace said in his Ars Poetica,— Graijs dedit ore rotondo Musa loqui,* he did not mean that the mouths of the Greeks were round, like the mouth of a well, or like a ball, but that their Muse, their learning, and their language were most perfect. Wherefore this circle shall, as I have said, signify to us the summit of perfection that lies in the true knowl- edge of well-formed letters and of learning. E can now therefore see clearly enough that our two model tri- umphal letters, I and O, are justly fitted & adapted to the Ho- meric chain of gold, and that, righteously exulting, we can say again and again :— To, Io, Dicamus Io, Io, dulces homeriaci.t Dicite lo Pzean, et Io bis dicite Pzan.t Non semel dicemus Io, triumphe.§ O show that they who have knowledge of well-formed letters gov- ern and excel the ignorant, and to arouse & stimulate shrewd wits, I will make below a drawing wherein Apollo, in a chariot of gold and precious stones, shall be drawn in triumph by the nine Muses, the sev- en Liberal Arts, the four Cardinal Virtues, and the three Graces, The four Cardinal Virtues shall hold the four corners of the chariot, and the three Graces shall lead its three horses—Eous, Pyrois, & Æthon. In this triumphal procession each of the Graces shall bear aloft in one hand the festal staff,— which the Romans call to-day ume Haulse com- * Verse 323. Ÿ See Note 22. t Ovid,‘ Ars Amoris,' 11, 1. § Horace, ‘Odes’ tv, 2, 49. * See Ovid, “ Metamorpho- ses, IV, 606. 74 CHAMP FLEURY TH ESNTHRE TERMES UMPH OF APOLLO AND THE MUSES. paire, and shall do her service and bear herself joyously and with an air befitting a great triumph. Apollo shall be seated in his chariot, playing upon his divine lyre. Behind the chariot Bacchus & Ceres shall be led captive and Venus, too, to show us that in order to triumph in letters, one must be moderate in eating & in drinking & in lusts of the flesh. All these excellent things, already described in words, shall be set forth in drawing, to the end that the unlettered, observing their disposi- tion there, may take pleasure with the bodily eye, in order to rejoice the eye of the spirit therewith, and to spur them on to the knowledge of letters and sciences. | Ere, then, you see the great triumph of Apollo, with his Muses & other fair companions, who make manifest to the eye how, by means of letters and sciences, every man, by making good use of them, can attain to supreme honour and make his name immortal. If in this matter you should desire fuller insight, go read in the Triwmphs of Mes- ser Francesco Petrarca, and you will find in the “Triumph of Renown’ that the Poets, Philosophers, and Orators, through their studious zeal, albeit they long since died in the body, still live in the spirit, and will live longer than any other men, however virtuous those others may have been. Might also add to this, and apply by a like allegory, the shower of gold, whereinto, according to the ancient poets and philosophers, Jupiter transformed himself, to descend from heaven to earth, to the brazen tower of Acrisius, King of Greece & father of the lovely Danae.* And, too, I might write of the Mercurial herb which the Greeks call Moly,? whereof Homer speaks in his Odyssey, in the Tenth Book; but leaving those matters for good students to meditate upon, I will pass them by, and go on to fashion and describe all our Attic letters of the Alphabet, one after another, according to their common order. And to begin, with God’s assistance, I remember that I have already said that Te aang Le ae Fae NS 1 THE SECOND BOOK 75 7 Brae Ge En W7S Cr RES AND VENUS ARE HERE TAKEN AY Sous CAPTIVE. / DR © all our said letters are formed from and allied to the I and the O; and that I and A were conceived in the flower of a purple-hued lily called in Paris /isflambe, and which Dioscorides, and his Florentine translator, Marcellus Virgilius, called Hyacinthus, and which in vulgar Italian is called Hyacinthiol.* I have made here a drawing wherein the A is placed upon a /Jésflambe in a square; and the A is formed of the I multiplied intoa triangle; or, if you would say it otherwise, say that the A is formed of three I’s placed one upon another, taking of each what is needed to form a perfect A, as you can see in the said drawing, wherein I have made the A black, and what remains of the three I’s I have left in white,as being super- fluous for the A. The drawing is shown here. Ehold then how, as I have said, the I is the model of the Attic letters, that is to say, for those which have straight limbs. We shall see hereafter about the O, in which we shall draw the B, which is formed from I & O, seeing that it has a straight limb, and rounded parts which mark the place of the joints. T this place, giving praise to our Lord God, I will make an end of our Second Book, wherein we have, according to our poor under- standing, demonstrated the origin of the Attic letters, & have sought to urgeand pray—which thing we do still pray—that some zealous minds may endeavour to order our French tongue by rule, to the end that we may be able to make use * See page 24 supra. 6 | CHAMP FLEURY ; of it in a seemly way and with surety, to set down in: worthy to be known,which we must needs beg from i _ Greeks and Latins, and which we cannot possess W wi 3 expenditure of time and money. ; ‘ ' x iro iii DOOK T the beginning of the little book that good fathers give their small children to begin their schooling, & to learn the Pa- ter Noster, Ave Maria, Credo in Deum, and the other pleasant little matters of our faith, there are usually a Cross and three A’s. But few personstake the pains to learn & understand what they mean, or for what reason there isa Cross rather than a Star, a Moon, or a Sun, which are significative of some symbol- ism or demonstration, as is manifest in many things; or why there are three A’s rather than two, or four. But in this place, with Our Lord’s aid, I will set down what these things seem to me to mean, according to my humble reasoning and understanding. | see Cross not only signifies good fortune, according to our faith, because in it was our redemption, but also, according to the ancient philosophers, it isa sign and symbol of some felicity, which is requisite for those who are beginning to learn and to know well-formed letters. Furthermore, the Cross is made of two lines, of whichall our Attic let- ters are formed: they are the perpendicular line & the horizontal line, forming a right angle & equal in quadrature, whereof I have written in many passages of the Second Book. Moreover, when the Ephesians wished to make use of their magic letters, which they wrote upon cer- tain parts of their bodies, to gain victories, & to bring their parleystoan end, as Erasmus shows in his second Chiliad, in Proverb LX XIX, of which the title is, Ephesia litere, they made the sign of the Cross there, thinking thereby to obtain the sooner what they demanded. They made use of the Cross, because they saw that the World is shaped like a Cross, that is to say, with East, West, South & North; & because man, too— who is, as some philosophers say, & as is clearly shown in the thirtieth chapter of the Book of the Game of Chess, a Muxgonocpos,a little world, — bears within himself the figure of the Cross; this, when he has his feet together and his arms outstretched. Coelius Rhodiginus, in the eighth Chapter of the sixth book of his Ancient Lessons,* has many another good and excellent discourse on the Cross, which I omit for brevity’s * Leéfionum -Antiquarum. * VIII, 75. + Tory, of course, quotes from theVulgate. Inthe King James version we find (1:6): Ab! Lord God!” etc. t Revelation, xxx, 6. § Ibid, xxtt, 13. \| Beta. 78 CHAMP FPEEUR® sake, referring to him those zealous students who would exercise them- selves therein. Se content myself with the reason I have given, that the Cross, inasmuch as it is formed of a perpendicular and a horizontal line, is the foundation for designing and making all our said Attic letters, as I shall prove by example and figure, with Our Lord’s aid. HE writing of three A’s rather than two, or four, signifies, I say again, some felicity; for the number of the Trinity is odd, & of all numbers the noblest & most perfect. It is made of an even & odd num- ber, & their sum is odd. Virgil in his Bucolics has said: Numero Deus impa- re gaudet.* ‘Divine things, he says, ‘must be ofan odd number.’ Likewise we have in our blessed faith, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all which three taken together we believe to be one God, and equal in power. So our three A’s have but one sound, as a syllable and as a word. To show us this blessed Trinity & happy repetition, the good Prophet Jeremiah says in his first chapter: A, A, A, Domine Deus, ecce, nescio loqui, quia puer ego sum. ‘A, A, A, he says, ‘my Lord God, thou seest that I can- not speak, for Iam only a child.’ When a child is born, the first sound he makes contains in it, so ’tis said, this letter A, and this is why our ancient fathers placed it first in the order of letters, rather than M, or S, or any other of them all. I could give many another strong argument in this regard, but let him who shall desire to know, read Plutarch’s Symposiacs, the ninth Decade,*? and he will satisfy his mind, if it is easily satisfied. Is called in Greek Alpha, and is oftentimes, as well in Holy Writ as in the poets, put for beginning, In the twenty-first and penul- timate chapter of the Apocalypse, are the words Ego sum Alpha et wi that is to say, in Latin, Ego sum initium et finis; and in French, Ie suis le commancemant et ba fin. And in the last chapter, Ego sum Alpha et w, primus et nouissimus, principium et finis. Tam, he says, ‘Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.’§ Alpha, then is used for beginning, and for this reason A is put first in the alphabetical order of letters, which thing he who denies it can see in Plato. pS is yet another hidden reason why Alpha signifies beginning; & this is that the Greeks reckon & form their numbers by letters; the said letters, as is the case too in Hebrew, serving as figures and sym- bols of numbers to reckon with. Alpha (A) is put for the first number and for one; Vital (B), for two; Gamma (T°) for three; Delta (A), for À f À 1 | ’ THE THIRD BOOK 79 four; Epsilon (E), for five; but after Epsilon, XT, that is to say, Sigma and Tau together, are inserted, and signify six. Then Zeta (Z) is used for seven; Eta (H), for eight; Theta (©), for nine; Iota (1), for ten. After this, lota and Alpha together (TA) are used for eleven; Iota and Vita (1B), for twelve; and so on with the other letters and certain in- tercalations, which I omit for brevity’s sake. al the second book of the Epigrammata of Martial, Alpha is used, as is said of the number of Greek letters, for principal and first, where it is written:— Quem non lacernis Publius meus vincit, Non ipse Codrus, Alpha penulatorum.* Pacs Ausonius, too, in his Epigrammata, where he writes, Ad Eunum pada- . gogum Liguritorem,t mentions Alpha; but I will pass him by, because eine Magnus ee ; À : ; : nius (C.310-394), a Chris- his words are immodest, and go on to say that A, which is equivalent ERG om ot ih to Alpha, and which is written with the same character, is put first in Gratian. The Epigram re- the alphabetical order more fitly than any other letter. ferred to is LXxt. Is a voicet & therefore is called a vowel, & must be pronounced,— __ ‘Voix,’ Latin, vox. «A as Martianus Capella says in his second book, De Nuprijs ‘Philo- sera ena oe logia;—Sub hiatu oris congruo solo spiritu;* it must be pronounced with seme definite configur sen the mouth open, & with a suitable breathing. It may be a whole sylla- #hesuperglottal passages. — ble, and sometimes a whole word, as well in Latin as in French. As we eee imer of ‘Phonetics,’ say in Latin: Non auertas faciem tuam a me; and in French: On dit que re lhomme a vingt ans beau peult eStre. I] doibt aussi a trente, fort aparoistre. Is sometimesan interjection, & a manifestation of the love we have in our hearts for something to which we are inclined; and then it takes with & after it the sign of breathing; as in saying with Virgil: — Hic inter densas corylos, modo namque gemellos Spem gerens, ah, silice in nuda connixa reliquit;§ § Bucolics, 1, 14. 8 and in French:— Ah, fringans yeulx volages et mondains Voz fins regards vous font [sont] de ioye plains.“ Priscianus, in his first book,wherein he treats De accidentibus litera, tells us why the aspirate is placed after the vowel A, in the interjection 4h, His) } ‘-Absconse et omaqueuse; literally, ‘hidden (Latin ab- scondita) and from the stom- ach.’ The lat qualification is not in the Latin which the author is supposed to be trans- lating. t The pointinPlautus’ s play is, of course, that the three let- ters spell amo, ‘I love.’ 80 CHAMP FLEURY rather than before it, saying that the complete word ise Aha,as in Vaha. His words are as follows: Queritur cur in Vah et Ah post vocales ponitur aspiratio; et dicimus quod apocopa fatla est extrema vocalis cui praponeba- tur aspivatio,nam perfetla Vaha et-Aha sunt. Ideo abscissione fatla extrema vocalis, tamen aspiratio mansit ex superiore pendens vocali. Quia suum est in- * teriectionis voce abscondita proferri.* That is to say, “The question is asked, why in Vzh and in Ab the aspirate is placed after the vowel, seeing that Vaha and Aba are complete words; and to this we reply that there is here an apocope (that is,a cutting off of the last vowel), leaving the aspirate attached to the preceding one. For it is the attribute and nature of the interjection to be pronounced in a veiledt voice.’ Plautus, in his comedy Mercator, uses the A substantively, and as a letter taken fora number, when he introduces Demipho saying: Hodie ire in ludum oc- ceepi literarium, Lysimache: ternas scio jam, A. M. 0. That is to say: ‘Lysi- machus, to-day I began to go to school; I know three letters already— A. M. O'i HE A combined with another vowel makes a diphthong, that is to say,a syllable containing two vowels; and this in Greek & Latin alike. But in French I find more than two vowels together in a syllable and diphthong, as I could easily prove did I not choose rather to pass on, for brevity’s sake. Efore I proceed, however, I would at this point earnestly counsel printers and writers concerning this diphthong AE, and say that it should be written in such wise that the A and E are separated at the top & joined at their base. When they are written in a running hand, and not capitals, as I have already said, they should be closely joined together. Wherein Frobenius and almost all other printers have gone astray hitherto, when they have joined capital A and E together in this manner, Æ, in which the one or the other must needs be changed from its true form & shape. For if the A be set upright, the E, being joined to the said A, will be tipped up; or, in like manner, if the E be set straight, the A, being joined tothe E, will be tipped up, and will have its first leg outside its proper line,which is con- i. trary to the art of fashioning the Attic letter,which shouldalwaysbe complete in itself,and stand perpendicularly ona transverse horizontal line. « de Tdi Tire ue Url ee ee ee et Es S é ‘| un c=. = PSN MS + > eS CNT oe ee, ih * dre THE THIRD BOOK HentheEissetuprightona hor- izontal line, & the A is joined to it at the top, the said A is moved away from the said horizontal line,as you see % in this drawing. F, then, you would write and fashion properly this diphthong A & E, make it in the manner and form here shown, and you will, without doubt, find the reason therefor to be good. And if some one replies that the other letters should be so placed, one joined to another, say that it isnot so, but that they must beleftatfull liberty, separated from oneanother by at least the width of an I; & that the A, forming a diphthong with the E, should have no intermedi- ate space at its foot,to which the E, as I have said, should be joined. Return to our letters, & proceed to design and write and draw them all, one after the other, with the kindly favour of Our Lord God. First of all, then, in good time, and in the name of God, we shall make a Cross, which, as I have said before, shall be of two lines, one perpen- dicular and the other transverse and horizontal, to give us good luck and a favourable beginning for our letters, & toaid in drawing themas is meet according to Rule & Compass. This Cross must be as high as it is broad, and as broad as high, in order to its being placed in an equilat- eral square, wherein we shall make & fashion each letter in its turn, it being divided, truly & exactly, into eleven perpendicular lines & other eleven horizontal lines, cross-wise, which will make a hundred small equilateral squares, of such size that the breadth of one—and of what- soever one you may choose—will be the pattern and fixed measure of the breadth of the leg of the letter that we desire to make between two parallel lines, according to the space that we may choose to place be- tween them. For, by keeping our proportionate number of eleven lines, we can make the Attic letter as large or as small as we please. The said Cross, & the said Square should be in the form that follows. eee + * Lung sera noir, et a len- droit, lautre sera blanc, et a lenvers. 82 CHAMP BLEURY CROSS FORMED OF A PER- ‘THE ARENA AND FIELD OF PENDICULAR LINE AND AN — EXERCISE FOR MAKING AT- EQUAL HORIZONTAL LINE . TIC LETTERS IN DUES AT RIGHT ANGLES. BER AND SIZE. +++ MERE. ES BARRE eo I Might, it is true, have begun with the point and the line, which are, as I have said at the beginning of the Second Book, the foundation of the measurement of every figure; but I chose to begin with the Cross, for the reasons I have given heretofore. The Square that you see beside the Cross is the arena and field of exercise of our studious purpose to make each one of our Attic letters. You see therein eleven perpendic- ular lines and as many transverse ones, cross-wise, which make for you ten times ten small squares—one hundred in all. The breadth of one, as I have said, is the thickness of the leg of the letter you propose to make. And observe, that when it shall be your pleasure to try to make an Attic letter, you must before all else make a Square of the height that you wish to give it; then place a cross in the centre, & thereafter the other lines,as many on the one sideas on the other, at equal intervals, in such wise that the Square shall be equally divided, as I have said, by eleven perpendicular and as many horizontal lines, Or, if you prefer, draw your Cross, and then, around it, your Square divided equally, as I have many times said, N this wise, then, on a square divided as above, we will draw our first letter, A; but, to agree with what I have hereinbefore written,we will draw it in three ways, that is, three As, of which one shall be black and in the right position; another shall be white, and reversed;* & the third shall be shown with a Compass and a Rule (which is called in Latin, Radius), to show that every Attic letter must be drawn with the com- pass and the rule. eae es Biv LEEK DA BOOK 83 aN: IX HE letter A, here twice drawn in its square, and formed of the I alone, is as broad as it is high, that is to say, of ten units* of breadth and ten of height, contained between eleven perpendicular & as many horizontal lines. To draw it properly, five turns of the compass are needed, for describing which I have marked the centres with the sign+ where the fixed foot of the compass should be placed, in order to de- scribe the circumference. Observe, besides,that I place this same sign+, outside the square, on the perpendicular median line of the aspirate H, of the I, the O, the S, the X,and the Z, not for the foot of the com- pass to be placed thereon, but to show that there is the top of the said letters, which are almost the same at top & bottom. There is, however, & must be, some difference, except in the O, the outer circumference of which is entirely uniform. A is in shape pyramidal and triangular, in accordance with natural reason, We see that things built up to a point are more solid and durable than those which are as broad at the top as at the bottom. In another aspect, the A is somewhat in the shape of a compass; its two feet represent the feet of the compass, & the top the joint. The cross-bar of the A signifies a rule: a covert indication that, properly to design and draw Attic letters, the compass & the rule are necessarily required. Furthermore, A has its legs thickened & fur- nished with feet,—just as a man has his legs and feet for walking and passing on,—to tell us covertly that from it, the first letter in alphabet- ical order, we must pass on to B, & C, & all the other letters according to their arrangement. A must be pronounced with the mouth open, & as I have said before, where Martianus Capella is quoted—sub hiatu oris congruo solo spirit. \N hich thing the Italians observe with care, not only * Corps. * The book was printed about 1470 by an anonymous printer. + The passage in brackets is not in the Latin. 84 CHAMP FLEURY in Latin, but in their own vernacular, wherein most of their words end in A; as when they say: una charta, una bella dona, mya sorella, and a thousand other like things. For which reason, when they consort with | Italians, as at the fairs and banquets of Lyon, the Lyonnais ladies often courteously pronounce E like A, as when they say: Choma vous choma chat affeta, and many other like words, which I omit for brevity’s sake. On the contrary, the ladies of Paris very often pronounce A like E, as when they say: Mon mery eff a la porte de Perts, ou il se fasct peier, in- stead of saying: Mon mary eft a la porte de Paris, ou il se faict pacer. This manner of speaking comes from being accustomed to it in childhood. The English, too, have this vice of pronouncing A like E, at least when they speak in Latin, when they say: Domine, kenis intreuit kemerem, et comedit totes kernes qua erent in erke, lesus Merie, quid feciemus ; instead of saying: “Domine, canis intrauit cameram, et comedit totas carnes que erant in archa, lesus Maria, quid faciemus. This vice is excusable in them be- cause of the difficulty of their enunciation, which comes mostly from the depths of their throat, emerging in a narrow space between their teeth. Whoever would learn to pronounce A properly, let him divert himselfa little by reading the second book ofa work byanauthornamed Galeotus Martius Narniensis, entitled De Homine, at the place where he treats ‘De literis, and he will there find set forth very clearly and at length its true pronunciation where he says: A ex duabus lineis constat, qua suo contattuangulum con$tituunt acutum,spivitum ab vtraque parte palati emanentem indicant. Que vero per transuersum posita est, certam mensuram hiatus ostendit, quanto opus est in huius elementi enunciatione,* Vhat is to say; ‘A is formed of two lines which touch at the upper end and make an acute angle. And therefore it isa symbol of the voice coming forth be- tween the two parts of the palate [& upper concavity of the mouth ].+ The line which is placed cross-wise gives also the exact measure of the hiatus required in pronouncing this letter and vowel A.’ Thus the cross- bar of the A signifies that it should be pronounced with the mouth not too far open or too much closed. HE second A which [have prom- ised,and have drawn reversed, as ee De. RE IT ee Pre THE THIRD BOOK 85 you see it in this figure, is made in every respect and everywhere like the preceding one, except that the thick leg is in this case the first one, and in the other it is the last. Beware lest you conclude hastily that it is not reversed ; for I have known many a man who made it thus reversed for the preceding one, which is in the right position. This one is thus made to assist and give information to the goldsmiths and engravers, who, with their burin, graver, or other tool, engrave and cut the Attic letters reversed,—to the left, as they say,—so that they will be right when they are printed and presented in their proper & seemly aspect. I have purposely made it all white, & its square black,—just the oppo- site of the other,—to the end that you may not go astray between them. For, as Ihave said, I have seen and still see many who go astray. Before the printed letter is complete it is made twice reversed & twice right. It is reversed the first time in the steel punches, in which the letter is to the left; the matrices have the letter right; the letter of cast metal is, like the said punches, reversed. And, lastly, on the printed page, the letter appears in the right position, and in the aspect requisite for reading currently. I have forgotten to say that the thick leg of the A isas one of the units of its square in breadth, and the other leg a third of a unit. The cross-bar should be of two thirds of the breadth of the said thick leg, as you can see in the figures hereinbefore drawn & proportioned. Ursuant to what I have said, I have here designed and drawn an A wherein a Compassand a Rule are shown; or, if you would express it otherwise, say that [have madean A with a Compass and a Rule accord- ing to the secret teaching of the wise Ancients, who, in order to lead us to make the Attic letter properly, did fashion the first of their letters in the image and representation of the two unerring tools which are necessary and requisite for making well, not only the Attic letter, but also the Jettre de forme,and every other. Among all hand-tools the Compass is King & the Rule, Queen; that is to say, they are the two noblest & most powerful, below which all other tools and all well-balanced and fitly made things are equal, 86 CHAMP FLEURY 7 if Might be pardoned for singing the praises & the perfection of the said Compass and Rule, but I will leave it for some other more stu- dious than I am, to pass the time in so doing, In this place I shall say nothing more, except that no man will ever write well in Attic or any other letter, without Compass or without Rule; and that in all things that lack due proportion, which depends upon Compass and Rule, there is neither order nor good sense. Wherefore, then, O noble lords and devoted lovers of Learning, love the Compass & the Rule, divert- ing yourselves therewith & exercising yourselves in their use, in order to learn the reason and the truth of all excellent things. The Italians, who are supreme in Perspective, Painting, and Image-making, have always in their hands the Compass & the Rule; therefore they are the most perfect in all Christendom in working with the graver, in repre- senting nature, and in fitly portraying light and shade. They have in addition this charm, that they are cool & studious, moderate in drink- ing and eating & speaking heedlessly,and not inclined to go too much into company, by which means they learn better and more surely, and acquire reputation, which they regard as no small matter. We have not so many fine qualities in this sort as they have, & so we find no one on this side of the mountains to be compared to the late Messire Leo- nardo da Vinci, or Donatello, or Raphael of Urbino, or Michelangelo. Ido not mean to say that there are no great and good minds among us, but that there is lack of use of the Compass and the Rule. Il Return to my A, made with the compass and a rule, and beg those who read this little work not to think that I have thus excogitated it and drawn it to make a puzzle of it,and to make them sweat over it, but rather to counsel them with words of good sense, and to show them by touch and sight that the true Attic letter must necessarily, as I have said, be made with the rule and the compass. | Efore I go on to describe and draw the second letter in alphabetical order, which is B, I would say here, in conclusion, as I have already said, that A, if it be made according to art, must have its right leg as thick as the tenth part of its height, which is the breadth of one of the ten units contained between the eleven equidistant lines drawn in its square, and not as thick as the ninth part of its height, as Frere Lucas Paciolus of Bourg Sainct-Sepulchre says in the Divina proportione which THE THIRD BOOK 87 he says that he wrote. His own words in vulgar Italian are as follows: Questa letera À si caua del tondo, e del suo quadro. La gamba da man drita vol esser grossa de la noue parti luna de laltexa.* That is to say: “This letter A is partly rounded and partly square. The right leg must be as thick as one of nine parts of its height.’ He divides his square into only nine parts & gives no reason therefor; wherefore, under correction, it seems to me that he speaks ignorantly, going astray with the very first letter, & so with all the rest. I have been told that all that he did in this matter he took secretly from the late Messire Leonardo da Vinci, who was a great mathematician, painter, and image-maker. Sigismund Fante,t a nobleman of Ferrara, who, as I have said, strives to teach how to make divers sorts of letters, gives no reasons for the proportions of his said letters, especially for the Antique letter. He, too, has gone astray in the A, the E, the L, the Q, the S, the T, and the X, which are not made as they should be, either in dimensions or in shape. The keen eye of the learned & studious man will be able easily to perceive this in the book which the said Sigismund has printed, entitled Thesauro de Scrittori. Have divided my square into ten parts, which I call units, contained between eleven perpendicular and as many horizontal lines; and I gave my reasons for so doing in the Second Book, in several passages, when I was speaking of the nine Muses, & Apollo,who makes the tenth. Whether I have said well or no, I leave to good students and philoso- phers, both naturalist and poetic. I do not mean to place myself before the Italians, but I have said thereon what seems to me apt to incite alert minds to do better, if such is their pleasure and if they can. In addition to all that I have said, observe that for the rounded corners of the legs both at the top and at the base, and for the curved parts of the letters, I make a sign like this, +, to show where the fixed point of the com- pass must be placed to make the said corners and curves, as well within as outside the letters, as I have done in the first A in this Third Book, which has one at the top & four by the two feet. The aforementioned Paciolus says no word of this,nor does any other author whom I have ever seen or heard of. When hereafter I shall say, ‘This letter is made ‘with this or that number of centres,’ it will mean that it will be neces- sary so many times to use the compass to draw an interior or exterior circle coinciding with and joined to the straight or broken lines which it may haply be necessary to make. * See Note 26. + See Note 27. 88 | CHAMP: FLEURY HE letter B, here drawn, and composed of the Iand the O, is ten units in height and seven in breadth,with seven curved lines, some inside and some outside; & I have made seven little crosses, +,at which to place the foot of the compass, in order to draw the corresponding circles. The curve below should be broader by one unit than that above, and the dividing line should fall on the central horizontal line of the square, asin all the other letters that follow. Some ancient writers made the B with only six turns of the compass, as I have indicated in the black B, leaving the corner at the foot of the leg,within the larger divi- sion, without a curve and turn of the compass. Make that corner curved or not, as you please. Says Martianus Capella, in De Nuptijs Philologia, the third book: B, labris per spiritus impetum reclusis dicimus; that is to say: ‘ We pronounce (or should pronounce) the B with our lips partly open, by force of the expulsion of our breath.’ B in Greek is called Vita, and is pronounced like V consonant, as when they pronounce BaçBagoo, Varvaros,and Baba, Vava. Which pronunciation the Gascons retain in many words; as, when they mean to say, ‘lay beu de bon vin, they say, ‘Iay veu de von bin, In like manner, in Latin: ‘Non in solo pane bibit homo, for ‘vivit homo.’ And in thus speaking, the meaning in good French and good Latin is often perverted, as you see in the examples quoted —Iay veu for Lay beu and bibit for vivit. They do many other inconsistent things; as when they say ‘ung veau bieillard, for ‘ung beau vieillard,’ Instead of V consonant, they say B, and instead of B, V consonant. When M in Greek—that is to say, M—comes before Pi, —that is, before P;—the is pronounced as the Latins and we pro- nounce B. The Greeks write Aaunac & Ileunu, with Pi,—and say ‘Lam- Phin IRD BOOK 89 bas’ and ‘Pembo.’ The Gascons pronounce B like V consonant, not only in French, but in Latin: as when they say ‘Vona dies’ for ‘Bona dies, ‘Bibat Faustus’ for ‘Vivat Faustus, ‘Beni ad me et vives’ for ‘Veni ad me et bibes.’ Because they use V consonant so often in their words, it would seem that the Latins call them Vascones rather than Gascones, to make covert reference thereto. Have seen Germans, too, who used P for B when they spoke in French, as when, wishing to say, ‘Vela vne bien belle et bonne beste, they said,‘Vela vne pien pelle et ponne peste.’ This fault is of common occurrence with them. Pass on, and come to the fulfillment of my promise, wherein I said, at the end of the Second Book, that, to show that all our Attic let- ters are made from the I and the O, I would drawa B in such wise that those letters could be seen therein. The figure is that which comes next. Le this figure & drawing you can see how, as I have said many times heretofore, the I and the O, and chiefly the Lare the pattern, and the two letters from which all the other Attic lettersare made and fashioned. Inthis B, observe that the straight leg is an I, which I have left in white, to show it more plainly; and, likewise, the O in the lower division is white, and the rest of the B black; so that, if you will fill out the white Iand O in black, they will make the B com- plete and perfect, leaving white a little of the curve of the O, on the inner side, which touches the foot of the I. O make this figure, we must have eleven centres whereon to place the foot of the compass to draw the circumferences, of which cen- tres I have marked the places in their squares. In the black B which I drew above, there were only six, which were all that it needed; but in this one there are more, because of the said I and the O, which have their whole shapes & figures there, without injury to the said B, which * The first two verses are tak- en from Ovid's ‘Ars -Amo- ris, the third from Horace's Odes, 1v, 2, 50, and the lat two from (odrus Urseus. See notes on page 23, also Note22. In the line from Horace, the correct reading is ‘dicemus,’ and in the last line ‘Gaudi- amus for “Dicatis.’ 90 CHAMPIELEURTYT is made and fashioned from them. And because we now perceive the said Iand O to be the pattern for the other letters, therefore, asa token of joy,— Dicite Io Pæan, Et Io bis dicite Pæan. Non semel dicatis Io triumphe. To, Io, Dicatis Io, Io, dulces homeriaci.* While the glad song resounds, I will come to the letter C, and will draw it inthe following form. His letter C, drawn in its square,and in its due proportions, being of the height of the A & B, is made of a broken O, and is but nine units in breadth. The compass requires six centres to produce it in its entire circumference. Observe that it is composed of the six circles in- scribed by the compass and two straight lines. The upper line is verti- cal; the lower line is oblique, ending in an acute angle. Some make the C with a sharp point below, and to do this it is well to place one foot of the compass at the top of the seventh perpendicular lineand the other at the base of the interior curve,as you can see in the figure following. THE THIRD BOOK 91 HE C is a purely Latin letter; for the Greeks have, instead of C, Cappa (K) which Cappa (K) the Latins have stolen; and Priscian says that the aforesaid Latins hold it as a superfluous and redundant letter,when he remarks, when he is writing De literarum potestate,in his first book: K superuacua est, vt supra diximus, que quanuis scribatur nullam aliam vim habet quam C.* That is to say, ‘K is a superfluous letter, as we have said above, which, however it may be written, has no other force than C. The Greeks write Kanoo and Kuuvroo, the Latins Cacus and Cocytus. As Martianus Capella has it, C super molaribus lingua ex- trema appulsis exprimitur. ‘It is pronounced by pressing both sides of the tongue against the large teeth which we call molars.’ The ancient Latins very often wrote Q instead of C; as in Quur and Quoi, for Cur and Cuz. Sometimes, too, they wrote CE at the end of all cases of the demonstrative pronouns beginning with the aspirate; as in Hicce, Hacce, Hocce; and the poets often elided the final E, and wrote Hicc, Hacc, Hocc, as Virgil did when he wrote: — Hocc erat alma parens quod me per tela per hostes Eripis.t Hocc, in the verse quoted, is placed as if the O were long in quantity because of the two C’s coming after it. Priscian attests it in his twelfth book, wherein he treats De figura pronominum, when he says: ‘Ce, quoque solebant per omnes casus vetustissimi addere articularibus vel demonstratiuis Pronominibus, hoc e$t ab aspiratione incipientibus, vt hicce, hace, hocce, unde hoc quasi duabus consonantibus CC, sequentibus Poetae solent producere ; ut Hocc erat alma parens, quod me per tela per hostes Eripis. * 1, vu, 48. + Æneid',11, 664.T his form is found in certain inferior manuscripts, but was proba- bly never used by Virgil. In one MS. of the School of Tours ‘hoc’ is written with a second c over the other one. The original text bas ‘ignis’ for ‘hostes.’ *x11, VI,25. The verse of the ‘Andria’ quoted by Priscian 45 Wi, 1,1. 92 CHAMP FLEURY Et sic in antiquissimis codicibus inueniunt bis C scriptum, quomodo, vt apud Terentium in Andria,— Hoccine est credibile aut memorabile.’* HE Italians, according to their excellent custom, make C soft,and as if the syllable in which it stands were written with the aspirate H, both in Latin and in their vernacular. And this only before the two vowels E and I, & before the diphthong AE in Latin. They write, Ma done Felice a una cicatrice, and say, ‘Ma done Feliche a vna chicatriche, In Latin, they write Casar, Celius and Cicero,and pronounce, ‘Chæsar, . ‘Chelius, and ‘Chichero,” Which thing we do not follow either in our pronunciation of the French tongue, or of the Latin. But the Picards are much addicted to it in many words of their dialect. As when the mean to say Cela and Cecy, they say, ‘Chela’ and ‘Chechy,’ as if there were in the spelling an aspirate H before the vowel E and before IL Y ]. On the contrary, where the true Frenchman both writes & pronounces the aspirate before A and O, as in ‘Chanoine’ & ‘Chose,’ the Picard says ‘Canon’ and ‘Cose,’ The Frenchman says ‘vng Chien,’ ‘vng Chat, and ‘vne Mouche, and the Picard, ‘vng Quien,’ ‘vng Cat, & ‘vne Mouque.’ The Picard pronounces C before V LU ] as we do, in saying, ‘Cuydez vous que ie soye Crapot deau?’ without giving the sound of the as- pirate. But he says,‘De chu monde, both writing and pronouncing the aspirate H before the V. In Latin he pronounces the C better than we, for he makes it thick, &as if aspirated; but he does not write it with the aspirate. He says ‘Amiche, and ‘Sochie, and ‘Chichero erat pater elo- " quentiz;’ but he writes ‘Amice,’ ‘Socie,’ ‘Cicero erat pater eloquentiz.’ Alone among all the people of France the Picard pronounces the C very well. And the better to prove it, and because of the quaintness of the language and the pronun- ciation, and the divine talent of the Picard writer & poet who made it, I will here quote & set down an epitaph in the Picard tongue, wherein methinks you will find a certain grace, EME URIRDYBOOK 93 An ancient Epitaph in the Picard tongue, which may be seen, as I have been told, in the great cemetery of Saint Denis in the noble city of Amiens. Soubz moy pierre Qui apres Qui porissent Chi gist Pierre Trespassa Vers norissent De Machy Et passa Etattendent Quon a chi De chu monde Quilz reprendent Mort boute Dieu la munde. Soubz chez lames Se bonte Tant vesquirent Corps et ames Dieu luy sache Quilz acquirent Pour aller Veoir en fache Vnze enfans, Et voler Sespousee Bruns, blondz, blancs. Es saincts chieux Est posee _ Or sont morts Che doint Dieux. Chi empres Tous ches corps Amen. I have written the aspirate H in the words of this Epitaph, to show how the Picard pronounces C soft before E and I, as the Italians do. Alone among the Mutes has this quality, that it makes the vowel which precedes it in a Latin syllable long in metrical quantity: as in hoc, hac, sic, and hic when it is an adverb; for, when it is a pronoun, it may be short, as at the end of the sixth book of the Æwid of Virgil, where he wrote :— Hic vir hic est, tibi quem promitti sæpius audis. Before O, in pronouncing French, is sometimes hard, as in Coquin, Coquard, Coq, Coquillard ; & sometimes soft, as in Garcon, Macon, Facon, Francois, and other like words. Ome persons make the C as if it were an O cut through the curve on the right, without spreading it; but, as I have seen this letter in Rome, in very old manuscripts, I open it out , below, giving it a graceful tail, which imparts charm and spirit. 94 CHAMP FLEURY HE letter D, here drawn, and formed of the I and the O, has com- monly five centres, but according to some ancient writers only four, because they make a right angle at the foot of the leg on the inner side, as we see in the black letter. D is of equal height and breadth, touch- ing with its extremities the four outer lines of its square. I say again that it is formed of the I and the O, & I might draw it so; but I leave it for those to practise who may choose to divert themselves therewith. I have shown it above in writing of the B, to open the path to those who may wish to follow. It will suffice hereafter when I say that this letter or that letter is formed of the I and O together, or of the I alone, or of the O alone. 3 2 The Latins made it as they pleased, as they did their C. In Greek it is triangular, and is called Delta. The Greeks held this said Delta in such high esteem that they made tt triangular in memory of the beauty of the island—also triangular—which the Nile, the miracle-working river of Egypt, makes at the place where Memphis lies; & of the shape of Sicily, which is called by the Greeks Triquetra, that is to say, having three mountains which form three corners & angles. And, in like man- ner, because of the division of the World, which was divided by very ancient writers into three parts, Asia, Africa, and Europe. They held it, Isay, in such great veneration that they placed it among the celestial symbols and called it Deltoton,as Hyginus clearly proves in his poem Astronomia, when he says: “Deltoton est sidus velut litera graca in trian- gulo posita. Itaque sic appellatur Mercurius supra caput Arietis statuisse exitimatur. Ideo vt obscuritas-Arietis huius splendore quo loco esset si gnifi- ae en eS a a Dr Ube PIRES BOOK 95 caretur, et louis nomine, grace Mic, primam literam deformaret. Nonnulli ZÆgypti positionem, Alii qua Nilus terminaret. Æthiopiam esse, et Ægyp- tum dixerunt. Alii Siciliam figuratam putauerunt.Alij quod Orbem terra- rum superiores trifariam diuiserunt, tres angulos esse conSitutos dixerunt.* They made it triangular, in order to denote covertly that its shape is one of the noblest and most notable in geometry and commensura- tion, and one which is most essential for designing & drawing letters. The Latins made it straight in front, like an I, & rounded at the back, like an O, to show that it must be pronounced by striking the tongue against the front teeth; and this Martianus Capella attests when he says: D appulsu lingua circa superiores dentes innascitur. In Rome, at the Sapienza, that is, at the public school,and in many other places in Italy, I have heard many learned men pronounce it as if it had an E written after it: when they wished to say Quid, Quod, Ali- quid, they pronounced them Quide, Quode, Aliquide. And this means that we should pronounce it with the impetus of our tongue striking against our front teeth. They pronounced T also as if it had an Ein its train, saying Capute, Sincipute, for Caput and Sinciput ; Amauite,Docuite, for Amauitand Docuit; & in like manner many another similar word. I would that we were as diligent in accustoming our children to pro- nounce rightly as the Italians are; that would give us great joy & hon- our. The ancient Latins wrote V for E before ND, in the gerunds and participles of the third conjugation: they said Scribundis and Legundis ~ for Scribendis and Legendis. Terence says: In scribundis fabulis operam abutitur.t Priscian attests tt in his first book, when he says: Apud antiquissimos quoties ND sequuntur in his qua a Tertia Coniugatione nascuntur, loco E,V, scrip- tum inuenimus: vt faciundum, le- gundum, dicundum, vertun- dum, pro faciendum, legendum, dicen- dum, verten- dum. t HAS VI 3%, * Caius Julius Hyginus (A.D. 4), _Affronomia, 11,19. + ‘Andria,’ Prologue, 5. The original bas : ‘In prolo- gis scribundis, etc.—‘In the writing of prologues he uses every effort.’ * The text has ‘ pressiore’— probably a misprint. 96 CHAMP FLEURY | HE letter E, here drawn, formed from the I alone, & from which the F and the L can be made, is the second vowel in Greek & Latin alphabetical order, and is of the same shape and proportions both in Greek and in Latin. In lettre de forme, or bastarde, it must be made other- wise. The Latins borrowed it from the Greeks, as they did almost all the other letters. It is seven units and a half in breadth,and must have seven centres whereon to set the foot of the compass, as I have indicated them, in order to be made in its entirety. Some ancient writers make it without a curve and witha right angle on the inner side, below, as I have drawn it in the black E, beside the other, Martianus Capella says: E spiritus facit lingua paululum pressione.* ‘B, he says, ‘is pronounced by holding the tongue free between the palate & the upper concavity and the back of the mouth, causing the voice to come forth softly.’ I have written above how the Lyonnais women often pronounce A for E; also, the Normans E for Oy, & have given examples thereof. I find, further, that the Picard says V [U] for E, and pronounces it with the aspi- rate, saying ‘Chu garchon’ for ‘Ce garcon’ The Lorrainers, & the Scots, when speaking French,—or, at least, thinking that they are speaking it, —almost always omit to pronounce the E when it isat the end of words. The Lorrainers say : ‘Sus lherbet,’ ‘De ma muset, ‘Vne chansonet,’ ‘Ay dict mon comper,’ ‘Ma comer ioliet, and ‘Frisquet, quen dictes vous?” instead of saying: ‘Sus lherbete,’ ‘De ma musete, “Vne chansonnete, ‘Ay dict mon compere, ‘Ma comere ioliete, and ‘Frisquete, quen dictes vous?’ Also, if they wish to say ‘Simone,’ they pronounce it ‘Simon’; ‘Lione,’ ‘Lion’; ‘Bone,’ ‘Bon’; which is wrong in French, according to THE THIRD BOOK 97 the Latin rule, which requires that the masculine gender be neither written nor spoken for the feminine, else one would be guilty of the vice of barbarism, which is not permissible in correct language. The Scots say: ‘Mon per et ma mer, et mes deux seurs Robin et Caterin mont escript vng pair de letr,’ instead of saying : ‘Mon pere et ma mere et mes deux seurs Robine et Caterine mont escript vne paire de letres.’ But such an error is to be forgiven them, because of their ignorance of the French language, and the difficulty of their wonted pronunciation in their mother-tongue. There may be many such vicious pronuncia- tions, which I leave to those more learned than I, to set them down in writing and to be well remembered; & I come to the Latins, who said in ancient times—not at all like the Picard—E for V [U], when they said and wrote Auger and - Augeratus, for-Augur & Auguratus. Priscian is a good witness to this in his first book, in the chapter “De Jéterarum commutatione, when he says: In Etransit V vt Pondus, Ponderis; Deierat, Peierat, pro Deiurat, Peiurat; Labrum, Labellum ; Sacrum, Sacellum. Anti- qui Auger, et Augeratus, pro_Augur et Auguratus dicebant.* Has three different sounds in French pronunciation and rhyme, E as the author of the ‘Book of the Game of Chess has shown very hap- pily in the chapter wherein he treats of the quality of rhymes, when he says what follows: ‘We must understand that this vowel called E can vary its sound, or be pronounced, in three ways, forasmuch as we have a single figure, or a single letter, which offers us all these three ways. The first is when we give it its proper sound—perfect, principal and premier, as we commonly call it; as when we say beaulte, or loyaulre. The second way is when, in pronouncing it, we draw it out beyond its proper sound aforesaid; just as when we say. Matinee or Robine, & other like words. And in these two cases the said vowel causes the number and measure of the metre to change, because the sound is in itself full and perfect, & thus it holdsand occupies the place of an entire syllable. And the third way is when, in pronouncing the said vowel, it does not _ have the vowel sound so plainly, and, as it were, loses its sound, as when we say, Nature, Creature, Villennie, or Felonnie, and so in many different forms. And in this case the said vowel, thus pronounced, does not cause the number of the preceding syllables to change, nor the measure. And sometimes all three of these ways of presenting the E are shown in a single word, just as if we should say: ‘Le ciel est bien estelle;? ‘Cest fin _oresmere; and many other like words.t * 1, VI, 36. + This is all very far from clear—to the translator, at least; it might have beeneluci- dated somewhat, if Tory had invented a little earlier the use of accents to indicate the “manières of pronouncing ‘the said vowels’, and if some ofthe words that he or, inthis case, his authority uses had not vanished from the language. 98 CHAMP FLEURY | EF When properly designed & written, contains within itself F & L. If you would make an F from the E,take away the horizontal stroke below, and you will have the F all made. If you would make an L, take from the E the two upper strokes, and the L will be left as it should be, in its natural likeness. You will be able to learn this by practising it, & by making use of the compass and the rule, as is required of those who love useful knowledge. However, to make your labour easier, I have made a drawing of them here, to the end that you may be the better able to understand my words to be true, as I have written them down. When Virgil says in his Priapeia :-— € O, si iungas, temonemque insuper addas, Qui medium D, vult scindere pictus erit,# he does not mean, according to his conceit, and according to his words and purpose, that E should be made from the I, as I have said & taught, but something very different, as I well know; and yet I shall forbear to say what it is, because the thing intended is obscene—letting it be known to those who know it, & to be imagined or contemned by those who do not care to knowit. I have chosen to say a word thereon, in pass- ing, because it seems that Virgil means to teach howto make and write the E and the D, when he says, € O 54 éwngas, but does not do it; but do not you pause upon it. Bserve in passing that the greater number of French words con- tain the vowel E much more often than any other vowel or letter, as is made plain in writing or reading books in the French language. THE THIRD BOOK 99 With the aspirate H before it, may bea sign & interjection of some emotion, & this as well in Latin as in French. Priscian is a witness thereof for the Latin, when he says in treating De Interiectione at the end of his fifth* book: Inter has ponunt etiam sonituum illiteratorum imi- tationes ; Vt risus, Haha, hehe, et Phi, Ha, et hoe, et hau. For examples in French, I refer the zealous student to Master Pierre Patelin46 and other good French authors. ire a ER ba a4 ER a de 5 F1 Role SS ea pala FE be mea an ore Es Ey Beas de HE letter F, here drawn, made from the I and derived from the E, is exactly six units in breadth, & must have six centres in order to be made properly,as I have indicated by marking them in the places where they should be. I have written justly in several passages of this book that every Attic letter should be wider at the top than at the bot- tom};+ but some one may say that the F,P,T,V, & Ypsilon contradict my conclusion. To which I reply that my statements are well founded, it being borne in mind & understood that these said letters F,P,T,V, and Y are not in themselves primary letters, but are taken from other letters,as F from E, P from B,T from the aspirate H,V from the Greek letter Lambda inverted, & Y from X, as you will see if it be your pleas- ure to try your hand at them. F is called the Holic Digamma in the first book of Priscian,t in many places, because it is made from two Gammas, a Greek letter, placed one above the other, thus:F. Digamma means two Gammas, or twice Gamma. Gamma in Greek is the letter for & in the stead of which we & the Latins use the letter G; but there *<_An error for fifteenth. The reference is XV, VII, 41. T° Plus large enchef qu'en pied.’ The context makes it clear that he has said here just the oppo- site of what he meant to say. t 1, Iv, 20. * Priscian, 1,1V, 21.47 100 CHAMP FLEURY is a difference in the shape of the two letters; for the Gamma is made like an L with the lower arm at the top, thus: T. The G is made quite otherwise, & therefore it is purely a Latin letter. So, then,when a right Gamma is placed on another Gamma,we shall have our letter F, which is, as I have said, called by Priscian & other good authors, Digamma. Furthermore, it is called the Æolic Digamma, because the Æolians, who were among the most eminent nations of Greece, had it in fre- quent use, even the poets, as Priscian proves in his said first book, when he quotes the poet Alcman as saying: Kai xepa nugte da tov; and when he quotes the epigram that he sawand read in the dry valley near Con- stantinople, the which dry valley he calls in Greek Xegodogov. In the epitaph were the words: OgvaF ov Anuo E wv cal a wa Fiuv.* I find that the very ancient Latins often wrote F instead of V consonant; as in writing Folfo and Fifo, for Volvo and Vivo. As you can see in the ancient epitaph found at Lyons, in a vineyard. The said epitaph, as I have been told, is as follows: — ALIARTOS FY GELIDVS OPT Vii - INSVLANVS QVOI MAXVMA VIRTVS. HAIC LABOR BACCHICGQR QVAE CASTOR APVD ME CYMNERTS IN TENEBRIS CONDITA VTAGE CAECVTIEN TES OMOEI- NOSTRATEIS PRAITEREVNT. AGEDVM Sax LABORE FOUPIT ESRB ir COMMVNIS ESTMEREMRINMSNEN DEXTRO. HERCVLE IVPPLEERSS SENISSIMI CEREBRVM EFFODIE Iie NIHIL SACRVM, CVLMOS EXO MT eles NAVCIFACIENDOS OVOM ARVN SINT ET TRICAE, AT AEDEPOE KOINA OŒIAQN HANTA. ANNO MELLE TN Coe thr TR PAIN CS NEOMENIIS ROMANIS.» Herein there is the word Folfite, when it is said: —Agedum saxa labore folfite herculeo. Many other examples may be seen in the book of Epi- taphs of Ancient Rome, which I saw printed when I was in Rome. THE THIRD BOOK 101 és Germans have the habit of pronouncing, and not of writing, F for V consonant, at least when they speak in Latin. If they would say, Ego bibi vinum vetus, they pronounce it, Exo bibi finum fetus; and this manner of pronunciation is peculiar to them, and vulgar, for the Latins,whom they ought to follow, do not pronounce it thus. It would seem that the Germans hold to this pronunciation because Priscian has written in his first book: Habet autem hac F litera hunc sonum quem nunc habet V loco consonantis posita.* Artianus Capella shows us how to pronounce F properly when he says: F dentes labrum inferius deprimentes lingua palatoque dulce- scit. ‘EF, he says, ‘is uttered softly with the tongue touching the palate, and the teeth pressing slightly on the lower lip.’ HE letter G here drawn, & made from the O & the I truncated, is nine & a half units in breadth, & requires for its fashioning eight turns of the compass, for which reason I have marked eight centres in their proper places. Master Simon Hayeneufve,whoiscommonly called Master Simon du Mans,t makes at the foot of the short leg of the Ga small half-circle, which gives it a very graceful aspect; but I have seen it in the Galleries of Pope Julius the Second, between the palace of St. Peter and the Belvedere, cut straight up & down;t make it, therefore, as you please. This Master Simon ts the greatest and most excellent craftsman in ancient architecture now living, that I know. He isa man of the church and of goodly life, gracious, and ready to serve one and * 1, III, 12. 48 t See Note 29. t ‘Coupe a perpendicule’ ; that is,as Shown in the drawings, on the inner side. * I, VII, 39. 102 CHAMP FLEURY all in designs & portraits in true antique style, which he makes so well that, if Vitruvius and Leon Baptiste Albert were living, they would award him the palm over all those on this side of the mountains. in Greek, is called Gamma; but, as I have said before, this Gam- ma is different in shape; for it is made as if an L were turned in such wise that what is at the bottom would be at the top, thus: F. G & Gamma have the same value in a syllable, except that Gamma, when placed before another Gamma, or before Chi (X), or before Cappa (K), or before =, is pronounced Gui, that is to say, like N. Example, Ayyedoo, Angelus ; Aynuea, Ancora; Ayxiouc, Anchises; Xoryé, Sphinx. And the reason for this Greek pronunciation is that Gui (N) is not written in Greek before ',K,X, =. The ancient Latins wrote, after the Greek manner, -Aggelus, Diphthoggus, using G for N, but pronounced Angelus & Diphthongus ; now the Latins and we write N before G,and say, as we write, Angelus and “Diphthongus. Priscian is a witness to this said ancient pronunciation in his first book, wherein he treats De lire- rarum commutatione, when he says: Et quidam tamen vetustissimé authores Romanorum, euphonia causa, G pro N scribebant ; vt Agchises, Agceps, Aggulus, Ag gens; quod ostendit Varro primo de Origine Lingua Latina his verbis ; Aggulus, Ag gens, Agguilla, Ig gerunt.* G in our language, as in Latin, sometimes requires a V LU] after it, sometimes not: — 4uguil- la, anguille; Imaginari and imaginer; corriger ; conge, plonge, abrege, rogue morgue, rigueur, langueur, regard, guisarmes, guise, and other like words, are examples of it. I find that when V LU] is interposed between G and Y, the V and Y are divided into two syllables, and when, instead of Y,there isan I, then G,V, and I make but one syllable. As when we say, ‘Monseigneur de Guyse vit a sa bonne guise.’ The pronunciation of G, says Martianus Capella, eff spiritus cum palato. It is pronounced by the voice issuing from the upper concavity of the mouth. The Ger- mans pronounce it before À, before O, & before V LU] very differently from the Italians and ourselves, for they give it the sound of I conso- nant, as, if they wished to say, Ego gaudeo Gabrielem gobiones Gandaui comparasse, they would pronounce it thus: Eto zaudeo Labrielem iobiones Landau comparasse, which pronunciation seems to me very strange be- cause of the great change that takes place, If they wished to say,Gaude- amus omnes in Domino; Nodus gordius erat insolubilis; and Gutturnium est vas guttatim ftilans;—they would say: laudeamus. . . Iordius. . . Iuttur- nium,and Iuttatim, which would seem to be words far removed from LE ee EER DABOOK 103 true Latinity. Before E & before I, they pronounce it properly, saying: Germinauit radix lesse; Gigis anulus erat fatalis. But, as I have said, be- fore A, O, and V, they do not pronounce it Latinistically enough. G Has a close affinity with C—so close that very often it is pro- nounced where C is written; as we see in the words Creus and Caius, which are written with C and pronounced by G. Other words there are wherein G is written & pronounced instead of C,as Quadrin- genta and Quingenta, for Quadrincenta and Quincenta. The affinity of G with C and of C with G is something too well observed in Bourges, where I was born, for there are those in that place who pronounce Ignem, Lignum, and other like words as if instead of G there were a C—saying Icnem & Licnum; which words should not be so pronounced according to the Latin; for the Italians make the G very soft when it is between I and N. The Picards, contrary to the Germans, who pronounce I con- sonant for G, pronounce G instead of I consonant in some words; as, instead of saying, ‘Ma iambe sest rompue en nostre iardin, et y ay perdu mon chapeau iaulne,’ they say :‘Me gambe sest rompue en noz gardin, et y ay perdu men capiau gaulne.’ They say many other things, which I forbear to write for brevity’s sake. Esters & young lovers,who pass the time inventing devices or in appro- | reer themas if they had invented them, make of this letter Gand an A a fanciful device, making the A smallerthan the G & putting it with- in the G; then say that this means, ‘ay grant appetit’ LI have a great ap- petite |; wherein neither spelling nor pronunciation is followed at all. But I pardon them & leave them to make merry in their young loves. The said large G and small A are disposed as in this drawing. HEY make many another of di- vers letters,as: K.V.K. A.B.,andsoon. L.XX. L. X.NA.L. fur P. L. sen alla. G sus L, mon cueur a V1. Quaten dexvous, natendez plus. Elle est tornee a tort, Vng asne y mord droit. In like manner, ‘Paix vng I vert selle, which is made of a paix,a pee L ac a saddle. And a thousand others, which I pass over. * Cela est appelle ung Resbuz, au quel on a resue, et fait on ” resuerles autres.’ The play up- on words can hardly be repro- duced in translation. 1 ‘Qui se font et pronuncent en Images et vocables fran- cots.’ t Picard for Jay. 104 CHAMP FLEURY N such foolish trifles right orthography and true pronunciation are very often unregarded, and are the cause of an abuse which often impedes good minds in writing as they ought. Mong all those who ever conceived or made ciphers of letters, he who first made his of an S was the most proficient in French—at least, if he intended the application, and I be- lieve that he did, inasmuch as he did not make it of an Attic S, ora Greek, but of a French let- ter, called Jettre de forme, in which the S is thick, and aptly used in the signification of largesse, in the following shape. Evices which are not made by significant letters are made of pic- tures which indicate the conceit of the author, and these are called rebuses, whereon one has meditated and caused others to medi- tate.* Such pictures are either men, or women, beasts, birds, fishes, or other things, living or not, whereof I deem a rebus in four verses in French to be very well conceived, for all the words in the four verses aforesaid are represented in divers pictures, & we read, in substance, | this: — On me tient fol, faisant folle folye. Ainsi ie vis, puis ainsi ie folye. Fol entre folz, coquard entre mains vis, On me maintient, car follement ie vis. yee the rebus of the three dead men and three living is very well conceived. I find that there are Latin words which are drawn and to be read in pictures and in French words,} as Habe mortem pre oculis, and Non habebat mortem ante oculos; so, too, Cras habebo te. | know one in Greek that is very good, and of letters only; but they stand for com- mon Italian words; they are M.®.A.M.A, which means in Italian: 24 fidelta mi lauda. In French the meaning is clear, but the French words do not agree with the letters nor with the Italian, for we say: Ma fide- lite me loue. That one of the diamond is good; and that in which the meaning 1s: Lay mis mon eat au derriere, is not bad, since it is repre- sented by a Gayt and a Mymonet; that is to say, translated from Picard into French: dun Singe qui taste de sa main a son derriere. Also that which a a. Ve a ee RO ee SRE ee ee, ee ee Ee THE THIRD BOOK 105 says, A Besanson sept femmes a, is very ingenious, of which I forbear in this place to give the meaning. Could quote many others and thereof make a whole book ; but I will pass on now, and make room for the jesters and young lovers, who gladly amuse themselves with such dainty trifles, which, be it said, do not come into their minds without inspiration from above. Whereof theancient philosophers often held discourse & the poets sang,among whom Ovid, at the beginning of the sixth book of his Fasti, said for them and for the poets: — Est Deus in nobis, agitante calescimis illo, Impetus hic sacræ semina mentis habet.* That is to say, ‘We poets and fantastics have within ourselves a divine inspiration, which excites us to merry conceits, and to execute them gracefully.’ HIS manner of conception, that is, of writing done by pictures, was originally invented by the Egyptians, who had all their cere- monies written down in this fashion, to the end that the common herd & the ignorant should not be able to understand or easily to learn their secrets & mysteries. [hese writings were called in Greek Hieroglyphica, that is to say, sacra scripta, sacred writings, which no one could under- stand without being a great philosopher, and one who could grasp the meaning and qualities of natural things. When they wished to repre- sent the year, they drew in portraiture or painting a dragon gnawing his tail; to represent liberality, they made the right hand open, and for niggardliness the hand closed. They represented a thousand other like excellent things by pictures, as you can read & learn in the twenty-fifth chapter of the ancient lessons of Cælius Rhodiginust and more fully in Orus Apollo, 5° who has set them down in a volume which you can find in Greek, if you will, and in Latin also, and which I have translated into French, and made a present thereof toa noble lord & good friend of mine. Nasmuch as I have descended to the subject of Devices, Rebuses, & Hieroglyphic writings, I propose here to set forth my own device and mark, because I find many persons desiring to understand it. Irst, there is an antique jar, which is broken, and through which is thrust a drill.t This broken jar (pot cassé) signifies our body, which is an earthen jar. The drill signifies Fate, which pierces and passes * Fasti, Vi, 5. The true text is ‘calescimus.’ } Lectionum Antiquarum, Es: 1‘ Toret.’ Manifes#ly a play upon the author's name. * ‘Nothing too much.’ The commoner Latin version is ‘ne : quid nimis.’ The Greek epi- gramwas generally attributed to others of the Seven Sages than Pittacus namely, Chilo and Solon. + That is, “Make haste slowly.’ Lata ze 106 CHAMP:*PEEURY through the weak and the strong, Below this broken jar there isa book, closed by three chains and padlocks,which signifies that, after our body is broken by death, its life is closed by the three goddesses, the Fates. The book is so fast closed that that man does not live who isable to see anything therein, unless he knows the secret of the padlocks, & chiefly of the round padlock, which is locked and marked with letters. So that, after the book of our life is closed, there is no man who can open an part thereof, except him who knows its secrets. And He is God, who alone knows, both before and after our death, what has been, what is and what shall be. The branches and the flowers in the jar signify the virtues that our body may have had in itself during its life. The sun- beams above and beside the drill & the jar signify the inspiration that God gives us by enuring us to virtues and good deeds. Near the said broken jar there is written NON PLVS, two monosyllabic words, alike in French & in Latin, which mean what Pittacus said long years ago in his Greek: Mndev ayav, Néhil nimis,* let us not say or do any- thing beyond measure or reason, except in extreme need, aduersus quam nec Dij quidem pugnant; but let us say and do SIC VT VEL VT, that is to say,as we ought, or as well as we can. If we would fain do well, God will help us; and therefore I have written at the top: MENTI BONAE DEVS OCCVRRIT + that is to say, God goes forth to meet a well-disposed mind, and assists it.>* Ldus the Roman, printer at Venice, had his hieroglyphic mark, but he did not invent it, forasmuch as he borrowed it from the device of Augustus Cæsar, which was in Greek, Zrevde Beadewo, which is to say in Latin, Festina lente, or again, in a single Latin word, Matura; and in French, Haste toy a ton aise.+ This mark consisted of a ship’s anchor and around it a dolphin. The anchor signified slowness, and the dolphin haste, as who should say that a man must be moderate in affairs, in such wise that he be not in too great haste, nor too long or slow. Virgil gives us covert testimony that the same Augustus Casar had the anchor and dolphin in his device when, to remind him thereof, he says in the first book of his Aineid: Maturate fugam, regique hac di- cite vestro.t Let him who would see clearly into this matter, divert him- self by reading the first proverb of the second Chiliad of Erasmus; he will find it there, methinks, in abundance. My aforementioned Device and Mark is as follows: DHE CHIRD) BOOK MENTI BONAE PEVocOCeV RR UT, SIC, VT. VEL, VT. NON PLVS. UCH is my chosen Device & Mark as have meditated and conceived it, considering its moral significance, to give some useful admonition to the printers and booksellers of this country, to employ themselves in goodly conceptions, & in executing them agreeably, to show that their intelligence has not always been useless, but devoted to serving the public weal by working & living up- right- ly. 107 * The original text has 1— plainly a misprint. +1, 101, 8. In recent texts of Priscian, this passage reads quite differently. 108 CHAMP. FLEURY. HE figure here designed & drawn, of an H* with eight centres, is ten units square—that is to say,as broad as it is high. The Gram- marians—and especially Priscian in his first book,wherein he treats De literarum potestate—say that it is not a letter, but the sign and symbol — to show when some vowel, or one of the four consonants C, P, R,T, should be pronounced thickly and in a full voice from the depths of the stomach. Priscian says: H, autem aspirationis eS nota, et nihil aliud habet litera, nisi figuram, et quod in vsu scribitur inter alias literas.t That is to say, ‘H is the symbol of the breathing, and has nothing else per- taining to a letter save the figure of one and [the fact] that by custom it is written among the other letters.’ Has so little effect upon the vowels that, if it be taken away, the sound will not be lessened; but it is not so with the four conso- nants, C,P,R,T. Examples of the vowels: Erennius, Oratius. Example of the consonants: Cremes for Chremes. And for this reason, as Priscian says in the passage quoted, the Greeks had separate characters for these said consonants when aspirated: for Th, they had ©; for Ph, ®; for Cd, X. The Rho is not changed in shape, but it takes a half-cross above it in capitals, and a curved line in small letters, which stands for the mark of breathing, as one can plainly see in the printings of the late excellent printer Aldus, whom God assoil. Ulus Gellius in the third chapter of the Second Book of his Nues Attica, says that H was inserted by the ancient writers in certain THE THIRD BOOK 109 words to give thema firmer and stronger sound,when he says: H Jitera, siue tllam spiritum magis quam literam dici oportet, inserebant eam veteres nostra plerisque vocibus verborum firmandis roborandisque, vt sonus earum esset Viridior vegetiorque. Atque id videntur fecisse Studio et exemplo lingua Attica. Satis notum est Attiquos xOuv uçov. Multa itidem alia citra morem gentium Gracia caterarum inspirantis prima litera dixisse, sic lachrymas, sic spechulum, sic ahenum, sic vehemens, sic inchoare, sic helluari, sic halluci- navi, sic honera, sic honustum dixerunt. In his verbis omnibus litera seu spiritus istius nulla ratio visa est, nisi ut firmitas et vigor vocis quasi quibusdam neruis additis intenderetur.* That is to say:“Uhe letter H—or if it be more fitting to say so, the vocal breath—was inserted in many words by the ancient Romans to fortify and strengthen them, to the end that their sound should be firmer and lustier. These same ancients did this in imitation of the Athenians, in whose speech 1x6, Hpov and many other like words were aspirated, contrary to the custom of the other nations of Greece. Thus were aspirated lachryma, spechulum, ahenum, vehemens, inchoare, ballucinari, honera,and honustum. In all these words,there seems to be no reason for the breathing, unless it be to give them firmnessand strength, as if they were reinforced by the nerves.’ HE Romans represented the symbol of breathing in the exact form and shape of a Greek vowel called Ita—H. The Greeks made of their said vowel Ia two silent symbols like accents—to show that a vowel beginning a word, and the consonant Rho, also when beginning a word or doubled in the making of a noun or a verb, should be aspi- rated, or not. For by cutting the said vowel Ita through the middle into two perpendicular parts, the first part serves to show that the vowel, or the said consonant R/o, isaspirated, and the other part to show that the said vowel, or Rho, is not aspirated. The Iza is divided thus, FH, and its parts are placed over capital letters, as I have said, over vowels or Rho at the beginning of a word, and over Rho when it is doubled by joining two words or otherwise. HE resemblance of this Latin aspirate and the Greek vowel Iza is the reason why so many ignorant moderns, ignorant of the Greek language, have erred, & err every day, in the spelling—or in the proper , writing—of those two supreme and precious names, IESVS and CHRISTVS. For when writing them as abbreviations, they write IHESVS,} with a Latin breathing, and XPX, with a Latin X and P; * Nodtes Attica, 11, 11, ad init. The original has ‘H. litteram’ for ‘H. litera,’ and ‘sepulcrum’ for ‘spechulum.’ + He means, evidently, 1.H.S.5” 110 CÉLANIPERIE EEE whereas, in Greek, IH= should be written with the vowel Ita, H, and XP with Chi and Rho. The error is due, as I have said, to the fact that Ita and the Latin aspirate are represented by the same figure, and that Chi and Rhoalso resemble the Latin X and P. For which reason I here beseech all well-purposed minds from this time on, when they would write the most holy & glorious name & surname of our Saviour, if they would write it in Latin, to hold to this spelling, IESVS, CHRIST VS without using therein any letters which are not required. And if they would abbreviate them, let them write them rather in Greek than otherwise, and this should be done thus: IHX, XP, wherein none other than purely Greek letters are required. The Greek vowel Iza, H, when it is changed into Latin, becomes E, long in quantity, as in that glorious name IHZOYE, IESVS, and a thousand other like words. Wherefore, we must write IESVS without any breathing, & CHRISTVS without X and without P. As for the Greek, from which the Latin is derived, there is none. HZ Xa le you would know more fully about the orthography of these two [ex names, Jesus and Christus, and see the true essence of all that I have written thereon, bestir yourself to read little treatise which Aldus has printed and entitled De Potestate Literarum Gracarum, in the chapter Quemadmodum Litera ac Diphthongi Graca in Latinum transfe- rantur* You will beable there to satisfy your wish, if it be your pleasure so to employ yourself. * Inthe treatise called ‘Gram- maticis Grace Isagoga,’ print- ed at the end of the 1507 edition of the ‘Grammatica.’ dise Latin aspirate is written by the Germans as a simple letter symbol, but they pronounce it twice over—more than the Latins and Italians do. For, if they intended to say: Heus heri habui herum hos- pitem, they would say, as if there were a double aspirate: Hheus bheri hhabui bherum bhospitem. And I marvel that they do not write it so, even as they write VV,,t of which they make use very often in words of their mother-tongue. They recall to my mind a man of long ago named Artus, who had the aspirate so ready to his hand and so familiar, that } See NE. D. under W. TRE HIR De BOOK 111 he pronounced it where it was not proper to be pronounced. Where- fore that noble poet Catullus made this epigram against him. Chommoda dicebat, si quando commoda vellet Dicere, et hinsidias Arius insidias. Et tamen mirifice sperabat se esse locutum, Cum quantum poterat dixerat hinsidias. Credo sic mater, si liber auunculus eius. Sic maternus auus dixerat, atque auta, Hoc misso in Syriam requierant omnibus aures, Audibant eadem hæc leniter et leuiter. Nec sibi post illa metuebant talia verba, Cum subito affertur nuncius horribilis. Jonios fluctus postquam illuc Arius isset, Iam non Ionios esse, sed hionios.* HIS Arius, then, said chommoda, hinsidias, and hionios, with the aspirate; and he should not have done so. The said Germans do it from the habit they have of talking from the depth of their lungs and stomach. The Picards, as I have said before, pronounce it very well, with the C and without it. And I know no people in France whose tongues are more apt and expert in the proper pronunciation of Greek, Latin, and French, than the Picards. HIS aspirate is very ill pronounced by I know not what village grammarians in the two interjections, Ab & Vazh, which they pro- nounce Ache & Vache,as if the aspirate were, or ought to be, terminated by E; which cannot be, for the aspirate is neither vowel nor consonant, nor muté, nor liquid—consequently, no letter at all. So that it must be pronounced without any sound of its own, but only to follow the vowel to which it is added. Furthermore, Ab & Vah cannot, nor should, end in E, because they are interjections with their tails cut off, being, in full, Aha & Vaha. Of which thing, as I have said before, Priscian bears witness when he says in the chapter De Accidentibus Litera, of his first book: Oucritur cur in Vah, et Ah, pot vocales ponitur aspiratio, et dicimus quod Apocopa fata et extreme vocalis cui preponebatur aspiratio, nam per- feta Aha et Vaha sunt.t Pontanus,* in his first book, De Aspiratione, adds tothese Oba, which also drops its final A,and remains O. I gladly mention this, because I see many persons go astray therein; and their * Catullus, uxxxiv.53 LAMPE * Eclogue 1, 15; 11, 69; VI, 47; the true reading being‘ Ah’ in each case. +a, 16. t Verse 144. § See Note 26. 112 CHAMP FLEURY error causes the quantity of the syllable & the majesty of poetic metre to be perverted, As who should say in the first Eclogue of Virgil: — Spem gregis, ache, scilice in nuda connixa reliquit. And in the second: — Ache, Corydon, Corydon; que te dementia coepit? And in the sixth: — Ache, virgo infelix; qua te dementia coepit?* ESS would be to ruin the style and the metrical quantity of the King of Latin Poets, and for this reason we must pronounce Ab, & Vah, almost like A, a vowel issuing in full volume from the depths of the stomach. S Ihave said, the aspirate is nota letter; none the less it is, by poetic license, given place as a letter, & as it were, a double consonant, lengthening the quantity of the vowel that precedes it. As we find in Virgil, in the first book of the Ainezd, Posthabita colluisse Samo, hic illius arma Hic currus fuit.t mo hic is a spondee, that is to say, a metrical foot containing two long syllables; wherefore # is long in this place, not only by its nature, but as if h were a double consonant; and it cannot be combined with the vowel, as it often is. It appears asa simple consonant in the 47s Poctica of Horace, where it is said: Cogitat, ut speciosa dehinc miracula promat.t The syllable before the aspirate is the third syllable of a dactyl, and short, and the de does not combine with the é following the aspirate. For him who would like to see the great value of the aspirate, as well at the beginning of words, as in the middle and at the end, very fully and gracefully set forth, Pontanus is a most satisfying author, in two excel- lent books that he has diligently composed, entitled De Aspiration. To design and draw our said aspirate as it should be done, the two legs must be made in every respect like I,and the cross-stroke upon the cen- tral horizontal line must be of one-third of the thickness of the said I. Which rule Frere Lucas Pactolus does not observe in the letters of his book entitled Diwina “Proportione, as those can see who may choose to look carefully.§ For in the A, the E, the F, and the H, he makes the cross-strokes too thin and too low, inasmuchas he puts them halfabove and half below the central horizontal line of his square. * a ais P = eee ey AE a ee ee ne PO, a = Re" a ut eee NS i 0 ta —= ON, PAS PHIRD BOOK 113 is | PCA NY | | HE letter I here designed & drawn, in height ten times its thick- ness, contained between four centres, is three units broad at the head, & four at the foot,—that is to say, three whole ones, asat the head, and a half one on each side, to give it a firm seat and foundation, the better to support the head. And the reason therefor is derived from the natural posture of the human body, which, when it is on its feet, has its feet spread out over more space than the breadth of the head covers. A man stands more firmly when his feet are half-way apart, than when they are close together. So, then, our I must be broader at the foot than at the head. As I said many times in the Second Book, is the pattern, the rule, and the standard of all the other letters, for by its height & breadth, all the limbs, straight or curved, of all the said other letters are meas- ured and proportioned. The curved limbs follow the O; but even the O retains the thickness of the I in its two curved sides. Should be pronounced, as Martianus Capella says, Spiritu prope den- tibus pressis; that is to say, with the breath issuing between the partly closed teeth. The Flemings misuse it in Latin when another vowel comes after E. For they pronounce the E like an E and Y, asin saying: Deus, Deyus, meyus, ad te de luce vigilo. In Greek it is called Lota and is never aught else than a vowel; but in Latin and French it issometimes a vowel and sometimes a consonant. And again, when it is a conso- nant it is sometimes a simple and sometimes a double consonant. Ex- ample in Latin: Ibo iussus in maiorum adiutorium. Example in French: Item, Iehan le ieune sera ieudi adiourne.* This vowel Iota was stolen by * This discussion is, of course, academic merely, since the adoption of J for X consonant. * 11, 93, 4. The original has ‘tollere’ for Tory’s ‘demere.’ + Matthew 5,18. 114 CHAMP FLEURY the Latins, both for I vowel and for the numeral I. Martial says, near the end of the second book of his Epigrams:—Vnum de titulo demere Tota potes.* In like manner, St. Matthew has in his fifth chapter: Amen, quippe dicovobis, donec transeat celum et terra, lota vnum, aux [aut] apex vnus, non prateribit a lege, donec omnia fiant. This Iota stands for an I, which is used by the Latins and French for the numeral one. S I have said, I is the starting point for making - all the other letters; whether it is kept as a straight line, or is bent and curved, or broken. And it alone of all the letters keeps its straight perpen- dicular line, in imitation of the human body,which, when standing upright on its feet, resembles it. Opening the arms & legs less or more shows the said briseure, as can readily be understood by the follow- ing figure, which I have drawn after the one which a noble lord and my good friend, Jehan de Perreal, otherwise called Jehan de Parts,>> valet-de-chambre and excellent painter to King Charles the Eighth, Louisthe Twelfth,&Fran- cois the First of thatname, gave to me, wondrous well executed by his own hand. =a =e =a Se Orasmuch as, with the help of God, havenow reached the point of tell- ing how our said [is often usedasa numeral, it seems to me not unprofitable to tell also what other letters are used as numerals, in Latin and French alike, ieee RD BOOK SAY, then, that there are eight letters which are used as numerals, namely, two vowels, I and V; two semivowels, L and M; three mutes, C, D, and Q;and one double consonant, X. I alone stands for one; when it is double, it means two; when it is triple, it means three, and when it is quadruple, four. And take note that it multiplies itself no further standing alone; it adds to itself other letters, but only to the number of four of any one. 115 \ J is used for five, because it is the fifth vowel. If there is one I after it, that means six; if there are two, seven; if three, eight; & if four nine, as can be seen in the numerals following: VI, VII, VIII, VITIL x is used for ten, because, if we ponder well what Priscian tells us, in the chapter “De —Accidentibus Litera, of the book De Numeris et Ponderibus, it is the tenth letter in alphabetical order, taking C,G& Q, as one letter, inasmuch as they pass for one another; and, too, Band F as one, because they were formerly used for each other, as Bruges and Fruges ; and, further, not counting S asa letter, for in ancient times it was neither written nor regarded except as denoting a sort of hissing sound, as, with our Lord’s help, I shall show hereafter in its alphabeti- cal order.* When there is an I before the X, the X is decreased by one, and means only nine. When the I comes after X, it means eleven, and so in like manner up to four I’s repeated after the said X, which make XI XIL XIII, XUIL Then, for fifteen, we write X and V; for sixteen X, V and I, and so with the other numbers, multiplying and adding Psand V’sand X’s up to fifty, for which numeral an L isused, and this in imitation of the Greeks, who use Gui, that is to say, N, for fifty. L and N, says Priscian in the first book of his De Nwmeris et Ponderibus, in the chapter ‘De Accidentibus Liters, inuicem sibi cedunt ; that is to say, Land N are often used & taken for each other, as in saying Lym- pha and Nympha.t (N stands for a hundred, because it is the first letter in the Latin word Centum. D stands for five hundred, because between D and M in alphabeti- cal order thereare five letters—E,F,G,LL,theK,which isa Greek letter and with which we have nothing to do, & the aspirate H, which is not properly a letter, are not counted.i * It is rather difficult to see how he makes good his claims that X is the tenth letter, even with these subtractions, as it is the twenty-first letter in the Latin alphabet. Perhaps he means the tenth consonant. Ÿ ‘As in the case of the other Roman numeral symbols, this was originally not the letter, but was identified with it owing to coincidence of form.’ —N.E.D. Ÿ The commonly accepted ex- planation of this use of D is less labored, namely, that it is not the letter D at all, but is one half of the original Tus- can numeral ©, or CID, for 1000. * See the last page of his ‘De Litteris Antiquis Opuscu- lum. TL IV, 14. 116 CHAMPAPEEULIRG: Furthermore, is used for a thousand because it is written first in the Latin word, Mille. In the number one thousand there are two five hundreds, for which reason D stands for five hundred, and twice five hundred is in Latin, Decies centum, and in one word, Mile. Let him who would look more fully into this subject, divert himself by reading in the book of ancient abbreviations which Probus* Gram- maticus wrote long ago, and in Priscian, where he treats, as I have said, De Numeris et Ponderibus; also in the book that Galeotus Narniensis wrote and entitled De Homine Interiori ; & in the beginning of the third book which Monseigneur Budé called De Asse et Partibus Eius, where it is said, Mille per M scribebant, &c. EN aa He AL HE letter K here designed, and made, both the whole leg and the broken ones, from the I, is as broad as it is high, that is to say, ten units perpendicularly & ten across, & requires eight turns of the com- pass, for the centres of which I have marked the places where the point of the compass should be set. Says Martianus Capella, is pronounced from the throat and the palate, without moving the tongue. K is not a Latin letter, but purely Greek, and therefore it seems useless and superfluous in the Latin language; for C and Q are used in its stead, of which letters the Greeks have no representation. In his first book, where he treats De Accidentibus Litera, Priscian says: K enim et Q, quamuis figura et nomine videantur aliquam habere differentiam cum C,tamen eandem tam in sono vo- cum, quam in metro potestatem continent ; et K quidem penitus superuacua e.t That is to say: ‘For K and Q, although in shape and name they seem to be something different from C, yet have the like quality and force ee eT ee, ee, ee ee he ee ee ee eh yl ee eT TES Te ee done ee ee Le ee Ne ee GE ES THE THIRD BOOK 117 in sound and in metre; & therefore K is a superfluous letter.’ K, then, is a Greek letter, properly called by its Greek name—Czppa, Kanna. Have said & proved in the First Book that the Greek letters were in use here before the Roman; and I can allege further proof thereof, in that K is still used by us in the name Karolus, and in the piece of money worth ten deniers tournois, which also we call a Karolus. If when the first coin stamped with the Karolus was made, the Latin letters had been in general current use here, they would have written Carolus, which isa Latin word, witha C; butas I have said, following the fashion of the Greek letters, which were then current, they wrote it with K, as we still see on the said coin. It is not long since that the Latin tongue was purified, & came into established use in this country; and to prove that this is true, I refer to the venerable Grecismus,* to the worthy teacher Alexander de Villa Dei,t & a thousand other modern authors, who, though they would fain teach the Latin tongue, yet knew very little of it, so that those to-day who have a correct ear are sorely vexed when they hear their turgid lines and dry compositions recited. HE Latins retained the K for use in certain words which they took from the Greek, as Kalenda, Karthago, Katherina; but in the end they wrote these too with a C, as we can see in the book of Epitaphs of Ancient Rome, lately printed in said Rome. K, in Greek, because it is the first letter of the word Kaxov,—which is to say, in Latin, malum, & in French, mal and mauuais chose,as Erasmus says in his third Chiliad, in Chapter CCCCCLXXXIL,t—has become a proverb: Aindouy Kanna, Duplex Kappa, Double K,—or, if you prefer, Double C,—signifies two evil things essentially opposed to a good one; as if we imagine a lamb in the fields between a lion & a wolf. There is another Greek proverb: Toia Kanna Kaniota, Tria Cappa pessima; three K’s—or, if you prefer, three C’s—are very bad; which signifies covertly that there were of old in Greece three very evil-minded nations, the Cappadocians, the Cretans, and the Cilicians; that they were, one and all, & always, full of guile & given to every sort of deceit. Speaking of the three Kappas turned into a Greek proverb, I saw in Rome a young nobleman and blithe lover, who, as gentlemen in this country often do for love of their fair, wore as his device a B, an A, and three C’s, thus: B.A.C.C.C.; and thereby he meant the name of his lady-love, which was Beatrice; * Tory here repeats his error of making Grecismus a per- son. See Note 19. + See Note 19. Ÿ m1, 6, 81 (2587). * En la quelle chose est enten- due sa figure, qui est d'une ligne perpendiculaire faisant a son talon une angle sus le quel ille es assize.—I can- not interpret this otherwise than as suggesting some re- semblance between the shape of the letter and its sound; but it seems very far from clear. 118 CHAMPILCEURM which name is pronounced in Italian as if the C were aspirated, and as if it should be spelled thus: Beztriche. I say this in passing, to show that K should be pronounced sharp and hard, and Ca little soft, almost as if it were aspirated. HE Greeks never aspirate their Kappa, but they have another let- ter which carries its own aspirate, and is called Chi—equal to C & H; so that if they wished to write, Cha, che, chi, cho or chu they wrote Xa, Xe, X1, Xo, and Xou, which I leave for keen minds to meditate upon. i f | | A | \ 7 on Jeane ee 4 HE letter L here drawn is ten units in height and seven anda half in breadth, for the fashioning whereof five turns of the compass are required; and I have made five crosses where the point of the com- pass must be set, to describe them. Ome ancient writers—as I have said above in speaking of the letter E—drew it with only four centres, making a right angle at the foot of the upright leg, inside, as I have shown in the figure in which it is drawn without lines and in black. As I have heretofore said & shown in the chapter on the letter E, is derived from E by taking away the two upper horizontal arms. L, says Martianus Capella, lingua palatoque dulcescit. That is to say, L is pronounced with the tongue and the palate, which is the upper con- cavity of the mouth, with a soft outbreathing of the voice; by which is meant its shape, which is a perpendicular line forming at its foot an angle upon which it rests.* Priscian, in his first book, in the chapter, De Commutatione Literarum, says that Pliny was of opinion that L had three sounds in pronunciation. Priscian’s words are these: L #riplicem, THE THIRD BOOK 119 vt Plinio videtur, sonum habet: Exilem, quando geminatur secundo loco posita, vt ible, Metellus; plenum, quando finit nomina vel syllabas, et quando habet ante se in eadem syllaba aliquam consonantem, vt Sol, sylua, flauus, clarus. Medium autem in alijs, ut lettus, lecta, lettum.* That is to say, ‘L has a threefold sound, as it seems to Pliny. The first is thin and simply soft; and this is when it is doubled, as in Ide, Metellus; the second is a full sound, and this is when it ends a word or syllable, or when it has a con- sonant before it, in the same syllable, as in Sol, sylua, flauus, clarus; the third and last is a medium sound, and this is when it is placed other- wise in syllables or words than when it has the first two sounds.’ He who would pronounce it properly must utter it as if he meant to say this syllable—EL. And hereupon I propose in this place to set forth the proper and true pronunciation of all the letters of the alphabet, wherein I see many persons go astray, when they say, A, boy, coy, doy; whereas they should say, A, be, che, de; as if the names of the letters, except the vowels, were written like syllables. Which thing the better to explain and enforce, I will set down here their names & pronunciations in syllables, as follows. A, be, che, de, E, ef, ge, ha, L, ka, el, em, en, O, pe, qui, er, es, te, ix, ypsilon; or if you choose to say them otherwise, say them in Greek. And the last, which is Zita, will be pronounced esd.t The error in the above-men- tioned absurd pronunciation is due to I know not what schoolmasters, both in cities and villages, who go about trying to teach others when they themselves are not taught as they should be. It is a great shame to meddle with a thing without a sound foundation and complete knowledge. bs show clearly that L should be pronounced like the syllable ¢/, I say again that it is made from the E, and that its pronunciation partakes of that of E, since it is derived from it; which, although I havealready shown it in the chapter on E, I will here show again, to the end that you may readily recognize my words as true. And this is proved by the figure herewith re- peated & put before you, in which I have drawn the two upper horizon- tal arms of the Ea little apart, thus leaving the Lcomplete and perfect. * 1, vil, 38. Again there is a slight variation from the original. + Presumably a misprint for Ze, or Zed. 120 CHAMP FLEURY HIS shows plainly how the L is derived from the E, and that it should be pronounced ¢/,as I have said,and not elle, wherein many ignorant persons go astray every day; and he who first invented the re- _ bus, Elle ef tornee a tort, which consists of an L reversed and a crooked Crortu'] A, falsified the true pronunciation. But he is to be forgiven, because of the license permitted and granted to such joyous devisers of amorous trifles. le Is pronounced awry in the provinces of Burgundy and Forest, when it is given the sound of R, as I have heard done by many young students of those provinces, when they came hither to the Uni- versity of Paris where I was then a teacher. Instead of saying mel, fel, animal, Aldus, and albus, and many other like words, they would pro- nounce them mer, fer, animar, Ardus, and arbus, which is a corruption of the true pronunciation, and which often not only causes confusion of meaning, but is the contrary of what is meant. Wherefore, I entreat fathers and teachers to look well to it, and to accustom their children and pupils to pronounce properly. It is one of the finest qualities of a worthy man and good orator, to pronounce well. Have said hereinbefore, in several places in the Second Book, that our fine Attic letters are related to the nine Muses & the seven Lib- eral Arts. I propose to show here by a figure of Astrology, which is one of the said seven Liberal Arts, the explanation of the horizontal arm of the letter L, & therewith that it is the centre & navel of the Alphabet. HE letter Lwas de- signed and drawn PSS S i LA Kn by the ancientwriters in itsrelationtothehuman (KR <5) LETTRE body and to its shadow AQAA ( LONGVE cast by the Sun when it . is in the sign of the Bal- ance,—or, as we say, of Libra,—in the month of September, A naked man, standing with his feettogetherintheSun’s rays whenitisinthesign of Libra, represents the shape of the said letter du De) “4 il ie i (iTS THE THIRD BOOK 121 L, by drawing an oblique line from the outer end & acute angle of the foot to the upper end and angle, also acute, of the said letter. To make this manifest to the eye, I have designed & drawn the figure which you see here. And as I have meditated upon this instructive and explicative figure, it has seemed well to me to quote here a right witty passage writ- ten long ago by the most witty of all ancient poets, Plautus by name, who calls this letter L, Literam longam, or long letter, meaning thereby to signify that a man or a woman hanged by the neck represents with his body and his feet the letter L; as is most ingeniously and learnedly set forth by Philippe Beroaldus* & Jehan Baptiste le piteable——whom I saw and heard read in public twenty years since at Bonoigne la Grace, —commentators both upon the said Plautus. And it is in that part of the comedy called —4ulularia,t where the old woman Staphyla says: Nec quicquam melius et mibi,vt opinor, quam ex me vt vnam faciam literam longam, laqueo collum quin obftrinxero. hat is to say: “There is nothing better for me, as I believe, than that I should make of myself a long let- ter by hanging and strangling myself by the neck with a cord.’ Rhodiginus, in the sixth book of hisancient lessons, at Chapter VIII, is of a contrary opinion to that of the commentators above mentioned, Beroaldus and Jehan Baptiste le piteable, and says that the long letter is not L, but that it is T that should be understood in Plautus; wherein he seems to me to have little reason. The opinion of the said commen- tators seems to me better; & I would quote the words of Rhodiginus, were it not that I do not wish to seem to agree with them, and that I should be too long, & might overpass the limits of my subject. I would not, however, reprove the said R hodiginus, nor indeed can I, because of his learning and the great excellence of the works he wrote. Whether he is stupid in this matter I leave to the judgement of greater and wiser men than I, and I say in his behalf, Quan- doque bonus dormitat Homerus,t whichis to say, that there isno man so wise who does not sometimes err, as it is said that Homer erred in some passages of his poetic works. t Horace, Ars. Poet.,359.‘Some- times even the good Homer nods.’ * Filippo ‘Beroaldo (1453- 1505), editor of, and commen- tator on, the works of many of the classical authors. TRI * Entre lesquelz les plus par- faitts et beaulx, sont les corps de bonne quadrature, la quelle quadrature se peult figurer en angle equilateral, en ligne perpendiculaire, ayant tous ses angles equilateraux, ©’ en ligne trauerceante, ayant aussi tous ses angles equila- teraux.—I transcribe this passage so that the curious may decide for themselves its meaning. Euclid's definition of a square is: “Quadratum quidem quod et aquilaterum est et rectangulum.’ + ‘Is pronounced with the lips’ —a labial. ~ 122 CHAMP FLEURY HE letter M here drawn is made from the I alone, and is thirteen units in breadth, that is to say, three units broader than it is high, and, to be properly made, needs six turns of the compass; and I have marked the places where the point of the compass should be placed, to make them. HIS letter M is like some men, who are so stout that their girth is greater than the height of their body; and, upon this point, let me say that our Attic letters were formerly made by the ancients, some square, others broader than high, and others higher than broad, with covert reference to men’s bodies, among which the most perfect and comely are the bodies squarely built, which may be represented by an equilateral angle,a perpendicular line having all its angles equilateral, and a horizontal line, also having all its angles equilateral. Whereof you can read at length in the first book of Euclid.* Says Martianus Capella, /abris imprimitur.t That is to say, M must be so pronounced that, in uttering it, to produce its proper sound, we must press the lips together without moving the tongue, or letting it touch the front teeth, cost what it may. HE shape of the M is the same with the Greeks as with the Latins, & it iscalled in Greek, Mz,which isas much as to say that M should be pronounced with an imperfect sound, and, as it were, in the interior of the mouth, as in saying, em; for which reason some ancients called it Hemitonium, that is to say, half-tone letter, as Galeotus Martius Nar- niensis testifies in his second book, entitled De homine interiori. Pris- cian, where he treats De literarum commutatione, says that M has three kinds of sound, obscure, open, & median. His words are as follows: M ee NOV TS RATE | a ae ea … THE THIRD BOOK obscurus in extremitate dictionum sonat, vt Templum. Apertum in princi- pio, vt Magnus. Mediocre in medijs, ut Vmbra* ‘M, he says, ‘has an obscure sound at the end of words, as in Templum. At the beginning, it has an open sound, as in Magnus. And it has its median sound in the middle of words, as in Umbra. HE Normans err in the proper pronunciation of this letter M, when it is final in Latin words; for instead of Templum they say Templun, pronouncing N for M, and ‘Patren for Patrem, which is not according to the rule of Latin grammar. Ereupon, because I see many a one, both in speaking & in writing, go astray in this letter M, very often putting N for M, I purpose here very gladly to write down the letters before which M is changed to N, & this according to the teaching of the good Priscian, immediately after the place just cited; his words are as follows: M transit in N, et maxime D, vel T, vel C, vel Q, sequentibus. Vt tam, tandem; Tantum, tantundem; Idem, identidem; Num, nuncubi. Et, vt Plinio placet, Nunquis, nunquam; Ancepes pro amceps.t ‘My he says, ‘is changed to N, and most of all when D or T or C or Q follows it; as in tam, tandem; tantum, tan- tundem, idem, identidem; num, nuncubi; and, as Pliny says, nunquis, nun- quam, anceps for amceps.’ Have said heretofore, in the chapter on the I, that M as a Latin numeral signifies a thousand, & it is true; but also, when it is written alone, with a point following, it means and is equivalent to the name Marcus; as A means Aulus; BR, Brutus;t C, Caius, & when it is turned thus, D, it means Caia; D, Decius, and turned thus C, Decia; FA, Fabius; GN, Gneus; IV, Junius; K, in our usage, Carolus, in Latin, Calendzx; L, Lucius; NL, Non liquer; OPT, Optimus; P, Publius; Q, Quintus, and turned thus, À, Quinta; R, Roma, or Romanus; RP, Respublica; SEX, Sextus; 55’, Sestertium; VAL, Valerius; X, Deci- mus. Y and Z are not used in Latin in such abbreviations of Latin names, because they are purely Greek letters; but Z as a figure, in Latin & French, is used for two, and so written. The above-mentioned abbreviations of one letter, or two, or three, as I have given examples thereof, were ordained by the Greeks and the inventors of the Attic letters, which, by reason of their thickness, require to be written far apart, and with much room, because of which thing, one can hardly comprise much substance or meaning in written words, unless one makes use of abbreviation. 123 M1, Vt, 38. T 1, vu, 38. Tory does not follow Priscian’s text exactly, but the variation is very slight. tIf Tory had been blessed with prophetic vision, and could have looked ahead four centuries, be would doubtless have imagined another interpretation of these initials, not only more signifi- cant to the “‘devotz- Amateurs de bonnes lettres,’’ but of im- measurable import to his own fame. * See the last page of his “De Litteris Antiquis Opuscu- lum. 124 CHAMP FLEURY N imitation of the Greeks and Latins, we also use abbreviations of single letters for proper names, and in our sign-manuals. As, if we wish to signify Andre, Antoine, Anselm, Alexander, Anne, Agnes, and a thousand other like names, we write an A; and so with all the other letters. But our surnames we write at full length. Which custom the Latins have not followed inall their names, as you can see in theancient histories of the Romans, Let him who may wish to learn how to read the ancient abbreviations which can be seen on medals and epitaphs, have recourse to the fine little book that Probus* Grammaticus wrote long ago; therein there is an abundance and a sufficiency, as to all the letters in their alphabetical order. Must not go on without saying that, to make an M well, we must first make a V, then the two legs, according to the number of lines and points before mentioned. NY pak Arar ei NEES apes ee, Pa CALE ee letter N here drawn is broader than it is high, and requires for its proper fashioning five turns of the compass,as I have indicated by marking the places on which to set the point of the said compass. Some ancient writers made the foot of the second leg end in a sharp point, but I have cut off the point, herein following Bramante, who made it thus in the Galleries of Pope Julius II, between the Palace of St. Peter at Rome and the Belvedere. N Should be pronounced with the tongue touching against the up- per teeth and against that part of the roof of the mouth nearest the said upper teeth, as that worthy ancient author Martianus Capella most clearly teaches when he says: N lingua dentibus appulsa colliditur; THE THIRD BOOK 125 that is to say, ‘N is pronounced sharp & clear, with the tongue pressed against the teeth, by which teeth are meant the upper ones. F all the Attic letters there are only M and N which extend out- side the square, that is, which are broader than they are high. As I have said, M is broader by two units, and N by one, which makes three units for the two letters, which number three is an odd number, composed of an odd and an even, that is, one and two. Which thing covertly signifies good fortune, as I have said more fully in the Second Book, and likewise at the beginning of this Third and last Book. And this hidden good fortune was intended here by the ancients to signify that it is a great felicity for men to have acquaintance with well-made letters for more than half [of the alphabet ?]. Lis, as I have said, the middle letter; and therefore M & N come after L, to present covertly a symbol of good fortune and felicity to those who persevere in the knowledge of letters and learning. That some overpass the bounds of the square is a sign of abundance, which signifies that they whoabound in the knowledge of well-made letters abound in all good things and in surpassing perfection & virtue. Which thing also the worthy ancients indicated by placing after the M and N the O, which is made round _ within a square, and imports the complete perfection of well-lettered men, inasmuch as the Circle and the Square are the two most per- fect & comprehensive of all the figures designed by symmetry and commensuration, in the which commensuration and proper proportion consists the form and shape of all our well-made & divine Attic letters. Icould in this wise adapt and expound inallegoryall the other letters; but this would make a volume thicker than a Bible, which I may not do at this moment, because of the time, which requires that I be briefer and pass on. * Verse 323. 126 CHAMPSELEURM due letter O here drawn within a square is as broad as it is high, and uniformly round on the outside. Within, it is curved in the shape of the bottom of a vat; that is, it isa little elliptical, making two of the sides a little longer, in which shape, within & without, the Coli- seum at Rome was built long ago, as can still be seen by the ruins that remain. To make these two different curves, five centres are needed, which I have marked at the places where the point of the compass must be set. Its roundness, resting on the square, signifies all perfection, as I have said hereinbefore; and we have in our French tongue the phrase ‘to speak roundly,’ that is to say, to speak fully and concisely, compris- ing much meaning in few words. Which thing is peculiar to the Greeks & usual with them, & chiefly in the Laconian tongue, whereof Horace " says in his De Arte Poetica:— Graijs ingenium, Graijs dedit, ore rotundo, Musa loqui.* That is to say, that the Greeks have by naturea musical medium,which they speak and write roundly. Says Martianus Capella, rorundi oris spiritu comparatur. That is to say, ‘O should be pronounced with a breath coming forth roundly from the mouth,’ as its shape shows. O in Latin is sometimes short in quantity, and sometimes long, & both sounds are represented by the same written character. But in Greek there are Omicron & Omega, that is to say, O short, and O long, written in two different ways. Omi- cron is uniformly round on the outside, and the Latins stole it without fe ee 1 ee ee Le ee hélice a 0 2 ‘ou de ro Se eee nl ne cm mc ee eee ee ee ns 1e 5 Gr ee oe in LA LÉEDEEIRD BOOK 12:7 changing its shape. Omega, as a capital, is rounded above & open below. This, the true form of Omega, is not well observed by some persons who write and pronounce that passage of the XXI and penultimate chapter of the Apocalypse [Revelation], where it is said: Ego sum Alpha et Q, in which passage, instead of Omega, which should be written Q, they write O, a complete circle, which is an Omicron; and the sense requires that it be Omega, which is the last letter of the alphabet in Greek; for in that place it stands for the completion and end: Ego sum Alpha et Q, it says; that is, Tam the beginning and end of all good things,’ said the Lord. Omicron does not signify the end,wherefore, then, it seems to me, humbly subject to correction, that we should better use Q than O. And again, since Alpha is written at full length, I would fain know if it would not be well to write and say Omega, thus: Ego sum Alpha et Omega, Since Alpha is written in full, it seems to me most probable that Omega should be, also; or else that we should say and write, Ego sum A et Q, so that A should neither be written nor pronounced in full,any more than Q. It is not my purpose, however, to correct Holy Scripture, nor could I; but asa grammarian, and because my present design is to teach how to write and pronounce the letters of the Alphabet, I raise the point, to warn those who take pleasure in well-saying and well-doing, and who love clearness in all letters. In the Greek text of the Bible, there is, Eyu elt To a mai To w—just the simple letters A and Q. O in Greek, Latin, and French is a vocative adverb, which is pro- nounced by the Greeks with a circumflex accent & witha non-aspirated sound, which is called thin and sharp; but Aldus in his Latin books prints it in some places with an acute accent. In our French language we have no mark of accent in writing, and this because our language is not yet made subject to fixed rules, like the Hebrew, Greek, & Latin. I would that it might be so made, as could well be done. Example in OP Auroi w Owes. And a little further on: Q” Mav Pav. Example in Latin: Greek of Q vocative: Theocritus in his first Eclogue called Thyrsis: Virgil in his first Eclogue:*— O’ Melibæe, Deus nobis hæc ocia fecit. In French, as I have said, we do not write the accent over the O voca- tive, but we pronounce it, as when we say: O pain du Ciel angelique Tu es nostre salut vnique. * Verse 6. * Satire X, 122. 128 CHAMP (FLEURY In this lack of accent we have an imperfection which we ought to cure by purifying our language, which is the most graceful ever known, and reducing it to fixed rules. In Latin O is sometimes a mark of exclamation, and then it is pro- nounced and written with a grave accent, and sometimes, too, with an acute accent, as we can see in Juvenal, when he says: — O* fortunatam natam me Consule Romam.* And Budé in the first book of De Asse, the sixteenth folio in the Aldine print: O. acre iudicium hominum, quibus tamen ipsis inter classica recitan- teis Italos exaudire tantum vacauit. Example when O is acute: Budé in the same book: 0” tempora, O’ mores. In Greek and Latin, and in French too, O always stands alone, at least in the poets & orators, whatever meaning it may have; but I find it repeated even to the number of three in the second chapter of the Prophet Zechariah, where there is O‘O*O* fugite de terra Aquilonis, dicit dominus. But, again, I find that the Latin text does not agree with the Greek text, for in the Latin there are three O’s, and in the Greek two Q’s. Which I very gladly set down here to give warning to those who read the Bible, that they look well to the exactness of both. In the Greek text, there is, Q\u\éeuyere ano to Bogea eye Kuowoo.t If I chose to discourse upon this passage, I could perchance say something worth while; but I will leave it to the theo- logians to do, to whom it belongs to reconcile the Holy Scripture and interpret it in its en- tirety. I, who in this book treat of letters, pass on, and come to my next letter of the alphabet, which ts 114 + The King James version bas: ‘Ho, ho, come forth and flee from the land of the North, saith the Lord. —Zech., 11, 6. Se ee hee ee TR % THE THIRD BOOK 129 | eee ae ner ||) LUS ||") HE letter P here drawn, & formed from the I and the O, is seven units in breadth, and is derived from B by taking away the lower curve, and by cutting off the base of the remaining curve at a distance of two units from the upright leg, as you can see in the present figure. To make the P properly, five turns of the compass are necessary; I have marked the places where the point of the compass should be set to make them. Is three whole units higher than it is broad, and, as I have said, the end of its curve, which I have called the middle line, is cut off at a distance of two units from the leg. I repeat this by design because I find that those who attempt to describe the Attic letters almost always go astray herein: they make the said curve extend to the leg below as well as above, which should not be done. Says Martianus Capella, labris spiritus erumpit. P is pronounced with the voice issuing through closed lips, which can be under- stood from the figure of the said P. This P is of a surety derived from B, for there was formerly so great an affinity between them that B was very often written and said for P, as can be seen in the words TetapBoo and Triumphus; Buegoo and Pyrrhus; BuËoc and Pyxos, whence Pixides. Whereof one can see ample proof in Priscian & other good Gramma- rians, & especially in a pleasant little treatise that Aldus has printed,* on the values of Greek and Latin letters and of the interchanges be- tween them. * The ‘pleasant little treatise’ is printed at the end of the 1507 edition of -Aldus’s ‘Gramma- tica, under the title, Gramma- ticis Grace Isagoga.’ *1,1v,12. The variation from the original here consists solely inthe punttuation, which Tory seems to have changed to accom- modate bis translation. 130 CHAMP FLEURY HE Latins, in imitation of the Greeks, sometimes aspirate the P, in order to make use of Greek words in which there is a Phi, ®, which is equivalent to P & H; and the most ancient Latins, as Priscian testifies in his first book, in the chapter De accidentibus litera, used PH for F, before the. said F came into use; but, finally, F was recognized in Latin words. Priscian’s words are as follows: F Æolicum digamma quod apud antiquissimos Latinorum eandem vim quam apud Æolis ha- buit, cum autem prope sonum quem nunc habet F, significabat P, cum aspira- tione; sicut etiam apud veteres Gracos pro ®, P et H. Vnde nunc quoque in grecis nominibus antiquam scripturam seruamus pro ®,“P et H ponentes. Vt Orpheus, Phaeton. “Postea vero in Latinis verbis placuit pro‘P et H, F scribi. Vt Fama, Filius, Facio* That is to say: ‘F,a letter invented by the Æo- lians,and which is formed of two Gammas,which F, in the usage of the ancient Latins, had the same force that it had in the language of the Æolians, had almost the same sound that F now has, and stood for P with an H; as likewise,among the ancient Greeks, P and H were used for ©. For which reason, let us now, in Greek nouns, follow the ancient manner of writing, using P and H for ®; as in Orpheus and Phaeton. But later, in Latin words F was written in place of Pand Has in Fama, Filius, Facio, In our French tongue we do not aspirate the P, except in words de- rived from the Greek, or from the Latin as derived from the Greek; as Philibert, Philosophe, Philippe, Phantastique, and a hundred others. As a Latin abbreviation P stands for Publius; when doubled it stands for ‘Petrus Paulus, or Pater patria ; & when it is writ- ten three times in succession, it stands for Primus pater patria. In French it is used as an abbre- viation only in proper names, & this in signatures to documents, quittances, and com- mercial or legal letters. | ¥ | | THE THIRD BOOK 131 HE letter Q here drawn, made at the top from the O, and from the I laid flat like a tail, is in respect to the head as broad as it is high; and its tail is four units high & thirteen long. To make the head, five centres are needed, and for the tail two, all of which Ihave marked in the proper places. Q is pronounced by striking the tongue against the roof of the mouth & half-closing the mouth, as Martianus Capella teaches when he says: Q appulsu palati ore restritto. ‘Q, he says, ‘is pro- nounced by putting the tongue against the palate, with the mouth con- tracted,’ * 1, vi, 48. 132 CHAMP FLEURY Have said heretofore, in the Second Book, that Q is the only letter that goes outside the line, & the reason is that it is never written ina word with other letters,without having a V [U_] following immediately after it, which it reaches out for and embraces as its usual companion & loyal friend. Q is, indeed, sometimes used alone as an abbreviation, with a point, & stands for Quintus. But in words written in full it must always have V for its mate, asin the words Quis, Quia, Quando, Quidam, Quanquam, anda hundred others. Likewise in French: ‘Qui esse’, ‘Qui cest?’ ‘Cest Quentin.’ ‘Que veult il?’ ‘Il quiert la rue de Quiquempoit.’ ‘A quoy faire?’ ‘Pour y trouuer quelcun pour aller iouer aux Quilles.’ Q and C are almost alike in shape and in value, except that Q is wholly round as to the head, and C is open. There is so great affinity between them, says Priscian in his first book, that very often, in Latin words,Q is changed to C. Priscian’swordsare these. DeQ , quoque suffici- enter trattatum es, qua nisi eandem vim haberet quam ©, nunquam in princi- pijs Infinitorum vel Interrogatiuorum quorundam nominum posita per obliquos casus, in illam transiret : ut Quis, cuius, cui. Similiter averbis Q habenti- bus in quibusdam Participijs in C transfertur; vt Sequor, secutus, Loquor locutus.* That is to say: ‘We have treated sufficiently of this letter Q, which, if it had not the same force as C, would never be changed to C at the beginning of the oblique cases of some indefinite or interroga- tive nouns: as Quis, cujus, cui. In like manner, Q is changed to C in some participles of verbs in Q:as in Sequor, secutus; Loquor, locutus The ancients, to mark this great affinity between Q and C, very often wrote QVV for CV, and, conversely, CV for QVV, as Priscian witnesses in the place cited, when he says: QV V ponebatur, et e contrario: vt Arquus, Coquus, Oquulus, pro Arcus, Cocus, et Oculus; Quum pro Cum; Quur pro Cur. , E retain this affinity and change from Q to C, in our French language, saying: ‘Quelque persone, and ‘quelconque persone’; ‘Quelque vng,’ and ‘quelcung, and formerly, ‘Quelquum’; ‘Au prim temps chante le Coquu,’ and ‘Au prim temps chante le Cocu.’ TE letter Q puts forth so much power in drawing the V in its train that, having so drawn it, it causes it to lose a great part of its sound, which thing is well marked in the pronunciation of the Italians, who pronounce V much better after G & Q than the French do, except those who have sojourned in Italy and who strive to imitate the Italians. THE THIRD BOOK 133 ae prove what I have said, that Q embraces V with its tail, I have made below a drawing wherein you can see that the upper end of the said tail is on a line with the lower end of the V, & marks covertly the space required between the letters when written in some sentence, verse, phrase, or word. The space that you see between the Q and the V is that which is commonly required between these letters, except in the printing of books. But this rule is not always observed; for some- times this space is of the breadth of an I, sometimes of an F, sometimes of an E, and at other times greater or less, as the manner of writing & the subject and the place demand, and according to the writer’s good judgement. But at all times and everywhere, mark well that every At- tic letter must be written freely and with plenty of room, wherefore the matter that you would write must be writtenas briefly as possible ; as they say in Greek, Aanuviouoo, and in Latin, Breuiloquentia, and in French, ‘Breve sentence’; in which matter the Laconians of old in Greece had very great facility, because they were wont to comprise much mean- ing in few words, as can be seen in their Apophthegms,—that is, pithy sayings,—which Plutarch wrote down from memory. Of this breuilo- quentia Erasmus speaks in his second Chiliad, Proverb XMLVIIL* Ere is the drawing hs of the two noble companions, Q and V, with the space required in the syllables of words wherein they are well written or to be written; & hereupon mark this also: Q isnever the final letter in syllable or word. Urthermore, observe the centres from which to draw the tail of this present letter Q, which I have marked A and B, and note that the point of the compass must be placed on the A or the B within the V, and with each of those two letters the other leg of the compass must be placed on its fellow, to draw the circle. The other centres, not marked by letters, are used to make the head of the Q and the V, as you can see by experiment and practice. And observe yet again that the letter Q isa Latin letter, made from the Greek letter Omicron ; or, if you prefer, say that it is made from O, * Adages, 11, I, 92. * Verse 109. 34 CHAMP ELEURY with a line beneath, which signifies that, after the perfectness which the O denotes by virtue of its circular form, and the idea of prosperity denoted by the P following the O, those who persevere in well-made letters add a tail to their knowledge over and above its perfection; that is to say, they acquire worldly goods by their virtue, which the V, the first letter of the word Virtue, signifies covertly, as they can judge who know these things by dint of careful study. HE letter R here drawn, and made from 1& O, is of equal breadth and height, and to be duly made, requires seven centres, which I have marked where the point of the compass must be placed. R, according to Martianus Capella, in spiritum lingua crispante corra- ditur. R is pronounced with the tongue making a strident and vibrat- ing sound through the open lips. When dogs are angry, before they begin to bite each other, contracting their throats and grinding their teeth, they seem to be saying R, for which reason the poet Persius, the most pleasant of caustic satirists, calls it Litera canina, the canine letter, which the dogs utter, when he says in his first Satire: Sonat hic de nare canina littera.* That is to say, ‘The canine letter here sounds from the nostril.’ When a man is angry, or vexed, or wroth, we say that he is irritated by some affront, that is to say, exasperated (exaspere), & this because he cannot utter a soft word, but only harsh (aspre) and angry sounds made up of strident letters, which letters are RR repeated and pronounced in a THE THIRD BOOK 135 harsh tone (zsprement). And to avoid this unpleasant asperity, the an- cient Latins very often wrote and pronounced S instead of R, in such names as Valerius and Furius, saying Valesius and Fusius. Quintilian bears witness to this in the first book of his Inffitutiones Oratoria, when he says: Sed et qua reblis quoque casibus ætate transierunt. Nam vt Valesij et Fusij in Valerios Furiosque venerunt. Ita —Arbos, Labos, Vapos, etiam Clamos atatis fuerunt.* Festus likewise bears witness to it, saying: S, quoque pro R sape antiqui posuerunt, vt Maiosibus, Meliosibus, Lasibus, Fesijs, pro. Maioribus, Melioribus, Laribus, Ferijs.t Which manner of pronunciation is to-day wrongly used, not only in Bourges, where I was born, but in this noble city of Paris,where very often S is said for R, & R for S. For, instead of saying Jesus Maria, they say Ierus Masia; and instead of saying at the beginning of the first book of Virgil’s Aineid, Musa mihi causas memora quo numine laso,t they say, wrongly, Mura mihi cauras memosa quo numine lero, I do not say this to reproach them, for there are some who pronounce very well; but I say it to admonish those who take neither pains nor pleasure in pronouncing well. (oe furthermore three other peoples that pronounce R very ill: those of Le Mans, the Bretons, and the Lorrainers. The people of Le Mans add S to R; for if they would say, ‘Pater Noster, or Tu es mag- aster noster, they say Paters Nosters, or Tu es magisters nosters. The Bretons pronounce only one R where two are written; as in saying Homo curit for Homo currit. On the contrary, the Lorrainers pronounce two where there is but one; for when they wish to say, ‘Saincte Marie, vecy grande mocquerie et dure dyablerie, they pronounce it, ‘Saincte Marrie, vecy grande mocquerrie et durre dyablerrie.’ It is the Lorrainers against whom Proverb seven hundred and fifty-three of the second Chiliad of Erasmus can be quoted, where we read, Eretriensium Rho, & not against the Picards, as Erasmus wrote in that passage; and Iam amazed that he fell into that error, since he is so learned, and that he did not know that the Picards pronounce R much better than the Lorrainers do; and also that he did not know that there is no nation in France which pro- nounces better than the said Picards. It may be that he thought that Picards and Lorrainers, because they both speak French, are all of the same nation. i Ale § + Book 16, line x. 136 CHAMP FLEURY HE letter S here drawn is higher than it is broad. Its breadth is but six units less two thirds of a unit, of which two thirds one is taken from the first of the six squares and the other from the sixth. This refers to the breadth of the lower curve; for the upper one is only three whole units and two halves in breadth, as can be plainly seen in the drawing, in which I have marked eight centres where the point of the compass must be placed, to draw it properly. Frere Lucas Paciolus draws it in different wise, and less clearly, in his Divina Proportione, making several circles and straight perpendicular lines; but I do not put so much labour into it, for, as can be seen at a glance, my method is shorter and simpler, and withal more sure. I say this not boastingly, but the eye discovers the fact. According to said Paciolus, the S is the most difficult to make of all the letters; but in my manner I find it as easy as another. It must be broader below than above, by its nature, because it consists of a circle upon a circle, of which circles if one is to — hold firm & in its place upon the other, it isnecessary that it be smaller. And for this same good reason, the figure 8 is made of two O’s, one up- on the other, and the one above is smaller than the one below. Again, we see that a naked man, standing erect on his feet, is broader & more stable at the feet than at his head. Gladly make this demonstration here, because I see thousands who ignorantly make the S broader above than below. S, says Martianus Capella, sibillum facit dentibus verberatis : that is to say, S is pronounced by making a hissing sound between the closed teeth. In Greek it is called Ziyua, & is different in shape, for the Greeks THE THIRD BOOK 137 write it as it were an M lying on its side, thus, ©; and pronounce it strong and full, almost as we pronounce twoS’s. When they say Mouca, they pronounce it Mussa; & they never make it thin or soft between two vowels, as we do. If they wish to say Musa, or Philosophia, they pronounce Mussa, or “Philossophia, and the same wherever it stands between two vowels. Is called by the Greeks agtmov cotxetov, that is to say, the inceptive letter, because it can be placed, alike in Greek and in Latin, before all the mutes and before Mina syllable or a word of one syllable, asin these words: XBevvuw, Xnagdn, Zuunreov, Zreuua, ZBevoo, Nove, Zxuua, Zuagaydoo; and in Latin, Scutum, Spatium, Stamen, Scribo, Strues, Stlem- bus, Splendidus. It can also be added to many other letters at the end of syllables and words, as in these Latin forms: Scrobs, Frons, Hyems, Ars, Puls, Stirps, Lans, Theseus. In our French tongue it can be prefixed and sufhixed in many ways to many different letters, which I shall forbear to set down here, for brevity’s sake, and so that it may afford diversion and employment to some man of eminent intellect who shall desire to assist in bringing order into our French tongue, & reducing it to fixed rules for speaking and writing properly according to the qualities of the letters, syllables, and complete words contained therein. Is also called by the Greeks Movadmov, that is, solitary,* because in the division of semi-vowels, of which it is one, it stands alone in its force. For the others are divided into four liquids—L, M, N, R,—and two semi-vowels called double in their attributes—X and Z. Its value in the matter of pronunciation and in metrical quantity is such that sometimes it is stable and sometimes it disappears and 1s lost, so little force has it. Wherefore it is called by the Greeks Acupov, that is to say, not noble, and without force.t Not only does it disappear itself but it takes with it the near-by vowel, and very often causes a change in the quantity of the vowel that precedes it, as can be plainly seen in many passages of the Latin poets, from amongst which I will cite a few verses of the father of Latin poets, Ennius, whom Aulus Gellius quotes in the fourth Chapter of Book XII of his Nottes Artica, whe Doctus, fidelis, suauis homo, facundus, suoque Contentus, atque beatus, scitus, secunda loquens in Tempore commodus, et verborum vir paucorum.} * Movadikov has no such meaning so far as one can discover. +t Aonuov, inarticulate. Tory's words are ‘non noble, © sans efficace. t Ennius,Annales,vu, 107. * Æneid, X1, 309, and X11,709. Priscian,1,V11, 40, quotes only the first four words of the first verse, but gives the second in full —“virosque, not ‘vir.’ In modern editions of Virgil, the contracted forms are not used. 138 CHAMP FLEURY Which verses are to be scanned in such wise that the S is lost, as follows: Doctu’, fi-delis-suavis ho-mo fa-cundu’ su-oque Conten-t’ atque be-atus-scitu’ se-cunda lo-quens in. if Set down and quote these words, to the end that, if it should happen that one has occasion to write in Attic letters such verses, wherein the S should disappear, one may write them clearly & wittingly with- out putting the said letter S where it might be lost,and put an apostto- phe over the place where theS should be. This apostrophe, being above the line at the end of a word, signifies that some vowel or anS has been dropped because of the metrical quantity of the vowel that follows it in the next syllable or word. Priscian testifies, in the chapter, De irera- rum commutation, that S very often loses its force, when he says: S 7 metro apud vetustissimos vim suam frequenter amittit. Virgilius in Vndeci- mo Æneidos— Ponite’ pes sibi quisque, sed hac quam angusta videtis. Idem in Duodecimo,— Inter se coiisse vir’ et decernere ferro.* ‘Ne’ autem coniunttione sequente, cum apostropho penitus tollitur, vt Vider’, Satin’, Vin’, pro Videsne, Satisne, Visne. That is to say: S,in the verse of the ancient poets very often loses its force, as in the eleventh book of Virgil’s Aineid :— Ponite’ pes sibi quisque sed hæc quam angusta videtis. And in the twelfth book,— Inter se coijsse vir’ et decernere ferro, In like manner, when the Latin conjunction # follows S, the S is dropped altogether, and, as I said, we put an apostrophe above the line; as when we say Viden’, Satin’, Vin’, for Videsne, Satisne, and Visne. HE ladies of Paris for the most part duly observe this poetic fig- ure, dropping the final S from many words; as when, instead of saying, ‘Nous auons disne en vng Jardin, et y auons menge des Prunes blanches et noires, des Amendes doulces et ameres, des Figues molles, des Pomes, des Poires, et des gruselles, they say, ‘Nous auon disne en vng Jardin et y auon menge des prune blanche et noire, des amende THE THIRD BOOK 139 doulce et amere, des figue molle, des pome, des poyre, et des gruselle.’ This fault would be pardonable in them, were it not that it passes from women to men, and that there comes to be a complete failure of per- fect pronunciation in speaking. "Tis no wonder that S sometimes loses its force, since, furthermore, the Bocotians,who are a Greek people, very often put in its place an as- pirate, saying Muha for Musa. Even as, contrariwise, it is often found in place of the aspirate, as in Semis, Sex, Septem, Se, Si, Sal,which are writ- ten in Greek with a Aaceia, that is to say, an apostrophe which stands for the aspirate and must be written above the Greek vowels and Rho, as Priscian informs us, in his first book, wherein he treats De Jitera- rum commutatione, when he Says: Spe vero pro aspiratione S ponitur in his dittionibus quas a Gracis sumpsimus, vt Semis, Sex, Septem, Se, Si, Sal; nam Hemis, Hex, Heptem, He, Hi, Has apud illos aspirationem habent in principio. Adeo autem cognatio est huius litera, id est S cum aspiratione quod proeain quibusdam dittionibus solebant Beotes idem proS, H scribere, Muha pro Musa dicentes.* ee should desire full knowledge of the varying nature and attributes of this letter S, can find a sufficiency thereof most elegantly set forth in the fourth book of the Grammar of Aldus, in the third section [tertims modus] of the Chapter ‘De septem modis commu- nium syllabarum., HIS letter S, as I said but now, is called in Greek Xiyua, naga to oiletv, that is to say, to make a hissing sound, of the same quality. that red-hot iron makes when it is dipped in water. Sigma, therefore, signifies silence, for which reason the ancients often wrote it alone above the door of the place where they ate and drank with their good friends; in order to put it before their eyes that such words as they should speak at table must be spoken soberly & listened to in silence; which cannot be if there be excess in eating and drinking, which are things not meet for decency at table & for pleasant company. Where- upon Martial says in one of his ingenious epigrams: — Accedent sine felle ioci, nec mane timenda Libertas, et nil quod tacuisse velis. De Prasino conuiua meus Venetoque loquatur, Nec faciant quenquam pocula nostra reum.t * 1, VII, 42. Priscian writes Hemis, etc.,in Greek characters. His text varies slightly from Tory’s version. + Epigrams, x, XLVI, 21. *1, 94. f X, XLVI, 6. t Gellius says that three is the minimum number for a feast, and nine the maximum. § Heretofore referred to as (eli- us Rhodiginus, or Rhodiginus alone. : 140 CHAMP FLEURY ‘At my banquet’, he says, ‘there is merry talk, without bitterness, with liberty to speak as if fasting, and no words that you would wish not to be said. In short, let my table companions speak of this thing and that, in such wise that my wine does not confuse their words,’ Sigma then was a symbol for the place where man feasted decently, without a great effusion of words; and this place would hold no more than seven persons, which is a number composed of odd and even; and in reference to this odd number, Virgil said, in the first book of his Aineid,— O terque quaterque beati,—* to show that that number of seven persons could converse without con- fusion. And Martial says, Septem Sigma capit, sex sumus adde Lupum.t He says in another passage, that this place aforementioned might be large enough for eight persons; this, too, is less than the number of the nine Muses, which number Aulus Gellius, in the eleventh chapter of book XIII of his Noffes Artica, declares to be the greatest number of persons proper for a banquet,when he remarks that every well-ordered feast, in respect to the number of guests, should begin with the three Graces and end with the nine Muses.t Martial says furthermore of this same Sigma,— Accipe lunata scriptum testudine Sigma, Octo capit, veniat quisquis amicus erit.56 ‘Take, he says, ‘the Sigma written in the curved arch; there may be therein eight persons, and therefore let any good friend of mine come thither,’ | Whoso should wish to read his fill on this matter, let him seek in the XVIII chapter of the seventh book of the Ancient Lessons of Celi- us,§ wherein he treats of the said Sigma and of other notable matters. HE letter S, then, was, in former times, so symbolic of silence, that the comic poets made use of itasan improper syllable,that is tosay, a syllable without a vowel, by adding to it a T only, to impose silence upon someone who was speaking, and wrote it thus: ST. Plautus, in his comedy called Truculentus, in the act beginning, Rus mane me hinc THE - THIRD: BOOK 141 ive jussit Pater, introduces a character named Strabax, who says to him- self: Hodie efferam ad banc argentum quam mage amo quam Matrem meam. St ecquis? Nulla eS, ecquis aperit hoc ostium?* In like manner, Terence used it in his comedy called Phormio, where we find, Non is obsecro es, quem te semper dicunt, St. quid has metuis fores? + We, too, use this improper syllable ST, when we would make some one hold his peace and impose silence on him; but some write it Chut, which is a complete syllable, that is, a syllable containing a vowel. We might use the ST, as if we should say: Escoutez, St, escoutez, voyez ou vous vous boutes, Des lieux en ce monde, ou souvant mal on se fonde. I have said hereinbefore, when I discoursed upon the letter G, and the rebuses which some jesters make from letters, that he who con- ceived the rebus of the broad [large] S, which is called lettre de forme, & used it as his device, to signify covertly largesse, displayed a pleasant wit in the invention of that rebus; but if he had signified thereby Sélence, as the ancient Fathers did, he would have done even better. Silence and Largesse are two excellent qualities; but Silence is the more efficacious, as you can see in Chapter XV of the first Book of the Nottes Attica of Aulus Gellius, where we find in a passage from the poet Hesiod, — Optimus est homini linguæ thesaurus et ingens Gratia, quæ parcis mensurat singula verbis. That is to say, the tongue that restrains itself, and measures its words, is a very great treasure and sovereign charm. Ereon, I would that the great lords who take pleasure in building palaces and mansions, and who love paintings & emblems,would cause an S or ST to be written, painted, engraved, or carved over the doors of their halls & kitchens, in order covertly yet plainly to impose silence on a parcel of roisterers who make more uproar after drinking than a hundred starlings in harvest-time. That would be an admoni- tion, to small and great alike, to be restrained in speech, and to refrain from saying aught that is not pleasant and decent and necessary. I return to the discussion of our S, and observe that the Toulousans and Gascons commit an error in pronouncing it; for they place an E before it, in such wise that, if they wished to say, Schola or Scribere, or any like word beginning with S, they would say, Eschola and Escribere, * Truculentus, 111, 1, 17. + Phormio,v, 1,16. The ‘St’ is an interjection of Chremes between two speeches of So- phrona. * Tory wrote parhhw,eoar- Aov,ebalua, but there is no such Greek verb; and Sigma is not a component part of Phi. + Les Bretons bretonnants ; according to Cotgrave, a Bre- ton bretonnant is ‘A low Brit- an (sic), who speakes halfe welch, halfe Saxon, all bar- barously.’ 142 CHAMP FLEURY which isa great vice in Latin. I know not if this vice has befallen them because we say, in French, ‘escripre’ and ‘escole,’ and because in some words we place E before S, in imitation of the Greeks, who write and pronounce Epsilon before Sigma, that is to say, E before E, in the imper- fect and perfect tenses of verbs beginning with Sigma; also in words beginning with Zita, =1, & Psi, whereof Sigma is a part, saying, Uneiow EOTIEIOOV, eomagka. MTEEPW EoTEEdov, eoTeapa. Zaw, eCaov, eCuka. =ew, e€eov, efexa. Vadlu, eyadrov, eyalka.* The low Bretonst pronounce S very well, and like the Greeks; for between two vowels, they give it a full, solid sound, whereas we, like the Latins, weaken it & make it flat, so to speak. If these Bretons wished to say, Nisi musa desiderium amiserit, they would pronounce the S so full that there would seem to be two instead of one, saying, Nissi mussa dessiderium amissertt. | HE letter T here drawn, made from the I, is ten units in height like all the others, and eight and a half units in breadth at the top; and ~ the ends of its arms & its foot are curved by four turns of the compass; I have marked the centres whereon to set the point of the compass. Says Martianus Capella, appulsu lingua, dentibus impulsis excuditur That is to say, Tis pronounced by putting the tongue against the closed teeth. The Italians pronounce it so full & resonantly that it seems as if they add an E to it, when, instead of saying, Caput vertigine laborat, they pronounce, Capute vertigine laborate. I have heard it so pronounced in Rome, in the school called La Sapienza, and in many other distin- guished places in Italy. This pronunciation is in no wise followed bythe THE THIRD BOOK 143 people of Lyons, who drop the T, and do not pronounce it at all at the end of the third person plural of active and neuter verbs, saying Ama- verun and Araverun fore Amaverunt and Araverunt. In like manner some Picards drop the T at the end of certain French words, as when, mean- ing to say, Comant cela comant? Monsieur, cet une jument, they say, Coman chela coman? Monsieur, ches une jumen. Is of the same figure and shape in Greek and Latin, and is called in Greek, Taf, which denotes that it is without aspirate. The Latins and we have it sometimes alone and without an aspirate following, and sometimes we add the aspirate to it; but the Greeks have for T and H .asingle letter,which they call Outa. The Hebrews also have for T alone a single letter, which they call Terh, and another letter for T aspirated, which they call Thau.* AF,—that is to say, T,—as Asconius Pedianust says, was one of the three letters used by the ancients in their criminal trials and judge- ments. When they wished to condemn some person as guilty, they threw into a vessel made for that purpose the letter © written on a small bit of paper, or parchment, or some other like substance suitable to be written upon. When they wished to acquit, they threw into the said vessel the letter Taf, so written. And when they were in doubt about the pending cause, they threw in a Lambda, which signified that they had not as yet sufficient knowledge of the said cause. You will find this set forth in Proverb LVI of the first Chiliad of Erasmus, of which the title is © prafigere. Has C for a companion, which precedes tt, and is always joined to it in the same syllable, as in the words Peétus, Actus, & a thousand others; for which reason modern writers, following the ancient, still write c and ¢as one letter, called an abbreviation, written thus—@; and these two, as I have said, are always grouped with the following vowel in the same syllable, as—‘Pe-Gus,A-Gus, Ne-Go, Le-Gus, Pi-Gus; just as in the case of M before N, which must always be written with the N in the same syllable with the vowel that follows them, as in the words, Mne- stheus,-A-mnis, O-mnis, Sa-mnis,and other like words. I say this chiefly for the behoof of some who separate them, being ignorant of their af- finity and perpetual alliance, Before N also must be in the same syllable, as we see in the words Tle-ptolemus,t & Æ-tna. And in like manner before R,ascan be seen in a thousand words. * In the description of the He- brew alphabet, infra, p.162, Thau does not appear. The nearest approach to it is Tau. + O.-Asconius Pedianus, a learned grammarian of “Pa- dua, who wrote (A.D. 41) 4 valuable commentary on (ic- ero. tA curious inStance of Tory’s carelessness. * A mistake, of course, for Julius IL. There have been but three Popes called Julius. + He lived from about 1444 to 1514. His real name was “Donato d’Agnolo. 144 CHAMPSFEEURY Must not forget to say that Bramante, the great master architect of Pope Julius the Sixth,* whose tomb & epitaph I saw in the church of Minerva at Rome, made the T in the galleries of the said Pope Julius, between the Church of St. Peter and the Belvedere, with the end of the first arm in a perpendicular line & with the end of the other arm slant- ing a little, in a line drawn from the upper corner to the inner side of the base, which I have followed in my drawing, knowing full well that in triumphal arches the T has both arms cut perpendicularly. HE said Bramante was the most eminent architect—that is to say, master mason—of his time.t He it was who made the plan & model for rebuilding the Church of St. Peter at Rome for Pope Julius; and I believe that his judgement was not without good sense—which was to do this in order to give honour to the said letter T. But make tt as you please; I leave the choice to you. HE letter V here drawn is made from the I alone, and is of equal height & breadth; in its making it requires four turns of the com- pass, & I have marked here the centres whereon the point of the com- pass should be placed. Says Martianus Capella, ore constritto, labrisque prominulis exhibetur. That is to say, V should be pronounced in a voice somewhat con- fined at the beginning, & with the mouth closed; then the voice should come forth in full volume through lips projecting a little, as its form aalt — - | * 4 | THE THIRD BOOK 145 shows. [he figure and shape of this letter V are altogether like that of the Greek letter Lambda,—that is, the Greek L—but with this differ- ence, that the V has, as you see, the point at the bottom and is open at the top, and Lambda, on the contrary, is pyramid-shaped, that is to say, flat below and pointed at the top. Says Priscian in his first book, wherein he treats De accidentibus litera, is of its original nature & force a vowel; but it is very often a consonant; sometimes a simple consonant, & at other times a double — consonant, being made use of by the ancients in the same way that the Æolian Digamma fF was. Priscian’s words are as follows: ‘V vero [loco] consonantis posita, eandem prorsus in omnibus vim habuit apud Lat- inos quam apud Æoles digamma F. Vnde a plerisque ei nomen hoc datur quod apud Æoles habuit olim F Digamma, id est Vau, ab ipsius voce profectum, teste Varrone et Didymo, qui id ei nomen esse osten- dunt, Pro quo Cæsar hanc figuram : scribere voluit, quod quamvis illi rete visum est, tamen consuetudo antiqua superavit. Adeo autem hoc verum [est ] quod pro Aolico F digamma, V ponitur; quod sicut illi sole- bantaccipere digamma F, modo proconsonante simplici, teste Astyage, qui diversis hoc ostendit versibus,ut in hoc versu, Ogxopevoc Fekevav edt- kwmi8a; Sic NOs quoque pro consonante plerumque simplici habemus, V loco F digamma positum, ut, At Venus haud animo nequiquam exterrita mater. Est tamen quando tidem Æoles inveniuntur pro duplici quoque conso- nante digamma posuisse, ut, Neotoga de Fu naidoc. Nos quoque videmur hoc sequi in præterito perfecto tertiæ et quartæ conjugationis in quibus I ante V consonantem posita producitur eademque substracta corripi- tur, ut Cupivi, cupii; Cupiveram, cupieram; Audivi, audii; Audiveram, audieram. Inveniuntur etiam pro vocali correéta hoc digamma illi usi; ut Aleman: Kat xeiua nue te DaFiov. Est enim dimetrum iambicum, et sic est proferendum F, ut faciat brevem syllabam. Nostri quoque hoc ip- sum fecisse inveniuntur, et pro consonante V vocalem brevem accæpisse. Ut Horatius Sylvæ trissyllabum protulit in Epodo hoc versu: Nivesque deducunt Iovem, nunc mare, nunc sylvæ. Est enim dimetrum iambicum coniunétum pentimert hæroicæ quod aliter stare non potest, nisi Sylvz trissyllabum accipiatur.’* * Priscian, 1, IV, 20, 21. The original text bas ‘pen- themimeri' for pentimeri.57 * Or-Alcmacon. The greatest lyric poet of Sparta. Flour- ished in the 7th century, B.c. f Epodes, x11, 2. 146 CHAMP FLEURY That is to say: ‘Indeed this letter V, being put in place of a consonant, had in the Latin tongue always and everywhere a force similar to that which the F digamma had in the Æolian tongue; for which reason V has been called by many persons bythe same name that the Æolians had for thé said F digamma, which was Vau,according to its pronunciation, as witness Varro & Didymus, who said that it was called Vau; for which Vau Cesar chose to write this figure +; but although this figure seemed apt for the said V7, nevertheless ancient custom carried the day, and it was written thus—V. It is so true that the said V was used for the 5, Æo- lian digamma, that, just as the Æolians sometimes used the F digamma for a simple consonant, as Astyages shows in divers quoted verses, as in this one, Ooxopevoc -elevav edikwmida, SO the Latins often used V as a simple consonant in the stead of F, digamma, as in this verse: At Venus haud animo nequiquam exterrita mater. It happens also that the Æolians used their said digamma for a double consonant, as in this example: Nectoga de Fu nadoc, which practice the Latins seem to follow in the perfect and pluperfect tenses of verbs of the third & fourth conjugations, in which I, standing before V consonant, is lengthened in quantity, & when the V is dropped, the I remains short; as in Cupivi, cupit; Cupiveram, cupieram,; Audivi, audit; Audiveram, audi- eram. The Æolians also used their F digamma, leaving the preceding vowel short; witness the Greek poet Alcman:* Kat xeiya mug te 8aFtov. This last is an iambic verse, which should be scanned in such wise that the F leaves the preceding vowel,which isc Alpha, short. The Latins did likewise, leaving the vowel short before V,as Horace did when he made Sylua a word of three syllables,—Sy-/z-2,—in his Epodes,when he says: Nivesque deducunt Iovem, nunc mare, nunc sy-lu-2.t This example is an tambic dimeter, coupled with an heroic pentameter, which cannot be scanned unless the word Syluz is divided into three syllables.’ if Have quoted Priscian at great length, to show abundantly the proper pronunciation and all the other qualities of the V, to the end that it may be used as it should be; and to show that the Germans pronounce it as a consonant better than any other nation that I know on this side of the mountains, when they say, Fivat in aternum fundens mibi dulce Se PU ee ee ee a ee ER THE THIRD BOOK 147 falernum. And, in like manner, Fifo for vivo, Firtus for virtus, Finum for vinum, & a thousand others. The Italians pronounce it like a vowel after Gand Q, when they say Lingu-a, Aqu-a, and separate it from the A; and they pronounce as if it were followed by an O—Linguo-a, Aquo-a. We do not pronounce it as they do, which some consider to be a defect in us, & contrary to the art of grammar. HE letter X here drawn, made from the Ialone,requires eight turns of the compass,which are marked in their proper places in the draw- ing. It is broader at the bottom than at the top, where it is only eight units and two halves in breadth, as can be seen plainly in said drawing. Ï Have said that it is made from the I, & this is true according to my theory, although Galeotus Martius Narniensis said that it is made from a C reversed & the Greek Sigma; and the reason that moved him thereto is that X has the force of C and S,witness the excellent author, Martianus Capella,who says: X quicquid C et S formavit exibilat. That is to say, X is equivalent in force & in punctuation to C and S. Becareful, when you draw it and write it, not to make the opening as broad at the head as at the foot, or to put the foot at the top, as I see a great many mistakenly do; for the letter would be spoiled thereby. Esides the wise teaching of the worthy Martianus, already quoted, according to Priscian, in his first book, wherein he treats “De acci- dentibus litera, X is equivalent to G and S; for he says: X duplex, modo proC S, modo proG S, accipitur; ut Apex apicis, Grex gregis.* X, he says, isa double letter, that is to say, is equal to two letters—sometimes to C *1, VII, 43. 148 CHAMP FLEURY and S, and sometimes to G and S, as we see in the declension of these nouns & their like: Apex apicis, Grex gregis. In times past, the Latins, be- fore they had borrowed from the Greeks the letter X,—which, be it said, is different in form, for it resembles the Greek Chi, and not =1—wrote for X the said letters CS and GS in this wise—c Apecs apicis, Regs regis, Nucs nucis, and Gregs, gregis,as I saw in Rome, in divers ancient epitaphs, and as anyone can still see in the book of Epitaphs of Ancient Rome, printed in that city when I dwelt there. HEN the monosyllabic preposition Ex is combined with words beginning with S, the S cannot be written and is not to be pro- nounced, because three consonants may not stand together; as Ex and sequor, exequor; witness Priscian in the first book and the passage above cited, where he says: Nunquam enim S nec alia consonans geminari potest alia antecedente consonante. Never, he says, can S or any other consonant be doubled after another consonant. For which reason X, being a double consonant, cannot suffer S to follow it. Which rule many writers donot observe, for lack of paying due attention thereto, if Find many men who err in the proper pronunciation of X,when, in such words as Exaro, Exerceo, exequor, and a thousand others written with the preposition Ex, they Say JEUX, pronouncing NCUXAVO, VOUXETCED, yeuxequor; which isa great fault in the Latin tongue. If they would learn to pronounce rightly, following the rules of the excellent authors above- named, they should pronounce the words as if they were spelled Ecsaro, Ecserceo, Ecsequor, and then they will pronounce them very well. AY it not be displeasing to them, & toall other nations, that I speak of their faulty pronunciations; but let them reflect that what Ido is done to serve the public good, and to admonish them to accustom themselves to pronounce properly, which is one of the most laudable things that can be observed in every language & in every speaking man. HE Italians too, under correction, seem to me to err therein; for they make the letter thin & soft, as if they were pronouncing an S between two vowels, which has not so great force as Sigma between two vowels. If they wish to say, Uxor mea sicut vitis abundans, or Exequias patris exequar, they pronounce the words as if they were spelt, Usor mea, or Esequias patris esequar. Pere a ae a ee ee ee ete ms, Ade eed in de 7 ee +’ n> el ee THE THIRD BOOK 149 HE letter Ypsilon, here drawn, & fashioned from the I alone, is as broad at the headasit is high, & at the foot is of the exact breadth of the foot of the said I. And to be duly made it requires six turns of the compass, for which I have marked the places where the point of the com- pass must be set. This letter Y is called in Greek Y yiov, that is to say, in Latin, Y tenve,* & in French, Y that should be given a soft sound, or, as Martianus Capella says, pronounced appressis labris spirituque procedens, that is to say, proceeding & issuing between the lips with the breath. Itis properly a Greek letter, & the Latins appropriated it, to write only those Greek words in which it requires to be written and pronounced. We use it, not only in words which we have taken from the Greek, as Ypocrite, Ypocrisye, Physique, Metaphysique, & many other similar ones, but in our French words, too, as when we say, ‘Enfans sans soucy; ‘En esmoy ne sont jamais; ‘Et pourquoy? ‘Bon temps les meyne;’ ‘A tout joyeulx sou- las’ —Soucy, Esmoy, Quoy, Meyne,and Loyeulx. In like manner,innumerable other French words are written with Ypsilon,which may be tous a mani- fest proof that the Greek letters were current here before the Latin. The Latins, as I have said, did not use Ypsilon, or Zéta,and do not use them now, unless in words which they have borrowed from the Greeks, Wit- ness Priscian,who says at the end of the chapter “De literarum commuta- tione, in his first book: Ypsilon et Zeta tantummodo ponuntur in Gracis dic- tionibus, quamvis in multis veteres hac quoque mutasse inveniuntur, et proy,V; pro Z, vero quod pro SS conjunétis accipitur, vel pro S et D posuisse: ut Fuga, Murrha, pro ®uyu, Mueea; Sagunthus, Maffa, pro Zakuvôoc, Mala; Odor quoque ano tov ole; Sethus pro ZuBoc dicentes, et Medentius pro Mezen- tius. Ergo Corylus et Lympha ex ipsa scriptura a Gracis sumpta non est *He means that the Greek Wihoc and the Latin tenuis are synonymous. *Priscian, 1, VIII, 49. 7 11.9. The true text bas ‘tu- isque for ‘tuis qua, © ‘li- mant’ for ‘libant.’5® 150 CHAMP FLEURY dubium, cum per Ypsilon scribantur ano tov kogudov, kat THs Auuouc.* That is to say: ‘the two letters Y and Z are used only in Greek words, although they are often found changed into other letters; as when V is used for Y,and SS joined, or S & D, for Z, as in these words: Fuga, Murra, for Duyn & Mugea; Sagunthus and Maffa for Zaxuvec and Mala; Odor also is said for ano tou o¢ew; in like manner they said Serhus for Zu8oc, and Medentius for Mexentius. Therefore Corylus and Lympha, being taken from the Greek, must without doubt be written with y, since in Greek they are ano Tou KoguAoU, kat The AUUHC, IN which there is Ypsilon.’ N the beginning, when the Latins received and put in use the said Ypsilon, some wrote it & others did not, & those who did not choose to write it, put in its place a V, vowel | U], as in the words Cymex, Cumex: Cypressus, Cupressus; Inclytus, Inclutus, as we can see in the works of the ancient poet Lucretius,from whom we shall take only this one example, which is at the beginning of the third book: Tu pater es rerum inuentor, tu patria nobis Suppeditas præcepta, tuis qua ex INCLVTE chartis Floriferis vt apes in saltibus omnia libant.t ie this wise many Latin words derived from the Greek have changed Ypsilon into V, as may be seen in these words of frequent occurrence: Pupvroc, Rhomulus; Mukoc, Buxus; Toepueeoc, Purpureus; Xuc, Sus; Muc, Mus; Tovu, Genu, and a thousand other like words; but in the greater number it is left untouched. if Must not forget to say here that Ypsilon was invented longago by the noble philosopher, born in the island of Samos, Pythagoras, in which letter he represented the age of adolescence,when youth is drawn toward pleasure or toward virtue; the allegory being that Hercules, that is to say, man inclined toward virtue, when he was at the said age of adoles- cence,walking one day through the fields alone, & lost in thought, came to a broad road which forked and divided into two roads, one of which was very broad and the other very narrow; and onthe broad road was a dame named Pleasure,who held out her hand to him to bid him come; & on the narrow road was another named Virtue,who likewise wished to make him enter upon her road. Of which allegory Cicero, in the first book of his De Officiis, wherein he treats of Temperance, has left us an EE ET 2 EE er ET Ne Se ee Se ne QU EE En, € ie BEIRDSBOOK 151 account in writing when he says, citing Xenophon: Namque Herculem Prodicus dicit, ut est apud Xenophontem, cum primum pubesceret, quod tempus a natura ad deligendum quam quisque viam viuendi sit ingressurus, datum est extjsse in solitudinem, atque ibi sedentem diu secum multumque dubitasse, cum duas cerneret vias, nam Voluptatis, alteram Virtutis,vtram ingredi melius esset.” That is to say: “Ihe ancient Greek Prodicus, as it is written in the works of an author, also a Greek,named Xenophon, once said that Her- cules,at the age of puberty,was walking one dayalone through the fields, when he came, thinking deeply, to a road that divided into two roads— one of Pleasure, the other of Virtue; and there he hesitated long as to which road would be the better to take” The ancient philosophers and poets opined that he chose the road of Virtue, which was the narrower, when they sang in his praise & described so many feats of strength that he performed, and so many obstacles that he persevered to overcome,to conquer the monsters he encountered in the said road of Virtue. N regard to this Pythagorean letter,divided,as has been said, into two roads, the one of Pleasure & the other of Virtue, the noble Mantuan poet, Virgil, has left us a fine description thereof, when he says, in his lesser works: Littera Pytagoræ discrimine secta bicorni, Humane vite speciem præferre videtur. Nam via virtutis dextrum petit ardua callem, Difficilemque aditum primum spectantibus offert, Sed requiem præbet fessis in vertice summo. Molle ostentat iter via lata, sed ultima meta Præcipitat captos, voluitque per ardua saxa. Quisquis enim duros casus virtutis amore Vicerit, ille sibi laudemque decusque parabit, At qui desidiam luxumque sequetur inertem Dum fugit oppositos incauta mente labores, Turpis inopsque simul miserabile transiget ævum.60 HAT is to say: “The letter of Pythagoras,which is divided into two horns, shows us in its shape the course of our mortal life; inasmuch asthe noble path of Virtue stretches away on the right side, in such wise that at the beginning it is narrow and very difficult, but at the end, and above, it widens and affords space for repose. The other road,which is *De Officéis 1, 32.59 152 CHAMP FLEURY broad, offers avery easy passage, but at the very end there is much stum- bling over many a sharp stone, huge rock, and steep cliff. Of a surety he who shall endure heat and cold, and such matters, to reach the side of Virtue, shall acquire all praise and all honour. But he who like a slug- gard shall follow every sort of idleness and riotous living, whilst un- thinkingly he shuns all toil & labour, he is all bemused that he remains infamous, poor, and wicked, and that he has passed his time wretchedly and employed it ill’ OOK well to it, therefore, O ye young children, & leave not behind you the knowledge of well-made letters—the true buckler against adversity and all ills, and the means to attain to the supreme felicity of this mortal life, which is perfect virtue; which at the last bestows upon us the prize of honour, the wreath & the palm, leaving the slothful & the vicious behind, to perish wickedly in their ordure & their execrable life. O give you more clearly to understand this divine Pythagorean letter Ypsilon, I have drawn it for you once more. Imagine that THE THIRD BOOK 153 . the upright and broadest limb is the road of Adolescence, the broader of the two arms the road of Pleasure,and the narrower arm the road of Virtue, to the end that you may make of it a guerdon of your good memory and virtuous contemplation, to hang in your study and closet. Le upon the graceful & beautiful image that I have made for you, O young and excellent lovers of Virtue, and mark well how on the slope of the road of Pleasure I have drawn and attached a sword, a scourge, rods, a gibbet, & a flame, to show that at the end of Pleasure wait & follow all lamentable ills & grievous torments. On the side of the road of Virtue, I have made another slope, whereon I have placed and attached the figures of a laurel wreath, palm leaves,a sceptre,and a crown, to give it to be known and understood that from Virtue proceed all pure glory, all reward, all honour, and all royal preéminence. Have also drawn close by another figure allegorized in the ancient manner; you may make such profit of it as you can, taking in good part my humble diligence in giving you pleasure and honest service. Could say many other fine things, but for this time I will pass on, coming to design and.describe the last letter of our Attic alphabet, Zeta, which Frere Lucas Paciolus did not include in his Divina Propor- tione; & the reason why he omitted it, I have never been able to under- stand, nor indeed do I care to know it. * See note on page 84. The same work is cited also on pages 116,122, 147. Ÿ L, VIII, 49. TAN, 2E 154 CHAMP FLEURY HE letter Zeta here drawn, and made from the I alone, is at the bottom as broad as it is high, & at the top its breadth is eight units and two halves only, and it requires only two turns of the compass, for which I have marked the centres upon which to place the point of the said compass. : N his second book, De Homine Interiori, Galeotus Martius says: Zeta non es litera, sed duplex sibilus; id est, duplex SS et hoc ejus figura bis in- torta indicat™:‘ Zeta is not a letter, but is a double hissing sound which is equivalent to twoS’s, as its shape, requiring two turns of the compass, shows.’ Zeta, in truth, is not a Latin but a Greek letter, although the Latins have appropriated it as they have the Ypsilon, to write words derived from the Greek, which they have taken into their language; witness Priscian whom I have quoted hereinbefore where I treat of the said Ypsilon, when he says: Ypsilon et Zeta tantummodo ponuntur in Gracis dittionibus.t Zeta is said to have the force of a double letter, as X has; witness the said Priscian at the end of his first book and also a little farther on. It was used by the ancient Latins for two S’s and for S & D,and as he says: Zeta vero proSS conjunttis accipitur, vel proS et D; ut Massa pro Mala et Medentius pro Melevtioc; and a little before the end of the first book and the passage quoted: Quin etiamS simplex habet aliquam cum supra dictis cognationem, unde sæpe pro Zeta eam solemus gemi- natam ponere. Ut “Patrisso pro Mateilu, Massa pro Mata.t That is to say: ‘And similarly S has some affinity & connection with the above-men- tioned letters X & Zeta, for which reason often our custom is to double the said S for Zeta, as in the words Patrisso for Natpilw and Massa for ee ee ee ee eS ee TU \ 1 4 \ ‘ N à THE THIRD BOOK 155 Mala. Martianus Capella does not say whether it is a Latin or Greek letter, nor does he teach how it should be pronounced, except that he says simply that Appius Claudius held it in detestation because, when it is pronounced, it resembles the teeth of a dead man, who usually has his teeth all awry. This is what he says: Zeta vero iccircoc Appius Claudius deteStatur quod dentes mortui dum exprimitur, imitatur. It should be pro- nounced as if one wished to utter Sand D, or two S’s, which rule seems to be well observed at Bourges, where when they wish to pronounce it, they say Esd, and come very near the ancients, who instead of saying Gaxa, pronounced and very often wrote Gasda. Celius Rhodiginus, in the XVIII chapter of book VII of his Ancient Lessons, writes that Zeta is not only the name ofa letter, but signifies the seat of the judges and masters of the Chamber of Accounts in the old days in Athens, when he says: Sicut Zeta dici valet locus in quo Zetetæ obuersantur, erant enim eo nomineAthenis Magistratus quidam ad quos referebantur qui Reip. aliquid deberent, nec soluerent.* That is to say: ‘Zeta signifies the place where the masters and judges of the public revenue formerly sat in Athens, before whom those persons were summoned and compelled to come who were in arrears and did not pay in full.’ O then, on this subject, I can say that the worthy ancient fathers covertly and purposely placed this as the last letter in alphabetical order, to indicate that those who are perfectly accomplished & learned in well-made letters are inspectors and sovereign judges of the revenue and of the knowledge of the seven Liberal Arts & of the nine Muses, without knowledge of whom man can be neither learned nor perfect. And to show before your eyes and very clearly that this noble letter Zeta is so well-proportioned that it contains within itself every token of perfection, I have so drawn it below that the seven Liberal Arts and the nine Muses with their Apollo are placed therein in such marvellous proportion and disposition that you can plainly understand that the means which I have used to make and design all our preceding Attic letters is more reasonable and better advised than that of those who choose to make them of seven or eight or nine units of height only and not of ten,as you have seen and under- stood that I have done through- out all that has gone before. * The proper reference is Chapter xxvil, not XVI. 156 CHAMP FLEURY FOS VA Gay nO) eV 1b tee Saar VoL RV Ste Bas il ER cd ENTRE ME RES: = Gl A | a J Ip e | Polywna, X,Y, 0} whereof the value and pronunciation are as follows: 4/pha is equivalent to an A; Vita is equivalent to B,and sometimes to V consonant; Gamma is equivalent to G, Delta to D; Epsilon is an E pronounced short; Zita is equivalent to Esd, that is to say, Z; Ita is equivalent to an I long in metrical quan- tity,and is often changed from Greek into Latin for a long E; Théta is equivalent to Th; Jota is I, always a vowel in Greek (in Latin and in French the letter I is sometimes a consonant); Cappa is sometimes equivalent to K, sometimes to C, & sometimes to the letter Q; Lambda is equivalent to the letter L, 1% to M, and Gui to N; XZ is equivalent to X; Omicron is equivalent to short O; Pi is equivalent to P, Rho toR, Sigma to S, Taf to T; Ypsilon is equivalent to I pronounced softly, for it must be pronounced much more.softly than the Latin vowel I; Ph is equivalent to Ph, Chi to Ch, Psi to Ps, and Omega to a long O. These twenty-four letters are divided, first of all, into two parts, vowels and consonants. The vowels are seven in number, as follows: Alpha, Epsilon, Ita, Iota, Omicron, Ypsilon, and Omega : À, E, H, 1, O, Y, Q. The consonants are seventeen in number, that is to say: Vita, Gamma, Delta, Lita, Thita, Cappa, Lambda, Mi, Gni, Xi, Pi, Rho, Sigma, Taf, Phi, Chi, Psi. B,T,A,Z, ©, K, A,M, N, =, I, P,=,T, ®, X,V, & in small letters, B, y, à, 4,6, « |, À, u,v, 1, ©, 0,7, 6, x. Of the seven vowels, two are primarily long in metrical quantity, and these are Ita and Omega: H,Q,u,u. Two are short—Epsilon, that is to say, short E without an aspirate, and Ozzicron, that is to say, short O: E,O,:,0. There are also three common ones, which may sometimes be long in quantity and sometimes short; and these arec A/pha, Iota, and Ypsilon: A,1,Y,a,1,u. Of these seven vowels six proper diphthongs can be made: for from Alpha and Iota is made the diphthong AI, a; of Alpha and Ypsilon is made the diphthong AY, av; of Omicron and Iota is 5] HE Greeks do not read backward from right to left as the || Hebrews do, but from left to right as the Latins & French. nc ens seh GREEK LETTERS 169 made OL oi; of Epsilon and Ypsilon, EY, ev; of Epsilon and Iota, El, 1; and of Omicron & Ypsilon OY, ov. These proper diphthongs are pronounced, Ae, Af, Ef, I, and ©. Besides these five* proper diphthongs there are four improper ones, and they are called improper because they are not formed of two separate vowels, but the last vowel is in some sort less- ened in its size or changed in plan. These improper diphthongs are four in number & are made as follows: The first is made of the whole Alpha and of Iota, only half as tall as the said 4/pha; and in small letters it is made of the wholec 4/ph4 and of the Iota changed into a very small point and placed under the middle of the said 4/pha thus: Au, a3 and this diphthong thus made is pronounced like A. The second improper diphthong is written as a capital with Ita, & Tota following it only half as tall as Ita; in small letters [ora is convert- ed into a small point placed under the middle of the said Iza, thus: Hi,4; and this diphthong thus written is pronounced like long I. The third improper diphthong as a capital is made with Omega,and with Iota following of half the size of the Omega; in small letters the Iota is changed into a small point placed directly under the middle of the Omega, thus: Qi, 0; and this is pronounced like long O. The fourth and last improper diphthong, in capitals, is made of the Ypsilon and of Iota only half its size; but in small letters the Iota must be attached to the Ypsilon behind, and have its tail hanging below the lower limb of the Ypsilon, thus: Yi,u; and this improper diphthong ts pronounced like Ypsilon, half soft and half hard. The rest of the Greek letters, as I have said before, are all conso- nants and are seventeen in number, of which eight are semi-vowels; Zita, Xi, Psi, Lambda, Mi, Gni, Rho, & Sigma, which are formed thus: Z, =,¥, A, M, N, P, =; of which semi-vowels three are double, Z, =, & WY, and four liquid, A, M, N, P. The other consonants are mutes and these are nine in number: B, I, A, K, I, T, ©, ®, & X; of which three are not aspirated: K, II, and T; three are aspirated: ©, ®, and X; and three are medial, that is to say, half not aspirated and half aspirated: B,I’,and A. Of all these twenty-four letters hereinbefore enumerated & made in their proper shapes, syllables can be made and from syllables, words, & in like manner from words, discourses, as you can see abundantly in the grammar of Constantine Lascaris, of Chrysoloras, of the learned and elegant Urban, of Theodosius Gaza, and of many other noble and exalted authors both ancient and modern. * Tory names six but gives the pronunciation of only five, omitting OI. HERE FOLLOW THE GREEK CAPITAL LETTERS :ABTAEZ HOIK A -_ Om PET X YA Peo oKiP TION OP ThE LATIN LETTERS - commonly called Roman letters are in value &shape pure- ly Greek, as you can see & understand if you but study them carefully. The Romans took from the Greeks the Alpha, the Vita, the Gamma, of which last they made their letter L by turning it upside down. They took Epsilon, Zita, and the long vowel called Ita,and made of this last their aspirate. They took Iota'and Cappa. They took Lambda, and by turning it upside down they made their fifth vowel, V. They took Taf, Ypsilon, and Chi, of which last they mistakenly made the letter X. Of all these above-named letters the symbols are as follows: A, B, turned to make L, E, Z, H, I,K, A turned to make V, M,N, O,B, T; Yand X, which make sixteen in all. Sothat of letters purely Latin, there are only C, D, G, & the letter F, and the F is not Latin but first Æolian & then Greek. For the Æolians, who invented it, are a noble nation of Greece; they made it, as I have said already several times, of Gamma placed upon another Gamma. The letter R, in like manner, is made from the Greek letter Rho, by adding to ita half-recumbent limb. In this way we can conclude that the Latins have only five letters of their own, C, D,G, Q,and S. Our French letters are not taken thus from the Greek or from the Latin letters, but rather are indigenous and native in their shapes. One might sometimes think that they bear some resemblance to the Hebrew letters because for the most part they approach their shape, as you will be able to see hereafter in the French Lettres Cadeaulx, in the Lettre de Forme,and likewise in the Bastarde,and the Tourneure. The Latins then have, in letters borrowed and their own, twenty- three in all: A,B,C, D,E,F,G,H,I,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T, V, X, Y, Z. These are divided by the grammarians, first, into six vowels: A, E, I, O, V, Y,and seventeen consonants; B,C, D, F,G,H,K,L,M, N, R.Q,R,S, T, X, Z. The vowels are divided into two classes—prepositive [placed before ]and subjunctive [placed under ]. The prepositive are three: A, E, O; the subjunctive also are three: E, V, and I. The Ypsilon is neither placed before nor under another letter to make a Latin diphthong; but it often is in French diphthongs, as you can readily understand by reading books in the French language. The vowels are called prepositive or subjunctive because some can, 172 LATING LE ECE Ro as it is said, be placed before or placed under the others, to make diph- thongs, which are five in number, AE, OE, AV, EV, EL in Latin; but in French there are, besides these five, seven others as he can see who shall look well to it. | The seventeen consonants are divided into seven semi-vowels: L, — M,N, R,S, X, Z; and eight mutes: B, C, D, F,G, P,Q, T. The semi- vowels are divided into four liquids: L, M, N, R; & two double letters: X and Z. The two letters K & S, according to Aldus and other good authors, remain simple & pure consonants. From letters one makes syllables, from syllables words, and from words discourse. Do your duty by them. HERE FOLLOW THE SAID LET Tens CALLED LATIN OR ROMAN. * Quilz doibvent quadrer © accorder du quart a leur lettre Lineaire & Textuaire. Ÿ See Note 27. DESCRIPTION OF THE FRENCIVEE DIRES SIN common usage we have in France several sorts and fash- A |S ionings of letters: first, the Cadeaul.x, which are used at the SH] beginning of books written by hand and at the beginning #5] of verses also written by hand. These Cadeaulx must be higher than the letters on the line which follow them, by a fourth of the height, and for this reason they are called Cadeaulx,as who should say Quadreaulx, that is, they must be adjusted to the quarter [quart] of the lineal letters in the text.* The teachers of writing embellished & enriched them with foliage, faces, birds & a thousand pretty things, at their pleasure, to show what they could do. Sigismund Fante,a noble Ferrarian, in his book entitled Thesauro De Scrittori,t has drawn them in excellent proportions, if not that they are a little too thin & starved- looking. I set them down for you here in their usual shape and without labelling them; if you wish to embellish them, do it at your pleasure. N like manner we have the Lettre de Forme, which must be five times as high as it is broad, as in the I and the other letters made from I. The long letters 8,9, f, 6, &, f, p, 4, f, 62, & 3 must be seven times as high as they are wide, which rule the said Sigismund Fante did not suffi- ciently well observe in his book, for he makes them too long and thin. N addition to the Lettre de Forme, we have the Lettre BaStarde, which is of almost the same nature as the said Lettre de Forme, if not that it is thinner and is to be made only as small letters. The said Sigismund has chosen to make it in his book by squares and circles; but he has erred therein by making it too starved and thin, and by splitting the top and the tail of the long letters into two points. E have, too, the Lettre Tourneure, with which the ancients wrote epitaphs upon the tombs of the departed. They wrote them also on glass, and on tapestries, as we can see in many old monasteries; but _ to-day printers use them at the beginning of their books and chapters. N printing there are many diverse shapes of letters, like the Lettre de Forme which is called Canon, & Lettre Bastarde with which books have always been printed in France heretofore; there are the Lettre Ronde, Lettre Bourgeoise, Lettre de Sommes, Lettre Romaine, Lettre Grecque, Lettre Hebraique, and the Lettre Aldine, which is called Aldine because it was introduced by Aldus, the noble Roman printer who once lived and printed in Venice. It is graceful because it is thin, as the Greek small letter is, but not the capital. L 17 LETTRE TOURNEURE Hm oR mh Medeor ADWITIONAL LETTERS Ollowing these four styles of French letters, that is to say, Cadeaulx, Forme, Bastarde, & Tourneure, I have drawn for you the letters which the aforesaid Sigismund says to have been used by the Persians, the Arabs, the Africans, the Turks, and the Tartars; for he speaks thus of those which I have copied after him: Questo Alphabetto serve a Persi, a Arabi, Aphricani, Turchi, e Tartari. That is to say: “This alphabet is used by the Persians, the Arabs, the Africans, the Turks, and the Tartars.’ These letters must be read toward the left like the Hebrew, and their names are as follows, beginning always at the end of a line: 4/iph, Be, Te, The, Zim, Che, Chi, Dal, Zil, Ix, Xe, Sin, SSin, Sat, Zat, Ty, Zi, Hain, Gain, Fe, Caph, Eiep, Lam, Mim, Nim, Vau, Eliph, Lam, Ge, Nulla. These are thirty in number, and there are some which are named like the He- brew, although they are different in form. Have followed the said Sigismund Fante, also in the names and fig- ures of the Chaldaic letters, which are twenty-two in number & are also written from right to left, like the Hebrew & Arabic letters. Their names are as follows: Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, He, Vau, Zain, Heth, Theth, lod, Caph, Lamed, Mem, Nun, Samech, Hain, ‘Pe, Zadi, Cof, Ress, Scin,Tau, The said Fante says that the Hebrews used them in the time of Moses, when they were in the desert. His own words are as follows: Questo soprascritto Alphabetto e Caldeo el quale usuano, li Hebrei nel tempo de Moyse nel deserto. That is to say: “This alphabet is the Chaldaic, which the Hebrews used in the time of Moses in the desert.’ HEN, after the Chaldaic letters, come in their order the Goffes and Lourdes, which Sigismund Fante calls Imperial and Bullatic letters; but I call them Goffes & Lourdes, because they were left in Rome at the time when the Goths conquered it and reduced it to ashes, to- gether with all learning and letters, in such wise that, if it had not been for the volumes of the Digests, the whole Latin language would have perished and been destroyed. The unhappy Romans, then, after their destruction, in their anger with the Goths, when they wished to say something was lumpish, they called it Gofte, and as time passed on it was corrupted into the word Goffe, which word they use to this day for anything lumpish and uncomely. PERSIAN, ARABIC, AFRICAN, TURKISH & TARTAR LETTERS GS UV L > 3.5 CR LÉ Ww lw WS « GOLD, ordi SR Oe Ps 180 le nee ee CHALDAIC LETTERS GOFFES, IMPERIALS OR BULLATICS 182 ADDITIONAL; LETTERS 183 HE Fantastic letters come next in order, which I have drawn for you after the copy that I brought from Rome. Well I know that there are those who will make sport of them; but I shall patiently let them say what they will, contenting myself with taking pleasure in conferring an honourable service upon those who love good things. Even if there are some who decry them, good men will praise them & will esteem them no less for their antiquity than because I bring them before the public eye. HE Egyptians in their ceremonies wrote in hieroglyphics, as the ancient author Orus Apollo* tells us at great length in Greek. We find the fact in Latin, too, and I have translated it into French to make a present of it toa nobleman & good friend of mine. The Egyptians, as I have said, wrote in hieroglyphics, to the end that the unlettered people could understand their ceremonies without having a profound knowledge of philosophy. For the works which they wrote were de- vised according to the nature of beasts, birds, fishes, insects, and a thou- sand other like things, as you can easily and abundantly read in the said Orus Apollo. I have seen some of these hieroglyphics in Rome in a porphyry in the great square in front of Notre Dame la Ronde, and on an obelisk and pyramid which stands near the church of the Cordeliers, in Ara Coeli, near the Capitol,and on another obelisk near La Minerve; also in a house near the Palace of Mount Jordan where there is painted an ox’s head with two horns and a frog hanging to the two horns, and above it an eye; & next that a kettle full of fire,a man’s face, a vessel from which water is flowing, violets in a jar, an eye over a shoe, a ship’s anchor, a crane holding a stone with one of her feet, and a dolphin on a lamp which is held by a hand. In this fashion, as I have said, the Egyptians wrote hieroglyphics, as you can see and un- derstand in the works of the above-quoted Orus Apollo, who says at the beginning of his work: Ævwm significantes, Solem O Lunam descri- bunt, eo qui sint hi “Planeta avi elements. Aivum aliter scribere volentes, Ser- pentem pingunt caudam reliquo corpore tegentem,eum vocant Ag ypttj Vreum, id est Basiliscum; quo quidem aureo formato “Deos circundant. Ævum autem dicunt Aig yptij per hoc animal significari,quem cum sint tria genera serpentum, catera quidem moriuntur; hoc solum et immortale. Hoc © quodlibet aliud animal solo sputum afflans absque morsu interimit. Unde cum vite et necis potestatem habere videatur, propter hoc ipsum Deorum capiti imponunt. The * See Note 50. * The Steel used for Striking fire from a flint. + Sir Thomas More. 184 ADDITIONAL LETTERS translation is as follows: The Egyptians, wishing to signify life everlast- ing, paint a sun and a moon, because these are two planets which are of very long duration. Wishing to signify this life everlasting in another way, they draw a serpent having its tail concealed under its body; and this serpent is called by the Egyptians Vreus, that is to say, Basilisk. They make it of gold, then put it around their Gods, and say that im- mortality is signified by this serpent, because there are three sorts of serpents but this one alone is immortal, and is of such nature that, by hissing alone, without biting, he kills every other beast & living thing. Return then to our Fantastic letters,and say that, in imitation of the Egyptian manner of writing, they are made by symbolsand pictures, but not in accordance with natural philosophy, like those of the Egyp- tians. The first is an A, represented by an open compass; the second isa B, represented by a Fusy;*the third is aC, represented bya handle; & so with all the others in succession. If you desire to see them made in the Egyptian fashion, you will find some beautiful and well-made ones in many excellent passages of Polyphilus. Eing desirous to spare no pains in conferring graceful service upon you, I have added also the Utopian letters, which I call Utopian because Morus Langloist has drawn them in the book which he called Insula Utopia, the Utopian Isle. These are letters which we might call Voluntary letters, made at one’s pleasure, as are those which the makers of ciphers and decipherers drew in such shape and formas they chose, to compose new things, which cannot be understood without knowing the alphabet of the said Voluntary letters. i making an end of our work, and praising our Lord God; likewise in taking humble and grateful leave of you, I have put with all the aforementioned divers sorts of letters, those which are Floriated, that is to say, surrounded with antique flowers & foliage, to be used in making letters of gold or to be coloured in beautiful books, whether written by hand or printed. FANTASTIC EEE TERS 186 UTOPIAN AND VOLUNTARY LETTERS A 4 à i 6908 in G © 9 CA FC. I LS x y à LS Bear 187 PLORIATLED LETTERS (i & == DS 9! xs) > Mem NAN) KI LL 188 CIPHERS AND INTERLACED LETTERS » (D at K M NN ¢ À 1 a 4 j 4 ni. d A L à SHORT RULES FOR MAKING CIPHERS HE method of making ciphers, which are commonly inscribed in gold rings, on tapestry, on glass, in paintings, & in many other ways, to represent the names and surnames of the gentleman and his lady, is to take the first letters of the said names & surnames, & interlace them in a combination which is well adapted to them. For there are letters which accord better with one another than some others; and when such accord is pleasing to the eye, be sure that those divine letters covertly denote some suitable infusion of grace between those whose cipher is thus made. But observe that the best ciphers are of only two letters, or of three or four at most. If there are more it isa wonder if they doaccord well; for too many letters together are no more graceful than a bunch of thorns, since some being placed upon others make such confusion that one does not know at all what the letters are. One does not know whether they are letters or thorns or, as they say,a magpie’s nest. Make them of as few letters as you can, and model them upon those which I have here made for you. Cue can be made also of Greek letters by interlacing them with eachother; also one might well make many other different sorts of letters, according as the gentleman or the lady, or both together, might choose. Different persons wish them made in different ways. I find some who arrange them well enough, and these, as I said before,are they who make them of two or three letters. I find others who combine so many letters that there is not one of them which is left entire; and, what is worse, they curtail some of them, mutilate others,and make others one- half too small, which is contrary to the art of all well-made letters. It is well for you to observe that letters are so noble and so divine that they should not be in any wise misshapen, mutilated, or changed from their proper shape. For, as I have said and shown most abundantly in many places of this work of ours, they resemble the human body, in accord- ance with the proportions of which I have drawn the Attic letters. If one should take away the arm, the leg, or the head of a man, it would no longer be a man, but would rather resemble a stump or the trunk of a tree. So, in like manner, if one mutilates a letter in any way whatso- ever, it is no longer a letter, but a counterfeit, or a thing so evil that one could not give it a fitting name, unless he should say that it was a mon- ster. On the other hand, if too many letters are gathered together, they 190 CIPHERS can no more be recognized or distinguished than would be fifteen or twenty men who were all heaped one upon another. When we see two men standing side by side, or three, or perchance four, we can clearly distinguish one from another; but even among four, there is some one who cannot be wholly seen, because of the obstacle made by the one standing in front of him. Wherefore, my good lords & devout lovers of well-made letters,when it shall please you to make ciphers in gold rings or otherwhere, make them of two, of three, or of four letters, without changing or reducing any one from its proper shape, & you will do well. [ Have drawn them in only ten ways, some of two letters, others of three, some of four, and others of more; but I have drawn those of more than four, not to persuade you that you should always do so, but to show you that a too great number of letters, some upon others, make confusion among themselves, and are not so pleasing to the eye as two or three, or four at most. I could have drawn five hundred or a thousand for you in various graceful fashions, but if it is your pleasure to amuse yourself with them, make as many or as few as you please. It is a very respectable pastime to practise, THE END OF FETE ats FOR MAKING CIPHERS. Now I will make an end to this book of ours, giving praise to ré: Lord Jesus for having assisted me with his favour and begging him to give you his love to your utmost satisfaction. ay: Le as tx > LEA more ree “Soa és 4 si F3 (| SD : A b N Ne NN | fees re Megs as, “fig £ iY A EAN, Q VINGPAS op le ZA eg. Sie > N N Here endeth this present book, with the addition of thirteen different styles of letters, & the manner of making ciphers for gold rings, or other things. The printing was finished on Wednesday the twenty-eighth day of the month of April in the year one thousand five hundred twen- ty-nine, for Maistre Geofroy Tory of Bourges, author of said book,and bookseller living at Paris, who has it for sale on the Petit Pont at the Sign of the Pot Cassé; and for Giles Gourmont, also a bookseller living in said Paris, who has it for sale on Rue Sainct Jaques at the Sign of the Trois Coronnes. NOTES NOTE 1. PAGE vi. The works of Dürer which Tory mentions here are, first (Geometry): Underweysung der Messung mit dem Zirckel und ‘Richtscheyt in Linien, Ebnen und ganzen Corporen, Nurem- berg, 1525; second (Fortifications): Etliche Underricht zu Befetigung der Stett, Schloss und Flecken, Nuremberg, 1527; and third (Proportions of the Human Body): Hierinnen sind begriffen vier “Bucher von menschlicher Proportion, Nuremberg, 1528. On pages 34-36 will be found a discussion of a part of the first of these volumes, there referred to as Diirer’s ‘book on Perspective.’ This reference to works published in 1527 and 1528 is interesting chiefly as showing that Tory rehandled his work to some extent between the date of the ‘Privilege’ (1526) and that of the ‘achevé d'imprimer’ (April, 1529). : NOTE 2. PAGE viii. This passage may be made a little more easily intelligible by a brief paraphrase of _ the description given by Aulus Gellius in the book and chapter cited by Tory. The ancient Lacedæmonians, to ensure the letters sent to their generals against capture and detection by the foe, devised missives of this sort. Making two rods ex- actly identical with each other, they gave one to the general and kept the other in the hands of the magistrates at home. When occasion arose to despatch instructions to the army in the field, the magistrates wound a strip of leather, of moderate thickness, spirally around the rod, joining edge to edge. They then wrote lengthwise over the junctures of the strip, so that the writing was undecipherable when the strip was re- moved from the rod, and intelligible only when it was applied to the identical rod in the hands of the general. This kind of epistle the Lacedæmonians called oxutdAn. Erasmus says in the ‘Proverb’ cited: ‘Trisis scytale was used of something baneful and frenzied, or of a message of a sort which brought pain. . . . Which, indeed, seems capable of being applied not without sense either to a very short letter or to one that is cryptic and written about secret matters, or to one that is distressing and announces bad news. What a scytale Laconica is, however, Aulus Gellius states. But it will be better to write his own words.’ Then follows the passage of Gellius summarized above. It has proved to be a matter of so much difficulty to reconcile Tory’s numbering of the Proverbs (or Adages) of Erasmus with that in any of the available editions, that the effort has been abandoned as hardly worth while. The first edition (1500), under the title Collectanea adagiorum, contains 800 items, put together with scanty eluci- dations. The second edition (1508), conceived on broader and more learned lines, justified a new title and redistribution into groups of hundreds (centons) and thousands (chiliades). The title of this edition is: _Adagiorum Chiliades Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami quatuor cum sesquicenturia ex postrema autoris recognitione. The later editions with num- bered references follow-this system. Other editions have the proverbs arranged alpha- betically, but with no numbers. It happens that this first reference to the Adages is almost the only one in which Tory’s numbering corresponds with that of the edition of 1508. NOTE3. PAGE xxi. Rabelais borrowed this bit of ‘skimming’ of Latin in the sixth chapter of the Second Book of Pantagruel, in the humorous discourse of the Limousin scholar. 194 NOTES According to M. Auguste Bernard (Geofroy Tory, page 22 and note), some editor of Rabelais, probably Pasquier, claims that Tory meant this as a criticism of Rabelais for introducing him (Tory) in his romance in the character of Raminagrobis. ‘There is one little flaw in this fiction, namely that the dates are against it; Champ Fleury appeared several years before Pantagruel. This, of course, does not prove that Rabelais did not introduce Tory in his work, but upon what facts is this attribution of Raminagrobis to Tory based? Solely on the assertion of one of those seventeenth- century scribblers of foolish notes who lived on the great authors of the sixteenth as rats live on the most valuable mss—by nibbling them. What possible connection is there between Raminagrobis, cleric and poet, whom Rabelais represents as dying about 1546, and Tory, layman and prose-writer, who died twelve years earlier?’ In his introduction to Lawrence and Bullen's edition of Rabelais (London, 1892) M. Anatole Montaiglon says: ‘ He [Rabelais] fabricates words, too, on Greek and Latin models with great ease. . . . Sometimes he did this in mockery, as in the humorous discourse of the Limousin scholar, for which he is not a little indebted to Geoffroy Tory, in the Champ Fleury.’ In Sir Thomas Urquhart’s translation of Rabelais (1653) the quoted passage is thus rendered, with a sufficient prelude to show how Rabelais introduced it. The sentence borrowed from Tory is printed in italics. ‘Upon a certain day . . . Pantagruel walking . . . without that gate of the city through which we enter on the road to Paris, encountered with a young spruce-like scholar that was coming upon the same very way, . . . asked him . . . My friend, from whence comest thou now? The scholar answered him, From the alme, inclyte, and celebrate academy, which is vocitated Lutetia. What is the meaning of this? said Pantagruel to one of his men. It is, answered he, from Paris. Thou comest from Paris then, said Pantagruel; and how do you spend your time there, you my masters the students of Paris? The scholar answered, We transfretate the Sequan at the dilucul and crepuscul; we deambulate by the compites and quadrives of the urb; we despumate the Latial verbocination; and like verisimilary amorabons, we captat the benevolence of the wings? omniform, and omnigenal feminine sex.’ NOTE 4. PAGE 2. The ‘little Latin books’ published by Tory before the appearance of Champ Fleury, showing his proficiency in that language, were: 1. An edition of Pomponius Mela, the geographer of the first century. There is a long dedicatory epistle to Philibert Babou; also an ‘avis’ to the reader, at the end, to- gether with two quatrains, one addressed to Pomponius, the other to Babou—all these in Latin. The book was published in 1507-1508. 2. An edition of the Cosmographia of Pope Pius II (printed by H. Estienne in 1509). Here also is a long dedicatory seis to Germain de Gannay, and a note to the reader— both in Latin. 3. A short Latin poem, written by Tory, was printed at the end of an elegiac poem on the Passion written in Latin by ‘Gulielmus Dives,’ or Willem van Rycke (Riche, Dives). This book was printed by Josse Bade. 4. An edition of Berosus Babilonicus, ‘who,’ says M. Bernard, ‘was then [1510] in great vogue, thanks to the falsehoods of Annius of Viterbo.’ Three editions of this work were printed by the Marnefs. It contains a dedicatory epistle to Philibert Babou, written in Latin by Tory. 5. In 1510, Tory published a collection of miscellanies, Valerii Probi Grammatici, etc., to which he contributed not only the usual dedicatory epistle (this time to Babou NOTES 195 and Jean Lallemand, mayor of Bourges), and an address to the reader, but also several bits of verses, including some riddles—all in Latin. 6. An edition of Quintilian’s Insitutiones in 1510, carefully revised by several mss, with a letter of transmission (in Latin) from Tory to Jean Rousselet, at Lyons. 7. An edition of Leon Baptista Alberti’s De re ædificatoria (1512), with the usual editorial equipment of a long Latin dedication to Babou and Lallemand. Printed by B. Rembolt. 8. An edition (1512) of the Itinerary of Antoninus, a list of the roads of the Roman Empire, said to have been prepared during the reign of Caracalla (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, a.D. 288-317). It was the second book prepared by Tory for H. Estienne. The dedicatory epistle (in Latin) is addressed to Babou alone, and there are two Latin addresses (at the beginning and the end) to the reader. 9. Gotofredi Torini Biturici, in filiam charissimam, virguncularum elegantissimam, Epi- taphia et Dialogs. Tory’s daughter Agnes, his only child by his wife Perrette le Hullin, died in August, 1522, at the age of ten. Tory wrote a Latin poem upon this death (it was published in 1523), which, as M. Bernard says, contains some very interesting details concerning Tory’s life. Among other things we learn that he was not only a scholar, but an artist of great merit. M. Bernard prints in his Bibliography the com- plete contents of this little book, which fill eleven pages of the second edition of his work on Tory. The above is an exact list, according to M. Bernard, of the works published by Tory before the appearance of Champ Fleury. Full bibliographical particulars of all of them are given by him. NOPES PAGE 2. Erasmus, in number 1574 (not 1374) of the Adages, gives an extended account of the ancient lore concerning Momus—a personification of the Greek word uüpoc, meaning ‘censure.’ He was the son of Mother Night and Father Sleep. He censured Nature because she had added horns to the heads of oxen rather than to their shoulders, where they could use them more savagely. Minerva, Neptune, and Vulcan contended for primacy in the field of craftsmanship, Neptune making a bull, Minerva a home, and Vulcan a man. Momus, the judge of the contest, in addition to other points of criticism, especially derided the absence of windows and doors in the breast of Vul- can’s creation, wherethrough one might see what was lurking in the heart, and the fact that Vulcan had thrown into deep recesses those things that were generally mani- fest. But Venus called forth no censure except for the fact that she wore a sandal that squeaked, and was altogether too noisy and bothersome. The title of the first edition of Alberti’s Momus in the Vatican library is ‘De Principe, inscribed over the partially erased word, ‘Polycrates’. In the introduction he says that he proposes to write, after the manner of Lucian, of the prince who governs the body politic in mind and spirit. He chooses the gods to designate with concealed irony those whose actions are ambitious, sensuous, ill-tempered, lazy, and the like. To this end he narrates in four books the adventures of the god Momus, perverse, fastidious, and provoking, expelled from Olympus for the nauseous license of his tongue, and author of rebellious disorders in heaven and on earth. Jove, when creating the world, ordered the other divinities to embellish it with some useful invention. Momus alone disobeyed. He derided the creations of others, and, disgusted with the solicitations of the gods, filled the world with filthy animals. Alberti was born in Venice in 1404. As an architect he built the church of San Francisco at Rimini, Sant’ Andrea at Mantua, and the Pallazzo Rucellai at Florence. He 196 NOTES was painter, musician, and philosopher as well; and besides the work on architecture mentioned as no.7 in the preceding note, he wrote on painting and sculpture. Someone has called him a forerunner of Leonardo. NOTE 6. PAGE 3. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman architect and engineer of the time of Augustus. His DecArchitectura, dedicated to that Emperor, includes in its scope a discussion of such subjects as the science of architecture, materials, styles, orders, public buildings, sites, methods of decoration, hydraulic engineering, astronomy, and engineering. For most of the historical and theoretical parts of his work he drew upon his studies of Greek authors, of whom he gives lists. His authority was final, and his prestige unim- paired during the Renaissance. A translation of his work by the late Professor Morris H. Morgan was published by the Harvard University Press in 1914. As Vitruvius did not actually ‘write in Greek,’ Tory presumably means that he exposed himself to ridicule by interlarding his work with Greek words relating to his profession, and with such phrases as these: proslambanomenos, hypate hypaton, hypate me- son, mese, nete synhemmenon, paramese nete diexengmenon, nete hyperbolaeon. NOTE 7. PAGE 7. Lucian, a Greek satirist and wit of the second century. The main events of his life and particulars concerning his numerous works can be found in many books of refer- ence. The Greek title of the work quoted by Tory is Ilpodakia 6 ‘HeakAne, Lucian’s word for the personage who unriddled to him the riddle of the painting is KeAtoc, translated by Erasmus, in Latin, ‘Gallus,’ and by Tory, Français.” NOTE 8. PAGE 8. Guillaume Budé (Budzus), 1467-1540, a French scholar and friend of Erasmus. His work on ancient coins, “Dec4sse, is well known and is mentioned later by Tory. The abbreviated clause from the Pandects stands for Ex lege prima, de servo corrupto. It is found in the Corpus Civilis, book x1, 3, a passage taken from the twenty-third book of the Commentaries of Ulpian on the Edicts (4d Ediétum). Tory’s text, then, should be changed thus: there should be no period after Ex, and the comma after ser should be changed to a period. The section mark (§) indicates that the words are taken from a passage beginning, Quod ait prator. NOTE 9. PAGE 9. Pierre de Sainct Cloct. Perhaps the reference is to Pierre de Saint-Cloud (formerly spelled Saint-Clost), a twelfth-century troubadour, who wrote part of the Roman de Renard. He is mentioned in Alexandre, written about 1180. There was one ‘Petrus de Sancto Clodovaldo,’ who escaped burning for heresy in 1209 by turning priest. The Book of the Game of Chess may have been Jehan de Vignay’s French translation of Jacobus de Cessolis’s Libellus de Ludo Scacchorum, printed by Martin Huss at Toulouse in 1476. (Caxton’s English translation of de Vignay was printed by him at Bruges in 1476 [copies in Lenox, Morgan and Huntington libraries] and again at Westminster about 1483.) Or it may possibly have been Cessolis’s original Latin text, or an Italian version, Giuco degli Scacchi, printed by Miscomini at Florence in 1493. NOTE 10. PAGE 9. | Jehan Lemaire (1473-1524) was a Belgian poet and historian, attached to the court of Margaret of Austria as her librarian. His most original poems, Episfres de l’amand NOTES 197 verd, were addressed to her. His chief prose work, Illustrations des Gaules et singularitez de Troyes connects the royal house of Burgundy with Hector, son of Priam. It has been said of him that in his love for antiquity, his sense of rhythm, and the peculiarities of his vocabulary, he anticipated the “Pléiade—Ronsard, du Bellay, Dorat, etc. Chrestien de Troyes, the most celebrated of the French mediæval poets, flourished from 1150 to 1182. His Erec et Enide, Cliget, Chevalier de la Charrette (based on an earlier Lancelot), Chevalier de Lyon, Le Conte del Graal, or Percevale, all deal with the Arthurian legend and are the first Arthurian romances extant. There have been translations of one or more of his works into Old Norse, German, English, and Welsh. At the present writ- ing (autumn of 1927) an interesting discussion is being carried on in Speculum (the quar- terly publication of the Medizval Academy of America) concerning the credit rightly due to Chrestien for the invention of the Arthurian legend. Hugon (Huon, Hugues) de Méry (Méri) was a thirteenth-century poet, whose Tournoiement de Lantechrift, in 3000 verses, appeared about 1234. Raoul (de Houdenc), another poet of the same century, wrote several other ro- mances besides the ‘Romanz des eles de la proéce, which is referred to by de Méry. This last and the Songe d’ Enfer are said to have been forerunners of the Roman de la Rose. Paysant (Paien) de Mesieres (Maisieres) wrote La demoisele a le mule, or Le mule sans frein, about 1100. Of René Massé, Chronicler to the King, to whom Tory here applies Propertius’s words concerning Virgil, M. Bernard says that he is entirely forgotten in our day. He has, however, a notice in the Biographie Universelle. NOTE 11. PAGE to. Arnoul and Simon Graban (Greban) wrote mystery plays; in 1450 Arnoul wrote Passion, in 34,600 verses; and with Simon, his brother, a dramatization of the story of the apostles in 62,000 verses. Pierre de Nesson, an early fifteenth-century poet, was on the staff of Jean I, duc de Bourbon, who was captured at Agincourt in 1415. Among his works are Lay de Guerre, Paraphrase de Job, and Hommage a Notre Dame. _ Alain Chartier, 1390(1392)-1430(1433), has been called the literary dictator of the early fifteenth century. He wrote La “Belle“Dame sans merci, Livre des Quatre Dames, and Quadriloque invectif, in which he describes himself as ‘humble secretaire du Roy nostre sire et de mon tres redoubte seigneur monseigneur le regent du royaulme de France, dauphin de Viennois.’ George Chastelain, 1404-1474, came of a crusading family and fought under Phi- lippe, duc de Bourgogne. He wrote Chronique de Chastellain (a history of his times); also ballades. La Lunette des Princes, a political and allegorical poem wherein Reason supplies miraculous spectacles with which to see things at their true worth, was written by one Meschinst (1420-1491), a steward of Anne de Bretagne. Cretin (Guillaume Dubois, surnommé Guillaume),‘Chantre de la Sainte Chapelle et Chroniqueur du roi,’ died about 1525. He was a poet of some renown in his day, and several volumes of his verses have been published. His five volumes of Chronicles are in manuscript in the ‘Bibliotheque Nationale. NOTE 12. PAGE 11. Translation of the rondeau. That thou the best and surest way mayst follow, I counsel thee to learn to love thy God; to be loyal with lips and heart and hand; boast not; of mockery be sparing; talk less; more thou shouldst not learn or undertake. Except thy chosen subjects, trouble 198 | NOTES not to understand; busy not thyself to comprehend things too far above thee, and seek peace among all men. A gift thou hast promised be never slow to give, and always thou shouldst seem to know. Let few be well assured of what thy will may be. To thy friend dissemble not, nor give false meaning. "T will please me well if thou dost understand. [The translator regrets that thus far Madame Dentragues, the reputed author of this rondeau, has eluded his search. } Translation of the lessons. 1. Hast thou a master? Serve him faithfully; speak well of him; guard well his goods; keep his secrets’ close, whatever he may do; and be humble before him. 11. On no account suffer thy wife to put her foot on thine; the next day the dear creature will try to put it on thy head. NOTE US MPAGE 12. Hieronymus Avantius (Girolamo Avanzi) edited for Aldus his first edition of Lucretius in December, 1500. He was an excellent, well-read Latin scholar and had studied Priscian and Macrobius for the illustration of Lucretius. Aldus says that he knew Lucretius by heart—wt digitos unguesque suos. In 1502 he published Epistles 41 to 121 of Pliny’s correspondence with Trajan, and in the same year, and again in 1515, at Venice, he collaborated in editing Catullus, Tibullus, and Propertius. In 1507 and 1517 he edited Ausonius, and in the latter year the Tragedies of Seneca. As to the ‘Dialogue between an Oscan and a Volscian at the Roman Games,’ the reference is, presumably, to a so-called ‘Atellane play’@4tellana fabula),'a comic, but not wanton, kind of popu- lar farce that originated in Atella.’ See Livy, vu, 2. Avantius’s fabula was written to illustrate some of the strange forms used by the Oscans, a primitive people of Cam- pania. The saying, ‘Qui Osco et Volsce fabulantur, nam Latine nesciunt’ (who talk in Oscan and Volscian, for they know not Latin) is attributed to Titinnius, a little- known Roman comic poet of the ante-classical period. NOTE 14. PAGE 12. Ælius Donatus (fourth century), a grammarian and rhetorician. Taught at Rome, St. Jerome having been among his pupils. His Latin grammar has formed the basis of all similar works, to the present day. He wrote also a commentary on Terence. Many of the surviving scraps of pre-Gutenberg printing are grammatical texts known as Donatuses. Servius Maurus Honoratus (early fifth century) was a grammarian, who wrote a commentary on Virgil compiled largely from the work of earlier authors. It is among the most valuable of Latin scholia because of the many quotations from lost authors. He was a contemporary of Macrobius, who introduced him as one of the characters in the Saturnalia, praising his great learning and kindly disposition. The reference on page 25 is to his commentary on Eclogue 11, 106, 107, where he states that both Hyacin- thus and Ajax were changed into the flower. The works of Priscian (Priscianus), the celebrated grammarian of the time of Justinian, are perfectly familiar to scholars of the present day. Little is known of this Diomedes beyond the fact that a grammatical treatise of his is quoted by Priscian, so that he must have lived before the sixth century. The same may be said of Phocas, or Foca, who wrote a dull and trivial life of Virgil in hexameters—that he was quoted by Priscian, and nothing more. Agrestius is undoubtedly a misprint, or mistake, for Agroetius, or Agroecius, the author of a fifth-century work, still extant, called De Orthographia et Differentia Sermonis, supplementary to a work on the same subject by Flavius Caper. NOTES 199 Flavius Caper, a Roman grammarian of uncertain date, is quoted with great respect by Charisius, Rufinus, Servius, and, especially, Priscian. St. Jerome speaks of his Com- mentaries as in common use. Valerius Probus, the earliest of the writers in this list, who lived early in the second century, wrote a commentary on Virgil. He is mentioned by Aulus Gellius. It is said that he owned a copy of the Georgics with notes in Virgil’s own hand. NOTE 15. PAGE 13. For the divers opinions regarding the invention of letters, the references are: Priscian, Grammatici Casariensis InSitutionum Grammaticarum, 1, 11, 7. Lactantius says that the Chaldeans claim that they ‘have a history of 470,000 years, as shown by their monuments. But we [the Egyptians?], being taught by letters the science of truth, know both the beginning and the end of the world.’ Plato, Cratylus, 388 and following folios. Pliny, Natural History, vu, 56. Josephus, —Antiquitatum Judicarum, 1, 3. Pomponius Mela, De Situ Orbis, 1, x11, 65. The source of the idea that Carmentis took the letters from Greece to the Romans is No. ccrxxvu of the Fabula of Hyginus. Tacitus is mentioned only because he identi- fied Carmentis with Nicostrata, the mother of Evander. St. Jerome mentioned Esdras as the renewer of the Pentateuch in “De Perpetua Vir- ginitate, 212, which may be the passage referred to here. NOTE 16. PAGE 16. Architrenius—Johannes Hanvillensis, a scholar of Oxford and a Benedictine monk —took his name from his sometime famous work, 4rchitrenii (Dirges), a poem in nine books, dedicated to Archbishop Walter Rothomagenses. The work is described in com- plimentary terms by various commentators, some of whom ascribed to him other works, now lost. He flourished about 1200. The lines given here are quoted by Baptista Pius in chapter Lx of his —Annota- tiones priores, taken from a collection entitled, Annotationes doctorum virorum (published by Jehan Petit, in 1511), folio cxxxiiii. In verse 4 the original has ‘Attica philosophis’ for ‘Attica terra sophis’; in lines 8 and 9, ‘Piscosa . . . domo’ is interpolated, the read- ing in the original being: ‘Plena feris; fortis domino; pia regibus; aura.’ Whether the interpolation was Tory’s is uncertain. NOPE a7, PAGE r7. Tory seems to have been somewhat ‘mixed’ in the passage, for Angelus, cygnus, and Melodia are all good classical Latin, and Angelus is especially frequent in the writings of the Church fathers. As to the French word pinte, the N.E.D., 5.2. English ‘pint,’ says that the ulterior source of the word is uncertain, but omits to mention Greek among the conjectural ones. It is true, however, that Budé says, in DecAsse et Partibus Ejus (Venice, Aldus, 1522), at folio cxcv: ‘Pityna became pitna, and pitna became pinta,’ —added proof that ‘Pino enim græce bibo significat.’ Cheopine (English ‘chopin’) also is mentioned by Budé in this passage, but no Greek equivalent is suggested, and the N.E.D. derives it from the German schoppen. This Aldine edition of De Asse was dedicated to Jehan Grolier. NOTE 18. PAGE 18. Frère Robert Gaguin, ministre général de l'Ordre de la Sainct Trinité, wrote La 200 NOTES Mer des Cronicques et Mirouer hySorial de france. St. Denis’s work was sent by Michael’s ambassador to Louis ‘le Piteable’ (see marginal note, p.18), in 823. NOTE 19. PAGE 18. ‘Grecismus’ is the name, not of an author or writer, but of a poem on grammar by Eberhard of Bethune, a native of Flanders, who lived in the early thirteenth century. The poem was so called because it included a chapter on derivations from the Greek. Of Tardivus, Floretus, and Compotus, there is nothing to be said unless a similar mistake has been made with reference to them or any of them. For instance, we have heard of a book by one Bernadus, called Scriptor Floreti, sive Carminis moralis versibus leoninis. Alain de l'Isle, or Alanus, circa 1114-1203, was a professor in the University of Paris, so learned that he was called ‘Le Docteur universel.’ He was deeply interested in alche- my. De Parabolis is the title of a work written by him. Alexander de Villa Dei (Alexandre de Villedieu) was a native of Normandy who lived about 1200. He composed a 2645-line hexameter poem on (x) Accidence, (2) Syntax, (3) Prosody, Accentuation, and Figures of Speech, compiled from Priscian, Ælius Donatus, and others, and some unknown writers of the twelfth century. NOTE 20. PAGE 21. In the passage from Ovid, for ‘pergit,’ at the end of line 6, read ‘peregit,’ and there should be a question mark after ‘terras’ in the last line. The last two lines may be more accurately rendered thus: ‘Ah, woe is me!’ he groaned; ‘art thou indeed my daughter whom I have sought throughout the earth? A lighter grief wast thou unfound, than found.’ NOTE )'2.1,° PAG E22; Jacques Le Fevre d’Estaples (Faber Stapulensis) was quite a prominent personage in his day (1455-1537). He was a student and traveller, professor of mathematics and philosophy, translator, and commentator on Aristotle. The Sorbonne declared him a heretic in 1521. With a former pupil, Brigonnet, Bishop of Méaux, aided by the newly translated Bible, he was striving to effect improvement in the spiritual life of the people, The Sorbonne again attacked him and condemned several propositions contained in his work, and the Parliament of Paris ordered his Commentary on the Evangelists confiscated. He was about to flee the country when Francis I arrived in Paris from his imprisonment in Madrid after the battle of Pavia (1525), and appointed him tutor to his son Charles. He ended his career under the patronage of Marguerite of Navarre, King Francis’s sister, and died in 1537. NOTE 22. PAGE 23. Codrus Urceus (Antonio Codro Urceo, 1446-1500) was a native of Bologna, and a professor of Greek with a penchant for writing excellent Latin poems. An edition of his works, comprising Sermones, Epistolæ, Silva, Satyræ, Eclogæ, and Epigrammata, was published at Bologna in 1502. An account of his life and works, by Carlo Mala- gola, appeared in 1878. _ The lines cited are the first of a poem entitled ‘Rhythmus Die divi Martini pro- nunciatus,’ and the true reading is: | IO IO IO Gaudeamus 10 io Dulces homeriaci. NOTES 201 NOTE 23. PAGE 25. There is no authority in the manuscripts for the reading ‘hya’ at the end of the sev- enth line of the passage from Ovid. The reading in most editions is ‘ia,’ ‘ia,’ but one manuscript, at least, has ya. There are some slight variations from the accepted text, in punctuation and spelling, but they are unimportant. NOTE 24. PAGE 29. Charles Bouille.—Charles de Bouelles or Bouilles (in Latin, Bovillus) was a phi- lologist and scholar, who lived from about 1470 to about 1553. He was a student of the exact sciences and of metaphysics, as well as of belles-lettres. Having taken orders, he held a canonry at St. Quentin, and later on at Noyon, where he devoted his repos honor- able to the composition of a large number of works, most of which are now forgotten, although some are much sought by bibliophiles. In 1511 Henri Estienne printed a work which is thus described by Brunet : Cy comence le Livre de lart et science de Geometric: avecq les figures sur chascune rigle [sic] au long declarees, par lesqlles on peult entendre et facillemét coprendre ledit art et science de Geometrie. It consists of 40 numbered pages (signatures a-c), with geometrical figures on wood. This is the oldest printed work on geometry in French. The author is not named on the title-page, but his name (Carolus Bovillus) appears at the head of a Latin letter printed on the verso of the title. The work is a translation of Bouelles’s Introduétio in Geometriam, in Latin, which had appeared in 1503, in a collection of mathematical works published by Jacques Le Fevre d’Estaples and printed by Estienne. This treatise of 1511 must have been the one to which Tory refers, for it was not until 1542, long after Champ Fleury was published, that another, slightly different, work of Bouelles on the same subject, was published by Colines. Still later, in 1547 and again in 1551, R.Chaudiere issued a small folio entitled : Geometrie prattique, composee par le noble Philosophe Charles de Bouelles, ©’ nouuellement par luy augmentee © grandement enrichie. The characterization of ‘noble Philosophe’ is in reasonable accord with the long list of his works to be found in Brunet and in Nicéron, as well as with the eulogistic remarks made by Tory. NOTE 25. PAGE 32. The accepted text of the second of these lines from Juvenal is: ‘Cum sit turpe magis nostris nescire Latine.” Translated, the passage would read: ‘They talk nothing but Greek, though it is a greater shame for our people to be ignorant of Latin.’ NOTE 26. PAGE 34. Luca Paccioli was born in Borgo San Sepolcro about the middle of the fifteenth century. He was one of the scholars aided by Lodovico il Moro in Milan, where Leonardo also was working. He published “Divina ‘Proportione in Venice in 1509, with a series of letters designed by Leonardo and text by himself. The purpose of the work was to fix mathematically the rules of proportion for all the arts. The title reads thus: Divina Proportione Opera a tutti glingegni perspicaci e curiosi necessaria. Ove ciascun Studioso di Philosophia: Prospettiva Pittura Sculptura: Architeftura: Musica: e altre Mathematice: suavissima: sottile: e admirabile dottrina consequira: e delettarassi: co varie questione de secre- tissima scientia. M. Antonio Capella eruditiss. recensente. 4. Paganius Paganinus Char- atteribus Elegantissimis accuratissimo imprimebar. There are copies in the Harvard Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art,and the Morgan Library. There is a long and important article on Paccioli, Dürer, and Tory in Repertorium fir KunStwissenschaft, vol. 1v, 1881. 202 NOTES NOTE 27. PAGE 34. From a later reference to S. Fante (page 87), it appears that the book of his that Tory had in mind was the Thesauro di Scrittori, which must have been published after 1514, the date of another of his works, Liber elementorum literarum, which, according to Brunet, was the basis of the Thesauro.'I have been unable to get a glimpse of this book [the Thesauro]’ says M. Bernard in his life of Tory, ‘but I have seen the Theoria et prattica . . . de modo scribendi fabricandique omnes litterarum (quarto, Venice, December 1, 1524). It is divided into four books, with engravings similar to those in Champ Fleury’ Similar, that is to say, to the engravings of numerous alphabets at the end of Champ Fleury. In his descriptions of the different styles of French Gothic letters on page 174, and of the various other alphabets which he groups under the general title, ‘Lettres Adjoux- tees’ (Additional Letters), on page 179, Tory refers again and again to the Thesauro and to Fante’s drawings of the letters. The two works of Ludovico degli Arrighi, surnamed Vicentino (of Vicenza),—La Operina di Ludovico V icentino,da imparare di scrivere littera Cancellarescha (Rome, 1522), and Il modo de temporare le Penne, con le varie Sorti de littere, ordinate par Ludovico Vicentino, in Roma nel anno MDxx111,—have become well known of late years, and were reproduced in facsimile in 1926, by Frederic Warde, with introduction by Stanley Morison. NOTE 28. PAGE 34. As was said in the first of these notes, Diirer’s ‘book on Perspective,’ here under dis- cussion, is that which was published in 1525 under the title, Underweysung der Messung, etc., and which is sometimes called the ‘Art of Measurement.’ Certain portions of the book, including the drawings of the letters, the text translated by R. T. Nichol, were printed by the Grolier Club in 1917, under the title, Of the Just Shaping of Letters. NOTE 29. PAGE 36. Of Simon Haye-Neuve, called also Simon du Mans, we read in C. Bauchal’s Nouveau Diétionnaire des Architettes Français (Paris, 1887) that he was ‘architect, painter, and draughtsman, born at Château-Gontier in 1450. On his return from Italy, whither he had gone to study architecture, he was appointed curé of Saint-Paterne, near Douilles (Sarthe), which, however, did not prevent him from making plans and drawings for many monuments in Le Mans. In 1508, he was chosen by the Chapter of the Cathedral to oversee the construction of the new shrine of Sainte Scolastique. Between 1510 and 1518 he built the chapel of the bishop’s palace (now destroyed) for Philippe of Luxembourg. He lived in the Abbey of Saint-Vincent in the suburbs of Le Mans, from 1506 until his death on July 11, 1546’—ninety-six years old! ‘He is believed to have been the architect of the Hôtel de Vignolles.’ (Here the author quotes the passage of Champ Fleury to which this note is appended.) ‘On the back of the map of Le Maine [province], etched by Du Cerceau, he is called ‘‘a great archi- tect.””’ See Bodin; Chardon; Lottin and Lassus; De Montaiglon, in a sketch of Jean Pélerin; Lacroix du Maine. Tory refers again to him on page 1o1. The eulogistic terms in which he speaks of him led M. Renouvier (Des Types, etc., p. 166) to think that very probably Tory learned the art of designing letters from Hayeneuve. M. Bernard, on the other hand, opines that this cannot be, because Tory speaks of the ‘great virtues and goodly quali- ties’ that he has heard ascribed to him. But this seems hardly conclusive evidence. NOTE 30. PAGE 37. The works attributed to Lucian number 82 (including three collections of 71 shorter NOTES 203 dialogues), of which some 20 are either falsely or uncertainly so attributed. His‘Dia- logues of the Gods’ and “Dialogues of the Dead’ gave renewed life to that sort of compo- sition. Of what is perhaps one of the most beautifully written and most amusing works of antiquity, his True History, he himself said that it contained but one true statement, namely, that it contained nothing but lies. It is a satirical sketch of a journey to the sun and moon, in which the interest never flags. NOTE 31. PAGE 38. Martianus Mineus Felix Capella, of Carthage, lived in the late fifth century. His chief work is Satyra de Nuptiis Philologie et Mercurii, in nine books, from which all of Tory’s quotations are taken. In 11, 118, the Muses are arranged by him in the order of their singing, as in the drawing at the top of page 38 of this book. In1,27, however, he arranges them in a different order. NOTE 32. PAGE 38. Fabius Planciades Fulgentius, in the Fabula de Novem Muses (book 1, 15, of the larger work), arranges the Muses in this order: Clio, Euterpe, Melpomene, Thalia, Polymnia, Erato, Terpsicore, Urania, Calliope. NOTE 33. PAGE 46. ‘Minerva—Qua dicitur a minuendis nervis.’ This suggested derivation of the name is as wholly Tory’s own as most of the inventions for which he has looked in vain in the works of Latin and Greek and French writers. The N.E.D. has this to say of the etymology of this word: ‘Latin, Minerva, earlier Menerva:—pre-Latin, Menes-rva (cf. Sanskrit, manasvin, ‘‘full of mind or sense,’’ Manasvini, name of the mother of the moon) formed on menes-=Sanskrit manas, mind, Greek yevoc, courage, fury, from root men-.’ NOTE 34. PAGE 57. Cicero gives a good deal of space in the first book of the “De Officiis to a discussion of this quality, but he mentions the Greek word only in the 27th chapter. The latest translator of the treatise (Professor Miller, for the Loeb Classical Library) translates it ‘propriety.’ NOTE 35. PAGE 61. ‘Liquids, because they liquefy when placed after mutes in the same syllable.’— ‘It [L] melteth in the sounding and is therefore called a Liquid, the tongue striking the roof of the palate gently.’—Ben Jonson, English Grammar. NOTE 36. PAGE 61. Font position. ‘Position: especially in Greek and Latin Prosody, the situation of a short vowel before two consonants or their equivalent . . . making the syllable metrically long.’—N.E.D. NOTE 37. PAGE 66. The passage from Homer is taken from the Iliad, vit, 17-27. It is the same passage referred to above, pages 63 and 64. There is a copy of Valla’s Latin translation in the Harvard Library. NOTE 38. PAGE 7o. There is certainly ingenuity in Tory’s way of turning to his own purpose the fact 204 NOTES that the Sibyl’s address to Æneas fills just 23 lines. A translation of the whole passage will show how far Virgil’s words justify his interpretation of them: ‘Thou Trojan son of Anchises, easy is the descent to Avernus; night and day lies open the portal of dark Dis. But to retrace thy steps, and to emerge into the breath of the open air, this is the task, this the labor. Some few whom gracious Jupiter has loved, or whom shining merit has exalted to the skies, heaven-born, have won their way. Woodlands cover the whole landscape between, and the Cocytus, gliding alone in its dark folds, flows all about. Yet if thy heart is so set, and thy desire so great twice to sail the Stygian waves, and twice to see black Tartarus; and if it be thy pleasure to indulge in this mad emprise, hear what thou first must do: there lies hidden in the dense foliage of a tree, with leaves and pliant stem of gold, a bough consecrated to Juno of the underworld. This bough has the protection of the whole grove, and is encompassed by the dark shadows of the valleys. Yet one may not enter the recesses of the earth ere he has plucked the bough with its golden foliage. This has the fair Proserpina commanded to be brought to her as a gift; and when the first is plucked, there fails not a second, also of gold, and the bough begins to sprout with the same metal. So then search deep with thy eyes, and when it is duly found, pluck it with thy hand, for it will yield of itself gladly and easily to thy touch if the fates beckon thee; otherwise, no power canst thou put forth to overcome, or rend it with hard steel.’ Tory’s punctuation of the Latin text is at fault, as it so frequently is; but it is quite necessary to ‘abolish’ the period after sequetur in the last line but two, and to supply a semicolon—or at least a comma—after vocant in the penultimate line. NOTE 39. PAGE 74. ‘Moly,’ or mandrake; Greek on. A fabulous herb of magic power, given by Mercury (whence Tory’s ‘Mercurial”) to Odysseus as a counter-charm to the charms of Circe. Black was the root, but milky-white the flower, Moly the name, by mortals hard to find. Pope’s Odyssey, x, 365. NOTE 4o. PAGE 78. Plutarch’s Symposiacs; one of the treatises usually included in the collections known as the. Moralia. Amyot's French title for it was ‘Propos de Table, or Table-Talk. At the table someone asks why Alpha is placed first in the alphabet. Protogenes gives the common answer of the schools, that it is so placed (x) because it is a vowel, (2) because it may be both long and short, (3) because its natural place is before the other vowels; if placed after À or uw, it cannot be pronounced, will not make one syllable with them, and, resenting the affront, it seeks the first place. Put Alpha first and the other vowels are compliant and will join it in one syllable. Then there is the story that Cadmus placed Alpha first because a cow is called Alpha by the Phoenicians, and they regard the cow as the first of essential things. Another reason is that Alpha is the first articulate sound made by children. NOTE 41. PAGE 79. ‘Whom my friend Publius does not outshine in dress, nor even Cordus himself, the Alpha of cloaks.’ The Epigram of Ausonius referred to in the next sentence is usually numbered Lxxxvi in modern editions. It is addressed to a lecherous schoolmaster, Eunus, who likens the female organ of generation to several letters. Tory may have had before him NOTES 205 an edition of Ausonius with the reading A for one of the letters concerned; but there is little if any authority therefor, and all editors are now agreed upon A (Delta) as the proper reading. NOTE 42. PAGE 79. All the quotations from Martianus Capella in this third book, giving the method of pronouncing the various letters, are taken from book vit, § 261, of the work cited in note 31 above. The section consists of 23 lines, each line having a letter at its head, followed by therule for pronouncing it; the letters being arranged in alphabetical order. NOTE 43. PAGE 79. ‘This [goat], amidst yonder dense hazels bearing twin kids, ah! left them on the naked rocks.’ NOTE 44. PAGE 79. The meaning of these verses has no bearing upon Tory’s text, but they may be trans- lated something like this: ‘Ah, sparkling eyes, fickle and worldly, your sly glances afford you keen delight.’ NOTE 45. PAGE 98. The Priapeia is a collection of poems (about 80 in number) in various metres, on the general subject of Priapus. It was compiled from literary works and inscriptions on images of the god by an unknown editor, who composed the introductory epigram. From their style and versification it is evident that they belong to the best period of Latin literature. The couplet given by Tory is nowhere ascribed to Virgil. It may be found in No. 54 of the Priapeia in the first volume of Bachrens’s edition of the Poetae Latini Minores. The meaning seems to be: ‘If you join E and D, and add on top of them a pole, he who wants to cut D down the middle shall be painted.’ It is evident, as Tory says, that if he intended to explain how to make E and D, he abandoned the intention. NOTE 46. PAGE 99. Master Pierre Patelin.—Once more, as in the case of Grecismus on pages 18 and 117, Tory mistakes a book for a person. Maistre Pierre Pathelin was a famous play, of un- known authorship, which Mr. A. W. Ward, in his article on ‘Drama’ in the Encyclopadia ‘Britannica, characterizes as ‘immortal’ and as ‘the most famous of mediæval dramas.’ It was certainly written before 1470. An English translation of the play by Richard T. Holbrook was published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. in 1905. NOTE 47. PAGE roo. In the Greek phrase quoted by Priscian from Alcman, nvp Te should be printed thus, as two words. The entire passage of Priscian referred to here will be found on page 145, and an English version of Tory’s French translation on page 146. Concerning the book of Epitaphs of Ancient Rome mentioned at the foot of this page 100 and on pages 117 and 118, M. Bernard says that Tory must have had in mind the collection published by the printer Mazochi in 1516 or 1517, entitled Epigrammata sive inscriptiones antiqua urbis, which is the oldest printed collection of inscriptions. But instead of copying from the original monuments, Mazochi had recourse to manu- script collections then to be found in some libraries. Consequently, the book was full of errors, which he tried to correct in a supplement (1523). 206 NOTES NOTE 48. PAGE rot. The passage of Priscian which Tory presumably had in mind here is erroneously cited in the margin of page 107 as 1, 1, 12. The proper reference is 1, 1v, 12. But Tory either quoted from memory, or used some text not available to the translator. In Keil’s Grammatici Latini, vol. 11, page 11, the passage reads as follows: ‘Nam si verissime velinius inspicere eas [hoc est sedecim], non plus duas additas in Latino inveniemus sermone: F Aeolicum digamma, quod apud antiquissimos Latin- orum eandem vim quam apud Aeolis habuit. . . . Eum autem prope sonum, quem nunc habet. . . . Postea vero in Latinis verbis placuit pro p et b, f scribi, ut ““fama,”’ “filius,’’ “‘facio,’’ loco autem digamma F pro consonante.’ ‘For if we choose to examine these letters most carefully (that is, the sixteen), we shall find that not more than two have been added in the Latin tongue: the Aeolian digamma, which among the most ancient Latins had the same force as among the Acolians. But its own sound, which it now has. . . . Later, to be sure, f came to be written for p and 4, as ‘‘fama,”’ “‘filius,”’ “‘facio,’’ but I place the digamma F among the consonants.’ NOTE 49. PAGE 104. Probably the ‘divers pictures’ would help to elucidate the text of the ‘rebus,’ which seems to mean something like this: ‘Men deem me a fool, creating foolish folly. Thus I live, thus then I am a fool. A fool among fools, a mongrel in captivity [entre mains] I live; the world supports me, for foolishly I live.’ NOTE 50. PAGE 105. The identity of this Orus (or Horus) Apollo—more generally called Horapollo— will probably never be established. It has been suggested that he was the son of Osiris, a divinity whom the Greeks in Egypt identified with their own Apollo, and that some mortal’s book on hieroglyphics was attributed to him. But Suidas mentions an illus- trious grammarian of the name, from Phænebytis in Egypt, who taught at Alexandria and at Constantinople, in the time of Theodosius (fourth century). And still another native of Egypt, of that name, lived under the Emperor Zeno (fifth century). General opinion favors the former as the author of Hieroglyphica, which does not, however, exist in its original form. At some unascertained date there appeared a translation into Greek, by one Philip, of whom nothing further is known. Conjecture has lost itself as to this Philip’s date, which has been variously fixed from the fifth to the fif- teenth century. At all events, Hieroglyphica is the only ancient work on the subject of hieroglyphics that has come down to us. The widely differing opinions of scholars concerning the authority to be given to the work are of little moment here, as Tory’s references to it are merely collateral, so to speak. As he has quoted from a Latin version of it, we may say that it must have been the translation of one Trebatius (or Trebatus), published in 1515. (The Latin word Vrewm represents the Greek Oupañov.) A translation into Eng- lish, by Alexander T. Cory (with Greek and English in parallel columns), was issued at London, with the Pickering imprint, in 1840. Tory’s own version, which he mentions again on page 183, has never come to light. NOTE 51. PAGE 106. The Pot Cassé. M. Bernard (pages 70-75) gives ten versions of this mark, with an indication of one book in which each of them is to be found. The one on the title-page INLD LS 207 of this volume is number 4 in his series. In one form or another the mark was used by other booksellers after him, notably by O. Mallard. See Bernard, pages 60 ff. NOTE 52. PAGE tog. Aside from the curious slip of calling IHESUS an ‘abbreviation’ of IESUS, Tory’s elucidation of this point seems rather confused. ‘IHS . . . a ms abbreviation of the word IH[ZOY]S, Jesus. . . . In middle English the usual form was ihu=Jesu; less frequently, ths, ihc, or thus. These abbreviations were in later times often erroneously expanded as Ihesum, Ihesu.’—N.E.D. The same authority goes on to correct an almost ineradicable common miscon- ception: ‘The Romanized form of the abbreviation would be IES,’ but from the entire or partial retention of the Greek form in Latin mss, as IHC or IHS, and subsequent forgetfulness of its origin, it has often been looked upon as a Latin abbreviation or contraction, and explained by some as standing for Iesus Hominum Salvator, ‘Jesus, Saviour of Men’; by others as In Hoc Signo (vinces), ‘In this sign thou shalt conquer’ ; ot In Hac Salus, ‘In this (Cross) is Salvation.’ NOTE 53. PAGE 111. Catullus, Ode txxx1v.—The true text requires 4rrius for Arius in lines 2 and 11, sic for si in line 5. The translator is indebted to Mr. Arthur M. Young for the follow- ing version: ‘Arrius was accustomed to say ‘“‘hadvantageous’’ whenever he meant ‘‘advantage- ous,’’ and “‘hintrigues’’ for ‘‘intrigues’’; and he hoped that he had enunciated marvel- lously well when he had shouted “‘hintrigues’’ as loud as he could. That, I fancy, is how his mother and his mother’s brother and father and his grandmother had said it. When he was sent to Syria, everybody’s ears were given a respite. They used to hear these same words spoken lightly and softly, and thereafter such words had nothing to fear. But suddenly came the terrible news that after Arrius got there, the Ionian waves were no longer Ionian, but ‘‘Hionian.’’’ NOTE 54. PAGE 111. Jovianus Pontanus (1426-1503 ) was in the service of Alfonso V of Aragon (Alfonso I of Sicily and Naples) as tutor to his sons, military secretary, and chancellor. He wrote several didactic prose works, also a summary, in hexameters (Urania), of the astronomical science of his age. The passage of “De —Aspiratione cited here is on page 7 of the Aldine edition of 1519. NOTE 55. PAGE 114. M. Bernard thinks that Jean Perréal (dit Jehan de Paris) was Tory’s instructor in the art of design. On page 38 of his Geofroy Tory he reproduces the figures on this page 114 as the only work which can be definitively attributed to Perréal, and from its manifest similarity to many of the figures printed by Tory in the Second Book of Champ Fleury, he deduces that these too were drawn by Perréal. ‘Probably,’ he says, ‘Perréal died while the book was on the press, and Tory, who had not thought of naming him, while he lived, as the author of the earlier drawings, lost no time in doing it after his death by publishing the last work of his friend that remained in his hands, although it did not fit his subject perfectly—as it were a flower laid in the dead man’s grave.’ A great number of pictures and miniatures have been attributed to Perréal, but there is no actual proof of his having been the author of any of them. The date of 208 NOTES his death is not known, unless M. Bernard's reason for placing it about 1528, when Champ Fleury was on the press, be accepted, taken in conjunction with the further fact that Tory’s is the last recorded reference to him until the publication of a biography by M. E. M. Bancel in 1885. Bernard says that he once owned an autograph letter of Perréal, written in 1511 to Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy, offering his services in connection with the res- toration of the Church of Brou, to which she replied shortly after: ‘Since Jehan le Maire left us, we desire no other superintendent of our buildings at Brou than yourself.’ NOTE 56. PAGE 140. Martial, book x, epigram 87. Here, as elsewhere in Martial, ‘Sigma’ means a semi-circular couch for reclining at meals, the meaning being derived from the letter C; ‘lunata,’ crescent-shaped, simply emphasizes the meaning of ‘Sigma.’ NOTE 57. PAGE 145. In transcribing this long and rather important passage from Priscian it seemed best to supply in brackets two words, necessary to the sense, which Tory omitted (evi- dently by accident, as he translated them); also to ‘arrange’ the punctuation to some extent, in order both to conform to the original and to explain the translation. The verse from Horace (Epodes, xiii, 2) near the end of the quotation is the second and last verse of the Archilochian strophe so frequently used in the Epodes, of which the first verse is an ordinary dactylic hexameter and the second a so-called ‘iambel- egus,’ consisting of two parts, an iambic dimeter, and the first half of an heroic pen- tameter. It is scanned thus: N i|vésqtte | dedü|cunt 15}vem || ntinc mare | nunc sÿL ü|z. It is a rather famous example of the metrical peculiarity to which Tory refers. NOTE 58. PAGE 150. ‘Thou, sire, art the finder of things, thou dost offer us ancestral precepts, and from thy pages, renowned sire, even as bees taste of all things in the flowering meadows [so do we feed upon all thy golden words].’ NOTE 59. PAGE 151. The reference to Xenophon i in the quotation from Cicero is to the Memorabilia, u, 1, 21 ff. ‘Heracles, arriving at manhood, retired to a solitary place, to deliberate con- cerning his future. Two women of more than ordinary stature came to him; one, Virtue, frank, amiable, and with an air of conscious dignity; the other, Sensual Pleasure, comely, but voluptuous, and conscious of her physical charms. Accosting Heracles, she promises him, if he will but follow her road, a life of pleasure and ease and gratification of his every whim. Virtue promises him on her road glory in con- quest, though attended by labors and trouble.’ NOTE 60. PAGE 151. These lines are mistakenly attributed by Tory to Virgil. They are the work of one Maximinius, and may be found in Baehrens’s ‘Poetae Latini Minores, 1v, 148. NOTE 61. PAGE 158. Constantine Lascaris was a Greek scholar of the 15th century, who was settled in Italy when, in 1476, he published his Greek grammar, said to have been the first book printed in Greek. At the Printing House of William Edwin Rudge Mount Vernon, New York October, 1927 R LIBRARY il i i i l LITE