It was not till 1512 that Gourmont was able method, in which, though the accents in the lowercase are probably kerned on the Aldine model, those on the capitals […] are cast in one piece with the letters» (Proctor, Printing of Greek, p. 142). Exceedengly rare edition of Chrysolora’s celebrated grammar, which is not only one of the first Greek impressions executed at Paris, but the first that appeared outside of Italy.This is in fact the fourth Greek book issued by the parisian press of Gilles de Gourmont after the Liber gnomagyricus – which is a reprint of part of the Aldine Lascaris of 1494-95 (see n. 7) –, the Batrachomyomachia and Hesiod’s Works and Days all published in 1507 (respectively on August 12, September 18 and October 28). The editor of the earliest Greek impressions at Paris was the humanist and scholar François Tissard, a native of Amboise who «studied Humanity and Philosophy at Paris at an early age, and removed thence to Orleans to study the civil law. But the licentiousness of that university induced his friends to send him speedily thence to Italy. He there cultivated classical literature under Guarinus of Verona, Beroaldus of Bologna, and Calphurnius of Padua. He acquired the Hebrew language also from a priest of the synagogue of Ferrara; obtained special instruction in the Greek from Demetrius Spartiata; and having under other masters pursued his study of the civil and canon law, took his degree of Doctor in those faculties at Bologna. He returned to Paris thus imbued with useful learning, and with an ardent zeal for its extension and promotion. It became his special object to establish there the genuine study of the Greek books, which had previously been rare and expensive in the university. These particulars are mentioned in a dialogue found in Tissard’s Hebrew Grammar, and in some of the prefaces of Greek works printed under his superintendance. “It had been”, he said, “in Italy a common reflection upon the university of Paris, that it possessed no Greek school.The Italian scholars prided themselves in their skill in the sciences connected with Humanity, and more especially in the cultivation of Greek learning”. This therefore Tissard enlarges upon, in a discourse to the students of Paris, which he annexed to the first Greek impression anni 1507. Addressing himself to the vanity of the French nation, he tells them that, by the knowledge of Greek, the Italians principally assert their superiority over them. “They call us”, he adds, “barbarians: they exclaim against our attempts to prescribe laws to Italy, and to domineer over a nation refined and polite, and deeply versed in elegant learning”. Tissard thus artfully exhorts them to assert their own reputation by applying to Greek literature; observing that he has provided for the impression of Greek books, which will henceforward cost little, and aid them much in the attainment of the language. The merits of Tissard were speedily recognised at the French court: he was received by the duke De Valois (afterwards Francis I) as one of the men of letters, who had the honour of forming a part of his establishment» (Greswell, Early Parisian Greek Press, pp. 17-19). The type used by Gourmont «is essentially a Graeco-Latin of the older style, though certain of its forms and the slope of some of its letters suggest the influence of the Aldine founts» (Proctor, Printing of Greek, p. 142). Beautiful copy, bound in sparkled vellum over boards and fully annotated in Latin by a contemporary hand. Renouard-Moreau I, 227, n. 50; Greswell, Early Parisian Greek Press, I, pp. 17-20; Hoffmann I, 452 («E. d. erst. Paris. Druckerzeugnisse in griech. Schr., u. so wie alle vor. Ausgg. sehr selten»); Legrand III, 135 («Rare et recherché»); Proctor, Printing of Greek, pp. 142-143; Scholderer, Greek Printing Types, pp. 8-9; Layton, Greek Book, p. 36; Graecogermania, n. 1; Staikos, Charta, pp. 284-286; Staikos-Sklavenitis, The Publishing Centres of the Greeks, p. 68.
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