Culture
Words by Michel Wlassikoff
Jean de Tournes’s woodcut Figures
Lyon printer Jean de Tournes began his career with Sébastien Gryphe and worked with many poets and translators. Influenced by Robert Estienne, he adopted similar Roman and Italic typefaces, illustrated his Bibles with vignettes by Bernard Salomon, and utilized the same woodcuts for other popular works.
Lyon printer Jean de Tournes began his career with Sébastien Gryphe and worked with many poets and translators. Influenced by Robert Estienne, he adopted similar Roman and Italic typefaces, illustrated his Bibles with vignettes by Bernard Salomon, and utilized the same woodcuts for other popular works.
Jean de Tournes (1504–1564) was a printer from Lyon, sometimes called Jean I de Tournes or Jean de Tournes l’Ancien to distinguish him from his son and grandson, also called Jean de Tournes. He began his career with Sébastien Gryphe. He worked with the greatest Lyonnais poets of his time: Antoine Du Moulin, Maurice Scève, Louise Labé, Joachim du Bellay. He also published numerous translations of Latin and Italian authors. Strongly influenced by Robert Estienne, he used Roman typefaces similar to his own and italics by Robert Granjon. In the edition of his Bibles, he adopted the verse system as early as 1559. But he did not content himself with reproducing the plates and documentary figures of his Parisian colleague; he illustrated the text with vignettes by the engraver Bernard Salomon, and made the business profitable by using the same woodcuts in his small Quadrins historiques de la Bible, which also enjoyed astonishing popularity.
His son, Jean II de Tournes, continued his father’s work. He republished Figures du nouveau testament, with woodcuts by Bernard Salomon. Persecuted for his Protestant faith, he left Lyon for Geneva in 1585. He was the founder of a dynasty of booksellers that lasted until the end of the 18th century.
Documents:
- Figures du nouveau testament, Lyon, 1579.
- Figure del Vecchio Testamento, con versi toscani, per Damian Maraffi, In Lione, per Giovanni di Tournes M.D.LIIII (1554). Suite of 228 woodcuts by Bernard Salomon. Damiano Maraffi is the author of the prologues and eightains below each engraving.
Ecole Estienne Library.
