Figure 38
Page from Book of Hours in Transitional style
1488
For more than a century the decoration of manuscript Horæ had invited all the skill of the finest illuminators of Europe, and it was in France alone that the attempt was successfully made to rival the glories of the scribe and painter by those of the printer and engraver. The names of Antoine Vérard, Philippe Pigouchet, and Simon Vostre, as printers and publishers, are inseparably connected with these Books of Hours, which for some quarter of a century from 1488 onward constitute the chief glories of the French press. More than 300 editions were issued altogether, in which some forty different printers had a share, Jean du Pré at the beginning of the series, and Geoffroy Tory, as late as 1525, being the most important after the three already named.