Ebook Geofroy Tory / Painter and engraver; first royal printer; reformer of / orthography and typography under François I.

Note: Translation of: Geofroy Tory, peintre et graveur, premier imprimeur royal, re´formateur de l'orthographe et de la typographie sous François Ier

Geoffroy Tory (also Geofroy, Latin "Godofredus Torinus") was born in Bourges around 1480 and died in Paris before 14 October 1533. He was a French humanist and an engraver, best known for adding accents on letters in French. His life's work has heavily influenced French publishing to this day.

Tory's interest in this period turned to the arts, especially painting and engraving. Several years after joining the Collège de Bourgogne, he resigned his post and moved to Italy so as to better study Italian art. Beyond his passing references to his travels in Champ Fleury, there is not much known of Tory at this time. He returned to Paris in 1518 and began regularly producing woodcuts, for which he gained a reputation among Parisian editors. It was during this same period that Tory took up selling books himself.

In 1529 Tory published his own book, Champfleury, one of the most important and influential works of the time. It set a standard for French publishing that in many ways is still followed today. In the introduction to Champfleury, Tory is quoted as saying that there are three different kinds of men who corrupt the French language; the "skimmers of Latin", the "jokers", and the "slangers".

Gradually, he managed to acquire French texts to put into print, at a time when that was only done for Latin texts. For that purpose, he introduced the apostrophe, the accent, and the cedilla. He wanted to reform French spelling to reflect its Latin roots.

In 1530 Tory became official printer to King Francis I, and in 1532 he was made a librarian at the University of Paris.