TWO UNRECORDED INCUNABLES: ROUEN, CIRCA 1497, AND LYONS, CIRCA 1500 DAVID J.SHAW FOR a number of years, I have been re-examining the British Library's books printed in France between 1501 and 1520 for a typographical catalogue of the Library's French post-incunables. This catalogue is a revision of the unpublished manuscript of Col. Frank Isaac's Index to the British [Museum] Library's books printed in France between 1501 and 1520 which remained incomplete at his death in 1943. The Indexes of books printed between 1501 and 1520 were started by Robert Proctor, who pubUshed the volume for Germany in 1903 as an outgrowth from his incunable catalogue, and were continued by Isaac for Italy (published in 1938)^ and for France (unpublished).^ As with the incunable catalogues, these Indexes are arranged according to Proctor's methodology - by place of printing, then by printer, and for each printer the books are hsted in chronological order. The main function of the work is to attribute unsigned books to their printer when possible and to order the production of each workshop chronologically, assigning dates where necessary. As with the incunable catalogues, a large part of this task involves the identification and classification of each printer's typographical material. I have tried to extend this aspect of the work, so that the finished catalogue should present important new evidence on the supply of type in France in the early sixteenth century and on its use in the printing-houses of the time. The undated books pose problems at both ends of the chronological span. Incunabulists are familiar with undated books which could have been printed around 1500 plus or minus five years: should they be excluded from an incunable catalogue, or included with a suitably cautious note.-* A similar problem arises with this catalogue in respect of both the beginning and end dates (1501 and 1520) and with much the same classes of books. As a result of re-examination of several undated Parisian incunablcs, I have tentatively re-assigned them to the sixteenth century and included them in the catalogue. In the case of the two books considered here, previously catalogued as being of the sixteenth century, I have decided to exclude them from the catalogue, on the grounds that they are more likely to have been printed in or before the year 1500. They are therefore documented here as additions to the Library's collection of incunables. I. Le coustumier de Normendie, Rouen, Martin Morin, c. 1497 This book was acquired in 1951 and consequently does not appear in the original French Short-Title Catalogue of 1924. It was entered in the General Catalogue of Printed Books and in the Supplement to the French STC, where it is given the date of [r. 1505]. There is no doubt as to the printer or printing town. The book has on its final verso the printer's device and name of Martin Morin, probably the most famous of the early sixteenth- century Rouen printers. The printer's device is illustrated in Polain.^ The book itself is listed as part of Morin's output (also with the date [1505?]) in Pierre Aquilon's bibliography of sixteenth-century Rouen printing.* This edition was not known to Frere, Morin's earliest bibliographer,^ nor is it found in A. Gouron and O. Terrin, Bibliographie lies Coutumes de France.^ The publishing history of the Coustumier de Normendie is outlined in Gouron and Terrin. Three Rouen editions of the fifteenth century are recorded in a recent article by Alain Girard on Rouen incunable printing, which has a list of the 151 books known to have been printed there in the fifteenth century."^ The three Coustumiers are Usted here in a modified and expanded form (using Girard's numbers): 41. IRouen, Guillaume Le Talleur, before 1490], 8°, a-y^, 176 leaves, 22 lines, BMC viii, 391. (British Library; Paris, Bibliotheque nationale; Rouen, Bibliotheque municipale.) 42. Rouen, Jacques Le Forestier, [c. 1497], 8°, a^ b-t^; A-K^, 232 leaves, 24 lines. BMC viii, 399-400. (British Library; Paris, Bibliotheque nationale; Harvard, Law School Library.) 43. [Rouen, Guillaume Le Talleur?, before 1500], 8**, a-z^, 184 leaves, 22 lines. Pellechet 4026, Le Verdier \xviii, p. 147. (Cherbourg, Bibliotheque municipale; Paris, Bibliotheque nationaie.) These Coustumiers are not untypical of Morin's output. Girard lists customs of two other provinces which he printed: Coutumes d'Anjou ^ du Maine in 1491 and 1493 (nos. 145A and 146A), and the Coutumes de Bretagne in 1492 (no. 40). Much of the rest of Morin's surviving output consists of liturgical works and other devotional or theological material. There are three types found in the book under discussion: iioT found in 1497-1509 + 83B 1492 130T 1499-1509 + (The datings for the fifteenth century are given from BMC, those for the sixteenth century from my work on Isaac's Index.) There are no initial letters. Thus, the book could have been printed in the fifteenth century, but of course these types remained in use after 1500: Morin's career extended from 1491 to 1522. He continued to use the two textura types until at least 1509. The woodcut of the Crucifixion on the title-page verso has not so far been traced to any other book. The piece of evidence which shows that the Coutumes de Normandie was printed before 1500 is the state of Morin's printer's device (fig. i). Polain illustrates the device in its original state, as found in 1489. It was still intact in 1496/7 but in sixteenth-century books it shows damage at several points. In the Coutumes, the device is undamaged. The question is, did the device become damaged during the incunable period or not until the sixteenth century.? In the 1503 Guillermus Parisiensis, Posttlla siue expositio epystolarum et evangeliorum dominicalium (Aquilon no. 4), the device has (inter alia) a nick in the top outer rule near the top right-hand corner. This blemish can in fact be traced to a fifteenth-century book: Girard illustrates the title- page of the 1499 Missale rothomagense which shows the same nick (though without some of the other damage which the device had suffered by 1503).^ It can therefore be assumed that the Coutumes de Normandie was printed not later than 1499 and can be added to Alain Girard's list, bringing the number of known Rouen incunables to 152. BMC viii, 398 lists as a probable incunable another Morin book which also has the flaw in the top right-hand corner of the device: a Sarum Missal (IC.43967). BMC notes that 'the present book thus probably belongs to the turn of the century and may be later'. In fact the break in the rule in the device is not complete and this would tend to confirm that this Missal is correctly listed as an incunable and that its date could be given as [1500.?]. It is unlikely to be earlier, as one of the types is the 150T which is not otherwise found in the fifteenth century. A description of the Coustumier follows: COUTUMIER. Coutuntier de Normandie. [Rouen], Martin Morin, [not later than 1499] ai''\ Le coustumier de normendie. ; ai^: [woodcut of crucifixion, 94x71 mm]; az": [ f Our ce que nostre intencion est | ... ; ^2^-5": La table. ; on as'': Ensuit Ie prologue. ; ai)": [chapter i:] De droit. i. ; t9'' ends: lesd de luniuersite: lesdictes lettres de citacios/ ; tio*""" missing [end of first text, and colophon?]; Ai^ Ensuiuent les vsaiges etla forme quon I a acoustume vser...; on Kio': Finis. ; Kio': [device of M. Morin, Polain 189] Maistre martin morin. 8^ ab-s^ t'"; A-I«K^^ 236 leaves, bi^ 100(108) x 64 mm; 24 lines ( +headline + direction line). $1'" only signed [ + t4 signed tii; K4 signed Kii]. No catchwords. Type: 130T (colophon); iioT (title); 82B (text). Spaces for initials left blank. Lacks leaf tio. Device undamaged: before 1499. Crucifixion woodcut: not the same as the one in the two Missals recorded in BMC viii. IA.43974 2. Le Puy-en-Velay, La fondacion de la saincte eglise de Nostre Dame Du Puy. [Lyons?, c. 1500] This very rare little quarto pamphlet relates the legends and miracles associated with the foundation of the diocese of Le Puy and its principal church. It was no doubt produced 's.w;---.-'-s-'3- to encourage pilgrimage to the shrine of St Mary in the town of Le Puy-en-Velay, now the chief town of the department of Haute-Loire to the south-west of Lyons. Le Puy was celebrated for its 'black virgin', an ebony statue brought, according to popular tradition, from the East in the thirteenth century by St Louis.^ It was a very important centre of Marian pilgrimage in the later Middle Ages. The shrine had its own special pardon or indulgence, and attracted very large crowds in the years of its Jubilees or other years when there were special processions. Some of these legends and historical facts are recounted by a sixteenth-century local chronicler, Estienne Medicis, who tells for example of the large number of people killed by the crush of the crowds at the 1502 Jubilee. ^^^ A seventeenth-century account of the history of the shrine by Odo de Gissey, Discours historiques de la devotion a Notre Dame Du Puy^ went through three editions. ^^ The statue of the black virgin was ceremonially burned by the revolutionaries in 1793 and replaced by a replica in 1856.^^ Our pamphlet tells a more amazing account of the shrine and its statue. We first of all learn of the christianization of the Velay by St George who was sent from Rome by St Peter, together with St Front.