A Picture for Every Story

"Chascune hystoire est d'ymage illustree," wrote Gilles Corrozet towards the end of the introduction to his emblem book, Hecatongraphie, published in Paris in I543. He had begun by saying that the chief aims he had in mind when writing his little moral stories were pleasure and instruction but that pictures had been added to make his ideas more vivid; these would also be useful to people other than the "bons espritz et amateurs des letres" to whom the book was ABOVE: Detail from at dedicated: with the story of Tobi "Aussi pourront YmaSara praying. Flemish, se gers et Tailleurs tury. Gift of Archer M. I Painctres, Brodeurs, Woodcut by Bernard Sa Orfevres, Esmailleurs, from the Latin Bible Prendre en ce livre Tournes in Lyons, I55 aulcune fantasie, Comme ilz feroient d'une tapisserie." Sculptors and carvers, painters, embroiderers, goldsmiths and enamelers (here invited by the poet to take fantasies from his book "as they would from a tapestry") were not expected to be lovers of books, but publishers had already discovered that they could be buyers, when pictures were provided. From the I530's, in fact, embroiderers in Germany, Italy, and France were n