The First Generation

The first generation of the French book trade includes some of the most famous early modern printers and booksellers of all time: Josse Badius (1462-1535), Jean I Petit (fl. 1492-1530), Chrestien Wechel (1495-1554), Simon de Colines (1480?-1546), Robert I Estienne (1503?-59), Galliot du Pré (d. 1561), François Regnault (c. 1540), the Marnef brothers Geoffroy (fl. 1489-1518), and Enguilbert (fl. 1491-1535), and the Kerver father and son Thielmann I (d. 1522) and Jean I (fl. 1521-22).[1] The early sixteenth-century witnessed the development of the roles of printers and booksellers in Paris, as well as publishers. Marketing was vital for all and as part of this, they invested in the aesthetics of the title page and, above all, in the development of their printer’s device. A legacy of the incunabula period, devices at the beginning of the sixteenth century were often very detailed and sometimes rather dark, with black dominating the whole. They were often placed in an ornate frame on the title page, which might also contain animal and mythological forms, as well as portraits.[2]

Anon, Vocabularius utriusq[ue] iuris ab innu[m]eris mendis purgat[us] ac in multiplici vocabulo[rum] additione auct[us] una cu[m] tractatu de modo stude[n]diin utroq[ue] iure ab Joha[n]ne Baptista de Gezalupis edito et co[m]pe[n]diolo brevi d[e] ortographia…Alberici de Rosate (Paris, 1518), title page device of François Regnault.

As François Regnault’s creative device demonstrates, he worked at the sign of the Elephant bookshop. Like Josse Badius, Simon de Colines, and Chrestien Wechel, he played an important role as a publisher of numerous classical and historical texts, joining these printers in the capacity of a scholar-printer. He practised in London around 1496, then in Paris from 1501 to 1540, before ending his career in Rouen in 1540/41. He bought the shop ‘La Maison du Barillet’ from the bookseller Guillaume Roland (fl. 1516-46), who also gave him the elephant device, which is why François Regnault used this address from 1523 (though his use of the elephant device is attested as early as 1513). The major part of his output was devoted to the printing of liturgical texts for the Catholic Church, a repeat customer with an interest in the development of the printing press. Many printers of this generation looked to the European market (and in Regnault’s case England), to sell their liturgical books. [3]

Francesco Patrizi, Francisci Patricij … De institutione reipu. libri nou[em], … cum Ioannis Sauignei annotationibus margineis (Paris, 1520), title page device of Galliot du Pré.

The idea of the scholar-printer, well aware of the humanist movements of his time, is a fundamental element in the establishment of this generation and the creation of the dynasties that resulted from it. Moreover, these purveyors of the printed book were sometimes also authors, as in the case of Galliot du Pré, who, like many booksellers in the early days of printing, presented the books he had edited and written to the public with a preface, a note or a dedication (sometimes in verse). This was an inseparable part of the career of Josse Badius, who wrote many prefaces in his time. Galliot’s device, above, illustrates an elegant galiote, a specific type of ship, a discreet word play on his own surname: Galliot. He was not only a scholar-printer but also an astute businessman for, like Jean I Petit, he was a bookseller who collaborated with several presses in Paris at the same time, including that of Simon de Colines. [4]

Berosus the Chaldean, Berosus Babylonicus De his quae praecesserunt inundationem terrarium. Item. Myrsilus de origine Turrenorum. Cato in fragmentis Archilocus in epitheto de temporum. Metasthenes de iudicio temporibus. Philo in breuiario temporum. Xenophon de equiuocis temporum. Sempronius de diuisione Italiae. Q. Fab. Pictor de aureo seculo & origine vrbis Rom[a]e. Fragmentum itinerarii Antonini Pii. Alteracatio Adriani augusti & Epictici. Vertumniana propertii Manethon (Paris, 1510), title page device of Geoffroy de Marnef.

The printer’s device above is taken from a work printed by Geoffroy de Marnef, brother of Enguilbert and Jean I de Marnef (fl. 1485-1510). The Marnef brothers, a dynasty originally from Flanders, embodied the last commercial characteristic evident in the first generation of French printers: the spread of printing shops. After settling in Paris, the Marnef brothers constantly sought to innovate in distribution and opened shops in Poitiers, Angers and Bourges. Poitiers was an important centre for the family, controlled by a family member. Thus this creation of commercial networks was not only an aid to distribution but also a means of controlling production and, above all, of maintaining the confidence of readers. [5] Jean I Petit, who opened several branches in Lyon and Normandy at the beginning of the sixteenth century, was also largely involved in this commercial networking activity.

Sources

Martin, Henri-Jean, La naissance du livre moderne (XIVe-XVIIe siècles): mise en page et mise en texte du livre français (Paris, 2000).

Renouard, Philippe, Jeanne Veyrin-Forrer & Birgitte Moreau (eds), Répertoire des imprimeurs parisiens: libraires, fondeurs de caractères et correcteurs d’imprimerie: depuis l’introduction de l’imprimerie à Paris (1470) jusqu’à la fin du seizième siècle … (Paris, 1965).

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[1] Renouard, Philippe, Jeanne Veyrin Forrer & Birgitte Moreau (eds), Répertoire des imprimeurs parisiens: libraires, fondeurs de caractères et correcteurs d’imprimerie: depuis l’introduction de l’imprimerie à Paris (1470) jusqu’à la fin du seizième siècle … (Paris, 1965), p. 225.

[2] This ‘ornamentation of the title page’ at the beginning of the text has been explored in Henri-Jean Martin’s seminal La naissance du livre moderne (XIVe-XVIIe siècles): mise en page et mise en texte du livre français (Paris, 2000).

[3] Renouard et al. (eds), Répertoire des imprimeurs parisiens, pp 362-364.

[4] Ibid., p. 132.

[5] Ibid., pp 296-297.