Guillaume Morel (1505-64)

‘Victurus genium debet habere liber’ or ‘A book, to live, must have a genius’.[1] 

If the serpent embodies immortality and knowledge,
Guillaume Morel is the stick holding them together.

Anacreon, [Anakreontos kai allon tinon lyrikon poeton mele] = Anacreontis et aliorum lyricorum aliquot poëtarum odae. In easdem Henr. Stephani obseruationes. Eaedem Latinae … (Paris, 1556), title page device of Guillaume Morel.

Guillaume Morel (1505-64) was a printer who spent most of his career as the printer of the ‘Grecs du roi’. It is therefore not surprising that his printer’s device is often confused with those other royal printers, as they are very similar. The device shown in Image 1 is a salamander-headed basilisk wrapped around a spike with an olive branch. Joseph Dumoulin adds that this device is often preceded by the following motto written in Greek: ‘Βασιλεῖ τ’ ἀγαθῷ κρατερῷ τ’αı’χμητῇ’ an extract from Homer (Iliad III, 179), the meaning of which, however, is disputed.^[2]

Likewise disputed is the location of Morel’s homeplace for he is variously described as being from Le Tilleul, near Mortain in the Manche or near Lisieux in Calvados.[3] It is important to distinguish Guillaume from a similarly named but different French printing dynasty begun by Fédéric I Morel (1523-83), who was originally from Champagne. Guillaume first worked as a proof-reader in Paris around 1540 for Jean Loys (d. 1547), whose book, Aratou Soleōs Phainomena. Ciceronis in Arati Phaenomena interpretatio, quae multo & amplior est & emendatior, quàm vulgata …, printed in the same year, was collected by Worth. Morel also worked as a translator and teacher of Greek and was the author of several works. He began his career in the book trade with the bookseller, Dominique Chrestien (fl. 1548-49), and together, on 1 October 1548, they decided to rent a house in the Sainte-Geneviève enclave in order to set up a printing press.[4] The partnership was, however, dissolved some months later, in January 1549. From 1548 to 1550, Morel changed his address several times, using the following addresses: ‘Sub imagine divi Stephani, ex adverso scholae Remensium’ and ‘au Mont S. Hylaire devant le college de Reims à l’image St-Estienne, Rue des Sept-Voyes’, and, from 1550 onwards, ‘Ad scholas Coqueretias’ or ‘Rue Chartière, près du collège de Coqueret et de la maison des Trois-Croissants’, an address at which he remained though he ceased to refer to it from 1552 onwards. In 1551 he began to work with his friend Adrien Turnèbe (1512-65), with whom he shared a passion for Greek. In 1555, when Turnèbe ceased to be King’s Printer for Greek, Morel succeeded him in the position.^[5]

Morel’s widow, Barbe de Mascon, took over the press on his death in 1564 and in 1565 she remarried, this time to another printer, Jean Bienné (d. 1588), who took over the management of the firm. Despite this, until 1566, she continued to sign her publications ‘Apud Barbaram de Mascon viduam Guil. Morelii’ (By Barbe de Mascon, widow of Guillaume Morel). Guillaume and Barbe had two daughters: Jeanne who married the printer Estienne Prévosteau (fl. 1579-1610) and Barbe who had a son with the printer Pierre Pautonnier (fl. 1601-13).[6] Etienne Prévosteau, Pierre Pautonnier and Jean Libert (d. 1646), Prévosteau’s son-in-law, took over Guillaume Morel’s printing firm following the death of Jean Bienné.^[7]

 Aristotle, Aristotelous peri poiētikēs. Aristotelis de arte poetica liber (Paris, 1555), pp 78 and 79.

Worth owned a number of important Greek texts produced by Morel and Turnèbe in 1555. His copy of Aristotle’s Aristotelous ethikōn Nikomacheiōn biblia deka. Aristotelis De moribus ad Nicomachum, lib. X (Paris, 1555) had been printed early in the year, while Turnèbe was still King’s Printer, and it therefore bears both their names, but by the end of 1555 Morel’s name alone may be found on Worth’s copy of Aristotle’s Aristotelous peri poiētikēs. Aristotelis de arte poetica liber (Paris, 1555).  The above image, taken from the latter book, illustrates the subtlety of Guillaume Morel’s typography.

Worth’s copy of Aristotle’s Aristotelous peri poiētikēs. Aristotelis de arte poetica liber also highlights Morel’s scholarship and points to the relative freedom he had in choosing texts. Like members of the previous generations, such as Josse Badius (1462-1535), Simon de Colines (1480?-1546), and Michel de Vascosan (d. c. 1577), both Turnèbe and Morel, in the many editions they produced, demonstrated their commitment to the production of scholarly translations of ancient texts.

We know that Morel printed a translation by Pietro Vettori (1499-1585) of Demetrios of Phaleron’s De Elocutione in the same year, 1555 (though Worth did not purchase a copy). Raphaële Mouren, commenting on Vettori’s career, sheds light on Morel’s reputation: he reports that Ugolino Martelli (1519-92), a friend of Vettori’s, wanted to help him by putting him in touch with Turnèbe and Guillaume Morel.^[8] Evidently he was successful, for Vettori became a collaborator with Morel. The latter also worked with other leading scholars such as Johannes Carion (1499-1537/38), François Douaren (1509-59), Georg Fabricius (1516-71), André Tiraqueau (1488-1558), Francisco Vergara (1484?-1545) and Angelo Canini (1521-57).

Aratus Solensis, Aratou Soleos Phainomena kai Diosemeia: Theonos scholia. Leontiou Mechanikou Peri arateias sphairas, (Paris, 1559), foldout plate between pp 70 and 71.

Guillaume Morel also printed this rare edition of the Phainomena, a poem on astronomy written by the Greek poet and astronomer Aratus of Solensis (fl. 4th-3rd century B.C.). The poem consists of 1,154 verses and is divided into two parts, the first of which combines astronomy and astrology, referring to Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 400 B.C.-c. 350 B.C.) and the works of Hesiod (fl. 8th century B.C.). The second deals more specifically with meteorological signs, a disputed subject in France in the sixteenth century, which divided scientists and other authors. Morel published two separate editions of the text, which are not always found together. Worth owned the Greek version of the text with commentaries by Theon of Alexandria (fl. 364) and glosses by Leontius, Abbot of St. Saba (fl. 6th century-7th century); but did not buy Morel’s Latin edition, with translations by Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.) and Rufius Festus Avienus (fl. 4th century), and commentaries of Germanicus Caesar (15 B.C.-19 A.D.) – possibly because, as we have already seen, he already owned the 1540 bi-lingual edition, printed by Morel’s first employer, Jean Loys. Worth’s Greek edition is illustrated with two folding plates showing the different constellations, with the legend in Latin and Greek underneath. These woodcuts are folded into the book, which requires some gymnastics in the structure! It shows that Morel did not have the woodcut re-worked to fit the size of the book he had chosen, preferring the details of the woodcut and the possibility of adding a detailed legend. Moreover, this woodcut is large and very detailed; it could easily be detached from the book and hung on the wall of an office or a house – as was the case with many woodcuts and title pages during this period.[9]

Oppian, Oppiani Anazarbei De piscatu libri V. Laurentio Lippio interprete. De venatione libri IIII. ita conuersi, vt singula verba singulis respondeant. In eorum gratiam qui Graeca cum Latinis coniungere volunt (Paris, 1555), title page device of Guillaume Morel at the end of his career.

In 1555, the year of his appointment as King’s Printer, Morel printed a Latin edition of De piscatu by Oppian (fl. 2nd century). This book of natural philosophy, with its poetic form, contained valuable information about fish and fishing. Morel’s Latin edition contained ‘De venatione’ which had been translated by Turnèbe, but it was not a joint publication by him and Morel, for the duo had already produced a Greek edition, Oppianou Anazarbeōs Halieutikōn biblia 5. Kynēgetikon biblia. Oppiani Anazarbei De piscatu libri V. De venatione libri IIII (Paris, 1555).^[10] Both texts may be found in the Worth Library, bound together in a volume which bears Morel’s name tooled on the spine, with the date ‘1555’ – a sure sign of Worth’s estimation of Morel as an important printer of this period.

Morel’s printer’s device, shown in Image 4, also appears on another work in the Worth Library, which is important because it was the last book Morel worked on before his death: Plato’s Timaeus Platonis, siue de vniversitate. The Greek edition, begun in 1563, was not completed until 1569 by Jean Bienné, as the colophon testifies: ‘Absolvebat Joannes Benenatus pridie Kalendas Martias 1569’.[11] However, the royal privilège of 11 July 1555 was granted to Guillaume Morel. The translations of Cicero and Chalcidius (fl. 4th century) as well as the commentary by Chalcidius are partial, and the fonts used in the work are clearly different.

The device illustrated in Image 4 reminds us that Morel used multiple devices: Renouard et al. list four and they all have the peculiarity of being very much inspired by the royal printer’s device.[12] Here we see a winged snake, wrapped around what looks like a Roman ‘G’ (a reference to his first name), but is actually the Greek letter: theta. The use of theta could be taken as a reference by this passionate Hellenist to his output, but the initial also symbolises thanatos, the modern equivalent of the skull and crossbones, and is a reference to death and, more specifically, immortality. Morel’s pathway to immortality was through the transmission of ancient knowledge in critically acclaimed books: what could be more humanist? The first-century Roman poet Martial, in an epigram which Morel used as a motto, had once said, ‘A book to live, must have a genius’, and in many ways Morel, via his production of Greek texts, had sought to be that genius. In doing so he might be said to have turned the motto on its head for his immortality now rests on the wonderful books he produced in the middle of the sixteenth century.

Sources

Bibliothèque nationale de France, ‘Aratus (0315?-0240? av. J.-C.), Phænomena, et prognostica, 1559‘, BP16 – Bibliographie des éditions parisiennes du 16e siècle.

Bibliothèque nationale de France, ‘Notice de personne “Morel, Guillaume (1505-1564)”’, BnF Catalogue général.

Carlino, Andrea, ‘Les fondements humanistes de la médecine: rhétorique et anatomie à Padoue vers 1540’, in Andrea Carlino & Alexandre Wenger (eds), Littérature et médecine: approches et perspectives, XVIe-XIXe siècle (Geneva, 2007), pp 19-47.

Constantinidou, Natasha, ‘Constructions of Hellenism Through Printing and Editorial Choices: The Case of Adrien de Turnèbe, Royal Lecturer and Printer in Greek (1512-1565)’, International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 25, no. 3 (2018), 262-84.

Dumoulin, Joseph, Vie et oeuvres de Fédéric Morel, imprimeur à Paris depuis 1557 jusqu’à 1583 (Paris, 1901).

Hummel, Pascale, ‘Renaissance de Pindare : Fogelmark (Staffan), The Kallierges Pindar. A Study in Renaissance Greek Scholarship and Printing, Cologne, 2015’ [book review],  Revue des Études Grecques, 129, no. 2 (2016), 587-94.

Lambin, Gérard, ‘Chapitre premier. L’anacréontisme’, Anacréon: fragments et imitations (Rennes, 2002), pp 15-36.

Mouren, Raphaële, ‘Les acteurs du livre érudit à la Renaissance’, Actes des congrès nationaux des sociétés historiques et scientifiques, 128, no. 19 (2009), 172-92.

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).

Renouard, Philippe, Imprimeurs et libraires parisiens du XVIe siècle. Tome quatrième, Binet-Blumenstock (Paris, 1986).

_____

[1] Martial, Epigrams, Book 6: 61.

^[2] Dumoulin, Joseph, Vie et oeuvres de Fédéric Morel, imprimeur à Paris depuis 1557 jusqu’à 1583 (Paris, 1901), pp 135-36.

[3] Bibliothèque nationale de France, ‘Notice de personne “Morel, Guillaume (1505-1564)”’, BnF Catalogue général.

[4] 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. 84.

^[5] Ibid., pp 314-15.

[6] Agence bibliographique de l’enseignement supérieur (abes), ‘Pautonnier, Pierre (15..-163.? ; imprimeur-libraire)‘, IdRef – Identifiants et Référentiels pour l’enseignement supérieur et la recherche.

^[7] Renouard et al. (eds), Répertoire des imprimeurs parisiens, p. 314-5.

^[8] Mouren, Raphaële, ‘Les acteurs du livre érudit à la Renaissance’, Actes des congrès nationaux des sociétés historiques et scientifiques, 128, no. 19 (2009), 172-92.

[9] Bibliothèque nationale de France, ‘Aratus (0315?-0240? av. J.-C.), Phænomena, et prognostica, 1559‘, BP16 – Bibliographie des éditions parisiennes du 16e siècle.

^[10] Constantinidou, Natasha, ‘Constructions of Hellenism Through Printing and Editorial Choices: The Case of Adrien de Turnèbe, Royal Lecturer and Printer in Greek (1512-1565)’, International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 25, no. 3 (2018), 269.

[11] The Latin translation, bound with it, is dated 1579.

[12] Renouard et al., (eds), Répertoire des imprimeurs parisiens, p. 84.