Jean I Petit (fl. 1492-1530)

Petit à Petit’
or
‘Little by Little’.

A small step for a dynasty,‘
A giant one for early French printing.

Jean I Petit (fl. 1492-1530) was the founder of the Petit dynasty of booksellers, one of the most important bookselling firms in Paris for almost a century.^[1] Between 1492 and 1530, this Parisian bookseller and publisher published a tenth of the total output of the Parisian presses, or more than a thousand books. He was one of the four great ‘libraires jurés’ of the University of Paris, which made him the main publisher for students. His famous printer’s device (which may be seen above) is one of the best known of the period: it was viewed as a guarantor of his commitment to the spread of humanism in Paris.

Latinised ‘Parvus’ or sometimes ‘Pusillus’, he was the son of Oudin Petit and grandson of Jean Petit, butchers in the Rue St-Jacques, a family profession which did not prepare him for the print trade. According to Anatole Claudin, Petit’s first volume appeared in 1495 (although CERL suggests he was active as early as 1492). Dating the end of his output is even more difficult, as it merges with the business of his son Jean II (fl. 1518-40), who became his partner and who had evidently succeeded him by December 1530.[2] Oudin I Petit (d. 1572), Jean II’s son, worked at the same address, succeeding his grandfather and father as head of the family business.^[3]

Jean I Petit had three wives: the first, unnamed, was the mother of Jean II; the second was Marguerite Guymier, a daughter of a bookseller; and the third was Guillemette de La Vigne, the widow of Jean Mirebeau, whom he contracted to marry in August 1514. She gave him another son, who was named after his grandfather, Oudin. Guillemette was likewise married three times and her third marriage, following Petit’s death, was to another bookseller active in Paris, Jacques I Kerver (d. 1583), a son of Thielmann I Kerver (d. 1522), who had collaborated with her husband on the 1500-01 edition of Virgil’s Opera.

Lucan, M. Annei Lucani Cordubensis Pharsalia diligentissime per G. Versellanum recognita. Cum commentariis. Ioannis Sulpitii Verulani erudito[r]is bonæ plenis. Philippi Beroaldi Bononien[sis] nuper repertis. Iodoci Badii Ascensii perq[ue] familiaribus. Cumq[ue] ad castigationibus adnotatis ab Anto. Sabellico. Iacobo Bononien[sis]. Philippo Beroaldo. Baptista Pio. Et quibusdam aliis (Paris, 1514), title page bearing Josse Badius’ device.

One of Jean I Petit’s peculiarities was that he shared the cost of publishing a considerable number of editions with other booksellers or with the printers themselves. He was foremost among a group that included almost all the best booksellers and most skilled typographers of his day. He worked with Robert I Estienne (1503?-59) and Josse Badius (1462-1535). A good example of this practice is Worth’s folio copy of Lucan’s Pharsalia (Paris, 1514). This magnificent title page with its ornamental border of figures, mythological animals, a scribe at a lectern and portraits, illustrates not only Josse Badius’ skill as a printer, but also his close relationship with Petit. Badius’ printer’s device is visible in the centre of the page, and he not only printed this book but also wrote the preface, which he dedicated to Louis Pinelle, Bishop of Meaux (1440?-1516).[4] This 1514 edition, revised by Gerard de Verceil (1480?-1544) and with the addition of a commentary by Filippo Beroaldo (1453-1505), and notes by Marco Antonio Sabellico (1436?-1506), Jacobus Bononiensis (1339/40-1386) and Giovanni Battista Pio (d. 1540?), is the second edition. Badius had already included the preface in his 1506 edition.[5]

Another aspect of Jean I Petit’s entrepreneurial networking skills is that he expanded his enterprise to Normandy and Lyon. This gives us a better understanding of his vision and highlights his view of the early sixteenth-century French book trade: he evidently saw it extending beyond the confines of the capital. It would be too much to say that he saw the ‘potential’ of these cities, since Lyon had already been expanding its print industry by the end of the fifteenth century, independently of the ambitions of Parisian circles. It would be more accurate to suggest that this trade created a multitude of links through the exchange of information and goods. Certainly, Petit did not stop investing and capitalising in these cities, as his publications demonstrate.^[6]

He had frequent contacts with Normandy, where he seems to have had a branch, and we know that he opened a shop in Lyon. In 1551, his heirs used the double address: ‘A Paris, rue Saint Jacques a l’enseigne de la Fleur de Lyz dor et a Lyon en la rue Mercière devant Sainct Anthonin, en la boutique de Jehan Petit‘. The bookseller Romain Morin (d. 1560) was his factor in this city. In 1527, a special printer’s device was designed for the volumes he had printed in Lyon, a lion’s head and a rose.^[7]

Jean I Petit wasn’t a printer, but he owned printing equipment used by various printers and he was consequently responsible for the typographical quality of these books. It is possible that he subsidised some of them, such as those of Guy Marchant (fl. 1483-1505) and Jean Marchant (fl. 1504-17) and Josse Badius. Petit was a scholar-bookseller, specialising in the publication of contemporary scholarly works in Latin, aimed primarily though not exclusively at the academic market. His output was considerable: in 1511 alone he produced 72 publications.

Virgil, P. Virgilij Maronis poetarum facile principis Buccolicca et Georgica : cu[m] disertissimis Seruii Mauri Honorati et fere Antonii Mancinelli co[m]mentariis: vnacum Iodoci Badii ascensii perq[uam] familiari explanatione: necno[n] et rerum verborumq[ue] cognitu dignissimorum indice (Paris, 1500-1501), ii, fol. CCCLXXXIIv. This delux two-volume folio edition of the works of Publius Vergilius Maro (70 B.C.-19 B.C.), with commentaries by the famous fifth-century commentator Marcus Servius Honoratus and a more recent late fifteenth-century commentary by Josse Badius, was sold by Jean I Petit and printed by Thielmann I Kerver (d. 1522) and Hans de Coblencz (fl. 1495-1517).

Petit was also interested in publishing Greek texts. As the demand for more books grew, the printing of Greek became more organised but it still carried the financial risk that comes with a new product. The publishing environment provided new employment opportunities for Greek immigrants and refugees fleeing the Ottoman empire. The early humanists studied Greek for practical reasons, but the coming of the printed book brought a deeper appreciation of the Greek language in a broader literary milieu. Greek texts were much sought after and publishing houses required editors, proof-readers, compositors, authors, and punch-cutters, with knowledge of Greek. Enlightened Greek scholars and craftsmen, such as Demetrius Damilas (fl. 1476-88), Markos Mousouros (c. 1470-1517), and Zacharias Kalliergēs (fl. 1499-1523) soon offered their expertise as calligraphers, scribes and editors to printers.

Initially, Greek was only included as incidental quotes within Latin books and in most cases, the quotations were transliterated in Latin or filled in by hand. Progressively bilingual publications with side by side translations started to make their appearance. It was only after the establishment of the Aldine press in 1494 that a European market for Greek texts was created. Aldus Manutius (c. 1449/50-1515) was one of the earliest printers to print Greek classical texts at Venice. Aldus was a humanist and scholar of the Greek and Latin classics. He studied Latin under Gaspare da Verona (c. 1400-74) in Rome and Greek under Guarino da Verona (1374-1460) at Ferrara, and later with Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-94).

Aldus Manutius’ vision for the spread of Greek classical literature and his determination to produce high-quality publications is evident in the establishment of his ‘Neacademia’, a meeting place for all his famous associates, who would discuss philosophical and scientific matters related to the study of Greek. Both he and Petit grappled with the challenges of producing a readable Greek font at the genesis of Greek printing. As Nicholas Barber notes, it was more common to find a Greek manuscript than a book printed in Greek in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, for booksellers and printers were drawn to wider Latin markets.^[8]

On the left is an image of a page from the Library of Congress’ copy of Manuel Chrysoloras’ Erotemata (Venice, 1484) and on the right is a page from Worth’s copy of Virgil, P. Virgilij Maronis poetarum facile principis Buccolicca et Georgica : cu[m] disertissimis Seruii Mauri Honorati et fere Antonii Mancinelli co[m]mentariis: vnacum Iodoci Badii ascensii perq[uam] familiari explanatione: necno[n] et rerum verborumq[ue] cognitu dignissimorum indice (Paris, 1500-1501), ii, fol. CCCLXXXIIv detail.

We can see how Petit sought to provide a readable Greek font in the above image, when we compare it to a Venetian publication of 1484 (Manuel Chrysoloras’ Erotemata, printed by Pasquale Pellegrino (fl. 1482-1500?).[9] Chrysoloras’ text was an abridged version of the Guarinus, a Latin translation of the Erotemata, with texts in both languages. A comparison of the two shows the strong similarities between the Venetian edition of 1484 and the Petit-Kerver edition of 1500-1. Obviously the descenders are more pronounced in the French edition, but there is a visible connection in the use of a Roman type – designed to make the text more legible. This was particularly important when it came to spreading and above all learning Greek. This chapter in Worth’s copy of Virgil’s works is the last in Volume 2 and it is dedicated to Greek learning, strategically placed after the texts of the classical Latin authors. This demonstrates Petit’s desire to introduce Greek knowledge to the scholarly public of the early sixteenth century.

Giovanni Nanni, Antiquitatu[m] variaru[m] volumina. XVII. A venera[n]do & sacr[a]e theologi[a]e & praedicatorii ordis p[ro]fessore Io. Annio hac serie declarata (Paris, 1512), title page with another device of Jean I Petit.

Petit’s device, just like that of the Aldine press, changed over time. In fact, in all, he used at least 24 printers’ devices during his lifetime. Worth’s 1500-01 edition of Virgil was the product of Petit and Thielmann I Kerver and it bears both their printer’s devices. In the image at the top of this page we can see that Petit’s 1500 device bore a shield with his initials hanging from a tree, supported by a lion and a leopard. The inclusion of a lion was a clear attempt to advertise his shop on the Rue Saint Jacques, which was at the sign of the silver lion: ‘In vico Sancti Jacobi ad intersignium Leonis argentei’.

By 1508 he was including the address in French: ‘En la rue Sainct Jacques a lenseigne du lyon dargent pres les Mathurins’, but by 1511, he had settled at the sign of the Fleur-de-Lys.^[10] As the above image, on Worth’s copy of a book sold by Petit and printed by Badius in 1512 demonstrates, his 1511 move had necessitated the creation of a new device, which now incorporated a fleur-de-lys. Thus, his device was yet again designed to draw attention to his new shop and, more generally, to promote his brand.

Petit’s edition of Virgil’s works has yet more to tell us, for the chapter at the end of Virgil’s first volume includes the ‘Diversorum carminum ex Francesco Nigro numeri’ by the Italian philologist and composer, Francesco Negri (1452-c. 1523), who was a professor at the University of Padua. Francesco’s text, which was dedicated to various Virgilian songs/poems, must have been a popular work, for between 1500 and 1502 it was printed and distributed in Paris by the Marnef brothers, Thielmann I Kerver, Josse Badius, Pierre Gaudoul (fl. 1510?-34) and Jean I Petit, a prestigious circle. In it, Francesco provided a musical perspective on Virgil’s texts. His approach advocated harmony: ‘Vocalis autem harmonia in voce consistit: qua composita carmina decantantur’ or ‘Vocal harmony consists in the voice with which the composed poems are sung’. He had a very pedagogical approach: his is not a commentary on Virgil’s works, but a detailed explanation of the variations between the poems: Eroica, Elegy, Lyric and Sapphic. The composer ends this chapter with the sentence: ‘Habes igitur, iuventus, optima Vergiliana fere opera familiariter explanata’, which can be translated as ‘Thus, youth, you have almost the best works of Virgil familiarly explained’. The composer was directly addressing the book’s intended audience: students.

As Samuel F. Pogue notes, ‘The printing of music from movable type was a relatively late development in the history of printing. The Gregorian chant of the church, which involved only one voice or voices in unison and notes of uniform duration, could be reproduced in print from wooden blocks without the use of metal type’.^[11] Such music appeared in printed books as early as the 1470s, and this is the technique that was used by Kerver for Francesco’s musical chapter, a woodcut made exclusively for this publication.

The books published and sold by Jean I Petit still have much to reveal, especially about a bookseller who actively and successfully participated in the construction of a national and European book market. Petit did not skimp on the means of identifying his bookshop, he invested in the reputation of his presses and succeeded in creating a recognisable brand. This was a characteristic of the first generation of printers and it was a technique that the following generations were keen to embrace. He was also a prudent investor, collaborating with many of his contemporaries and investing heavily in other booming towns at the beginning of the sixteenth century. His risk-taking in the early decades of the French book trade is another example of his extraordinary mastery of networking, which led him to be regarded as a pioneer of publishing, the leading bookseller of his time and the founder of a bookselling dynasty.

It was only in 1528, two years before his death, that he decided to adopt his motto: ‘Petit à Petit’. A simple play on words that echoed his own surname and, in a way, referred to his personal journey. He had started out with a shop in Paris. By the end of his career, Petit had become firmly established as a central player in the French book market.

Sources

Barker, Nicholas, Aldus Manutius and the development of Greek script & type in the fifteenth century (New York, 1992).

Claudin, Anatole, Histoire de l’imprimerie en France au XVe et au XVIe siècle, 4v. (Paris, 1900-14).

Guignard, Jacques, ‘Imprimeurs et libraires parisiens 1525-1536’, Bulletin de l’Association Guillaume Budé, 2 (1953), 43-73.

Louys, Pierre & Louis Loviot (eds), Revue des Livres Anciens: documents d’histoire littéraire, de bibliographie & de bibliophilie, 2v. (Paris, 1914-17).

Pogue, Samuel F., ‘The Earliest Music Printing in France’, Huntington Library Quarterly, 50, no. 1 (1987), 35-57.

Renouard, Philippe, Quelques documents sur les Petit, libraires parisiens et leur famille (Paris, 1896).

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

Renouard, Philippe, L’Inventaire chronologique des éditions parisiennes du XVIe siècle, 5v. (Paris, 1972-2004).

Silvestre, Louis-Catherine, Marques typographiques ou Recueil des monogrammes, chiffres, enseignes, emblèmes, devises, rébus et fleurons des libraires et imprimeurs qui ont exercé en France, depuis l’introduction de l’Imprimerie en 1470, jusqu’à la fin du seizième siècle: à ces marques sont jointes celles des Libraires et Imprimeurs qui pendant la même période ont publié, hors de France, des livres en langue française, 2v. (Paris, 1853-67).

_____

^[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), pp 339-41.

[2] Ibid., p. 341.

^[3] Claudin, Anatole, Histoire de l’imprimerie en France au XVe et au XVIe siècle, 4v. (Paris, 1900-14), ii, pp 332-543.

[4] Agence bibliographique de l’enseignement supérieur (abes), ‘Pinelle, Louis (1440?-1516)‘, IdRef – Identifiants et Référentiels pour l’enseignement supérieur et la recherche.

[5] Bibliothèque nationale de France, ‘Notice de personne “Gérard de Vercel (1480?-1544)”’, BnF Catalogue général.

^[6] Renouard, Philippe, Inventaire chronologique des éditions parisiennes du XVIe siècle, 5v. (Paris, 1972-2004).

^[7] Silvestre, Louis-Catherine, Marques typographiques ou Recueil des monogrammes, chiffres, enseignes, emblèmes, devises, rébus et fleurons des libraires et imprimeurs qui ont exercé en France, depuis l’introduction de l’Imprimerie en 1470, jusqu’à la fin du seizième siècle: à ces marques sont jointes celles des Libraires et Imprimeurs qui pendant la même période ont publié, hors de France, des livres en langue française, 2v. (Paris, 1853-67), printer’s devices n° 24, 25, 367, 1008, 1009, 1136.

^[8] Barber, Nicholas, Aldus Manutius and the development of Greek script & type in the fifteenth century (New York, 1992), pp 13-18.

[9] Bibliothèque nationale de France, ‘Notice de personne “Pasquali, Pellegrino (14..-1500?)”’, BnF Catalogue général.

^[10] Renouard, Philippe, Quelques documents sur les Petit, libraires parisiens et leur famille (Paris, 1896), p. 135. It should, however, be noted that three or four volumes, dated between 1512 and 1515, still bear the address of the Lyon-D’Argent, where he had been joined by another bookseller Pierre Viard (fl. 1512-23), in 1512.

^[11] Pogue, Samuel F., ‘The Earliest Music Printing in France’, Huntington Library Quarterly, 50, no. 1 (1987), 35-57.