L’illustration d’un incunable parisien : les grands bois des Heures d’Antoine Caillaut

Résumé En

The illustration of a Parisian incunabular ; the large woodcuts of Antoine Caillaut’s Book of Hours. The printed Book of Hours held at the French Bibliothèque nationale under the reference Rés. vélins 1643, bears the mark of Antoine Caillaut, a printer-publisher-bookseller active in Paris from 1482 to about 1505. The book was probably printed at the beginning of the year 1489. Some of the engravings in it are the work of Jean Du Pré, others of Antoine Caillaut. The author of the present article looks at the sixteen large woodcuts and identifies three engravers, A, B and C, who could be their authors. The aim of the article is to show the close links between these engravings and contemporary manuscript illuminations. Thus there is a close resemblance in the styles of engraver A (six plates) and the Master of the Coronation of Anne de Bretagne, who undoubtedly took the woodcuts as a model. There is a similar closeness between the works of the engravers B and C, and the Master of the Cardinal de Bourbon. The latter’s creations were perhaps the model for the engravers, unless it was the painter himself who actually designed the woodcuts.