Book trades in Lower Normandy and the Westcountry 1700-1800

A cross-Channel comparison:
the book trades in Lower Normandy and the Westcountry in the 18th century

On May 3, 1695, His Majesty's government in London neglected to renew the statute for the licensing of books. The consequence for printing in England was a growth during the 18th century which was in great contrast to the "provincial anemia" of the world of the book in France during the last century of the ancien régime. During the 17th century both countries had strict regulation of the book trades and printers. In England the situation was more restricted even than in France.

In England the Licensing Act had replaced other methods of regulating the printing press in 1662, and for more than thirty years had the effect of limiting printing to London, the university towns of Oxford and Cambridge, and the City of York. In London only twenty printers were allowed plus the three royal printers. [1] Even though the number of printers had risen to 55 with 145 presses in 1686, [2] that was not a large number for a nation of around six million souls.

In France, according to the national printing survey of 1701 apart from the 51 printers in Paris, there were 30 in Lyon and 330 in 157 other provincial cities. [3]

The author's recent research to continue the work on the prosopography of the book trades in Lower Normandy, left unfinished after the death of Alain Girard in 1996 has made possible a comparison between this region and the south-west of England, already studied to draw up a biographical dictionary of the the book trades and a directory of books printed in Devon. [4,5] The differences between the two regions are remarkable.

The following table [6, 7] provides a statistical comparison between these regions, both of a similar area, and located at a similar distance from the capital, even if the population of Lower Normandy is larger than that of the south-west of England.

Département or county	Area (km2)	Population 1801
Calvados	5545	451851
Manche	5926	530631
Orne	6105	395723
Basse-Normandie	17576	1378205
Cornwall	3564	192281
Devon	6703	340308
Dorset	2655	114452
Somerset	4176	273577
South West	17098	920618

In France the King's Privy Council regulated every aspect of bookselling and printing throughot the kingdom. Its officers drew up the lists of cities where printers and booksellers were permitted and even the number of printers and booksellers allowed in each city. For example July 21, 1704 a decision of the Council fixed "the number of printers that His Majesty wants and allows to be established in the various cities of the kingdom": in Lower Normandy, four in Caen, two in Alençon and one in each of the cities of Bayeux, Coutances and Lisieux [8]. A judgment of March 21, 1739 confirmed that the number of printers was fixed at four for Caen, two for Alençon, and one for Avranches, Bayeux, Coutances and Lisieux and abolished the printing works in Saint-Lô, Sées, Valognes, and Vire [9 ]. On May 12, 1759 another judgment ordered that the preceding enactments be executed; "Consequently, that the number of printers of the Generality of Caen will be and will remain fixed at that of seven, namely four for the city of Caen and one for each of the cities of Avranches, Bayeux and Coutances; in doing so, orders that the printing works established in the cities of Saint-Lô and Valognes will be and will remain suppressed from now on” [10].

If a printer's place became vacant or by death or resignation, a Privy Council decision invited those who wished to fill the place to present their talents and abilities before the city police and, after a rigorous examination, the chosen candidate was received by another Privy Council judgment [11]. This situation continued until the Revolution of 1789. Thus, for example on September 19, 1785 by decree of the Privy Council of King Jean-Louis Poisson was received printer in Caen, in the place made vacant by the death of Pierre-Jean Poisson, his father, only through the resignation of his mother, the widowed Jeanne Guesruel. [12]

In England regulation was delegated to the Stationers Company of London, a livery company incorporated in 1559 responsible for the trades of printers, booksellers, and stationers. According to section 9 of the statute of 1662 each printer, typefounder and maker of printing presses had to be notified to the Stationers Company and consequently to exercise the trade of printing the individual had to either serve an apprenticeship of seven years with a member of this corporation or be the son of a master [13]. If there was not a vacant place an individual could become a journeyman, working for a master.

According to section 2 of the 1662 statute, each book or pamphlet had to be registered with the Stationers Company before being printed. [14] The corporation had the right to search for prohibited books in workshops and to register printed books. Like all former London livery companies their powers did not normally extend outside the City of London - no problem when there were no printers in the provinces.

But after 1695 the printers realized that, without the restriction of the license, it was possible to work in the provinces. Already in 1695 the Corporation of Bristol decided that "a printing press would be useful for several reasons" and invited William Bonney to come from London [15]. The following year Daniel Jordaine was paid for items printed for the Corporation of Plymouth but this activity does not seem to have established a very flourishing press in this city [16]. In 1698 Samuel Darker opened his workshop in Exeter in Devon where he printed a number of important titles [4]. With Darker we can trace the details of his apprenticeship and freedom admission in the registers of the London Stationers Company but, once arrived in the provinces it becomes very difficult to trace the career of these printers. It was no longer necessary to register apprentices and even if in theory it was necessary to be a citizen or freeman to exercise a trade in a provincial city, very often the custom had fallen into disuse. The guilds in the largest provincial cities were losing their authority and the printing profession did not find an obvious allocation among the dozen corporations typically represented in these cities. In Exeter, the first printers like Samuel Darker, Samuel Farley, Philip Bishop, Joseph Bliss or Andrew Brice were not freemen [17]. Andrew Brice was apprenticed to Joseph Bliss but fled before finishing his servitude, established an independent workshop in 1717 and founded the Post-master newspaper. We know this not from the archives but only because of the invective they launched against each other in the pages of their newspapers [18].

In France in 1701 the national survey provided many details on twenty printers in seven cities in Basse-Normandie; number of presses, typefaces, names of companions etc. [3] The national surveys of 1764 [19] and 1777 [20] show a considerable decrease with in 1777 eleven printers in seven cities: Alençon (2), Avranches, Bayeux, Caen (4), Coutances, Lisieux and Valognes, a number which is confirmed by the almanacs of the book trade published by Perrin in 1777, 1778 and 1781. Nationally in 1781 Perrin lists 258 printer-booksellers and 30 printers in 149 cities (by comparison with 360 workshops in 158 cities in 1701) including eleven printer-booksellers in seven cities in Lower Normandy, but also 46 booksellers in 19 cities in the region [21].

In England the statistics for the provinces are more difficult to discover. There are only two lists during the 18th century, both are unofficial. The list of Samuel Negus which dates from 1723 does not list all the printers in the provinces - for example he does not list anyone for Exeter [2] - but the next list, drawn up by John Pendred in 1785 is more complete but not quite comprehensive [22]. According to these lists and other sources, printing in the Southwest remained sparse at the beginning of the 18th century. Besides Bristol, the largest city in the region, and Exeter, there is a press in Taunton from 1718 and a flourishing press in the small town of Sherborne in Dorset from 1731. Located halfway between London and the cities of Devon and Cornwall, it served as a distribution point for newspapers. The press at Plymouth, established in 1696, remained inactive until the arrival of Orion Adams, a travelling printer, who worked there between 1758 and 1764. But in the 1770s expansion began. In 1786 the Almanach de Caen listed eleven printers and 38 booksellers in twenty cities in Lower Normandy while in 1785 The London and country printers, bookseller and stationers vade mecum listed 35 printers, 15 booksellers and seven paper merchants in 24 cities [22]. The south-west of England seems to have overtaken Lower Normandy. But in the 1780s the presses in most of these cities produced few printed items. Bath with 265 imprints and two newspapers over the decade, Exeter with 170 imprints and two newspapers, Sherborne with 20 imprints and two newspapers, Taunton with 30 imprints, Plymouth with 28 and Wells with 20 were the only cities with more than five titles to their name [32 ]. In Basse-Normandie all the cities with a press produced more than five imprints during the 1780s and the four printers of Caen saw at least 367 titles published.

Under two regimes which were so different, one highly regulated and the other very laissez-faire, the sources for tracing the development of printing are obviously also very different.

In France we have already mentioned the archives of the Privy Council of the King with their series of judgments on the reception of new printer-booksellers [11], and also the national surveys of 1701 [3], 1764 [19] and 1777 [20 ], The police archives also provide details on the proceedings for the distribution of illicit literature, for example the search of Jean-Jacques Manoury in Caen ordered by d'Hémery in 1771 [23]. But archives in the départements also hold a multitude of documents, especially in the archives of the Intendance where there are copies of local inquiries and minutes of visits made for the central government. For example, in the Calvados Departmental Archives there is a series of investigations carried out by the Intendant between 1730 and 1776 [24]. Unfortunately the archives of the Chambre Syndicale of the booksellers and printers in Caen do not seem to survive for the most part, but there is for example a very detailed report of the reception as master of the printer-bookseller Pierre-Jean-Aimé Chalopin in January 1785 with even the questions asked on the techniques of printing: “how many parts is a press made up of … how is the ink of the printing press made … in what state should the paper be prepared for printing"etc. [25]

In England the central archives provide us with few resources on printing in the provinces. There are records in the London Stationers' Company of some apprentices from the South West who may return later to practice, but who more often stay in the metropolis where there is more chance of finding work. But for the English researcher it is soon necessary to leave the legislative and regulatory sources to delve into fiscal, economic or commercial records, sources which are not specific to the book trades. For example in 1712 the government by statute imposed a tax on each allowance paid for an apprentice, a very important source to trace the training of individuals, except that there are gaps in the registers and many apprentices did not pay premiums and therefore no tax [26]. Bankruptcies are recorded in the London Gazette, now available online [27]. Insurance records that start around 1696 often give a very detailed indication of the value of a business, but they are very numerous and only a part is indexed by trade. [28] The trade directories started for London in 1736 but for the provinces they became general only in the 1780s [29]. Richer but more difficult to leaf through are the weekly newspapers published in the largest provincial cities since the beginning of the century, very useful for announcements of books recently published with the lists of distributors in the region often more extensive than on the title pages. In monthly periodicals, such as the Gentleman’s magazine or London magazine, marriage and death notices are sometimes easier to locate than in parish registers. [30]

In France the weekly press is much less widespread in the provinces on the eve of the Revolution but in the departmental and municipal archives we find the fiscal lists of capitation, tithes or twentieths or the profession is more often indicated than in the tax lists in England; a good source for journeymem even if it is not normally possible to find out which master they work for. [31]

And of course in both countries there are parish registers, and in France from 1791 civil registration, a source to leaf through either in the volumes, or on microfilm or in digital form if one is looking for one or two individuals, but difficult to trace all the families who operate as printers or booksellers in an area. This is also the case for the archives of notaries where the profession is not always mentioned.

But the most important source is formed by the surviving productions of the printing works. There are now important resources online to facilitate the discovery of this resource. In England the British Library maintains the English Short Title Catalogue, a database which aims to provide a comprehensive bibliography of all surviving English language editions and books printed in English speaking countries up to 1800 [32]. In France it is not yet as easy for this period. The Répertoire bibliographique des livres imprimés en France au XVIIIe siècle remains incomplete, but it is possible to consult online the catalogue of the Bibliothèque national de France [33] and also the Catalogue collectif de France, Base Patrimoine [34]. For Lower Normandy there is also the Normandy collective catalogue and various printed bibliographies [35]. It is thus possible to gain an almost complete overview of the main lines of production of provincial printers even if the Répertoire is not complete [36].

What are some of the differences between the two regions revealed by these various sources?

The 89 individuals who exercised the profession throughout the region of Basse-Normadie between 1701 and 1789 formed an extremely closed social group. The fathers of 30 of the printers were themselves printers. Six of the fathers were booksellers, all from Caen. There was one whose brother was a printer and several others entered the profession by marriage, one by marrying the sister of a printer, another by marrying the daughter of a printer and two by marrying the daughter of a bookseller. The considerable number of 24 widows inherited the workshop after the death of her husband. Often they did not continue to exercise for a long time, sometimes helped by their son, but others continued for years with an interesting production of titles. There are only three known individuals whose parents were not in the book trades: a farmer, a teacher and a "bourgeois" but it must be admitted that there are 17 individuals whose parents are unknown. As for formation 32, they probably received it in the father's workshop (for 16 this is known to be the case) and two in the stepfather's workshop. Among the apprentices 14 stayed in Normandy (including two in Rouen) and eight did their training elsewhere including four in Paris and one each in Bourges, Poitiers and Marseille. Two individuals were trained as booksellers, one is an amateur, and the training of five is unknown. [37]

The lack of documentation in England makes a direct comparison impossible but among 56 booksellers and printers who worked in Exeter during the 18th century 15 had an Exonian bookseller or printer for father and also an uncle who was a printer in Exeter. There are four widows, one of whom married a bookseller. 14 are known to have been apprenticed, sometimes in the father’s workshop, 12 in Exeter and only two in London. Only four are known to have parents who had a profession other than in the book trades, but it is likely that among the 17 whose origin is unknown, several have come from elsewhere. Many of these strangers are booksellers, a profession where technical training is less essential than with printers [4]. In Exeter, the booksellers and printers also form a fairly closed group, perhaps a little less than in Normandy, and certainly in the smaller towns the booksellers and printers are less often native to the town.

In general, printers in France are more highly qualified, a benefit of the strict regulations. In the provinces of England it was not necessary to provide proof of Latinity or Catholicism to be received or to prove one's technical capacity. Several of the printers have received university education. In Normandy there are more works printed in Latin and more works of science or medicine, partly a consequence of the presence of the university in Caen and the use of Latin by the Catholic Church. Among the 764 titles listed for Exeter by the English Short Title Catalogue before 1801, there are only 13 in Latin; all but one appeared before 1721. They were printed by Samuel Farley and Philip Bishop, mostly works of medicine and archaeology written by the Exonian doctor William Musgrave. [32] In Caen in 1758 alone, of the 24 titles listed in the Répertoire [38] eleven were in Latin.

However, there are scholarly printers in the south west of England. For example Andrew Brice, a printer at Exeter, the author of two epic poems and a large volume published in 44 parts before 1759 the Grand Gazetteer, a geographical dictionary of 1,446 pages in folio. Gilbert Dyer, bookseller in Exeter is the author of The principle of atheism proved to be unfounded from the nature of man (1796), Restoration of the ancient modes of bestowing names (1805) and Vulgar errors, ancient and modern (1810). The freemason and printer Robert Trewman of Exeter published The principles of free-masonry delineated  in 1777.

In Lower Normandy, printers have more official offices than in England. For example in Caen Jean-Claude Pyron was printer and bookseller of the King, of the University, of the city, of “S. A .S. Monsignor the Admiral" and printer for the fermes and in Lisieux in 1787 François Bonaventure Mistral designated himself as " Imprimeur de Monseigneur l’Evêque et de la Commission provinciale intermédiaire ". These charges and privileges give security to the workshops which would thus obtain a source of work from these organizations. For example, in 1772 the widow Briard, "Imprimeur du Conseil Supérieur", reprinted a series of Lettres patentes du Roy. [39] In England even if the municipal council or the bishopric preferred one local printer to the others it is not normal that this becomes an official designation. And in England the printing of national statutes is privileged, and only the King's printer in London can print them. Other categories where there is a privilege or monopoly are the almanacs and the Bibles. An exception is provided by booksellers in the English provinces who designate themselves as the bookseller to a member of the royal family. For example in Plymouth Benjamin Robert Haydon declares himself "printer and bookseller to the Duke of Clarence" after 1789 and names his establishment "Clarence Press" between 1793 and 1800. Later John Wallis, bookseller, stationer and owner of a library and room Reading in the seaside resort of Sidmouth was designated bookseller of the Duke of Kent in 1819 [41]. But these examples are exceptional.

In England one has the impression that the workshops were smaller than in Normandy. The 1701 survey identified 20 printers in Lower Normandy with 34 presses and employing 27 workers but only one apprentice [3]. In 1764 the survey listed for Caen: "The S. Poisson 3 presses, the S. Yvon 2 presses, the S. Pyron 3 presses, the S. Chalopin 3 presses" [19]. We lack such details for England. A prominent printer like Andrew Brice at Exeter employed R. Trewman as an apprentice for seven years and William Andrews as a journeyman and protégé for fourteen years. They left it in 1763 to found an independent newspaper. [42] Sometimes Brice seems to have worked alone in his workshop. It is likely that the presses in the south-west mostly had only one or two presses, but unfortunately the post-mortem inventories for Devon which might perhaps resolve this issue were destroyed in 1942.

While the printers in Normandy because of their limited number and their official offices had stability and security, in the small towns of the south-west region, with their more dispersed population the printers with their unique press often had an ephemeral existence. From time to time there is even an itinerant printer in Devon, for example Orion Adams (1717-1797), who renewed the press in Plymouth in 1758 by establishing a short-lived newspaper, worked briefly in Exeter, Totnes, Manchester, Chester, Dublin, London and Birmingham during his picaresque life.

For many of the printers located in small towns in Devon printing was only part of their business. Samuel Lott, who seems to be established as a printer in Honiton around 1783, is described in the trade directory published by Bailey in 1784 as "post-master, land surveyor, printer, bookseller and stationer” [43]. Printers might also increase their income by acting as lottery agents, for example John Weatherdon at Newton Abbot, Walter Cleave at Totnes and several booksellers during the 1780s. These printers do not appear to have established a weekly newspaper.

In England there are many more newspapers in the provinces than in France. Indeed, the publication of a newspaper was almost essential for a printer who wanted to settle in the provinces during the first half of the 18th century. The first newspaper in the south-west was founded in Bristol around 1702, the Bristol post-boy by William Bonney. Shortly after around 1704 Samuel Farley established Sam Farley's Exeter post-man at Exeter. The press in these two cities has existed continuously since these dates. In Plymouth where the Plymouth weekly journal appeared between 1718 and 1725 and in Taunton where the Taunton journal was published between 1725 and 1728 there was less success, but in Sherborne in Dorset from 1737 with the Sherborne mercury and Bath in Somerset from 1744 with the Bath journal a continuous tradition was established [30].

The publication of a newspaper guaranteed regular activity for the press and a significant income from advertisements. For the most part there was initially little regional news in these newspapers that simply copied articles from newspapers arriving from London, but sometimes an editor like Andrew Brice dipped his pen in vitriol to offer his opinions to readers and little by little they began to provide notices of what was going on in the region. In Normandy the first newspaper, the Annonces, affiches et avis de la Haute et Basse-Normandie, arrived only in 1762 and the newspaper press was not widespread before the Revolution. In Caen for example we find the Affiches, annonces et avis divers de la Basse-Normandie printed by Poisson between 1786 and 1796 and in Alençon in 1788 Malassis prints the Affiches, annonces et avis divers de la province du Perche [40].

But an activity common to the two regions was the distribution of popular literature through hawkers. In France the production of the "bibliothèque bleue" chapbooks was not limited to centers like Troyes, but in Lower Normandy there were printers like Pierre Chalopin in Caen who produced a large number of titles, not always signed by the workshop that brought them into the world. Chalopin even used the anagram: A Néac, chez P.Nipolach (for : Caen, chez P.Chalopin [44]. But here there are also differences. The normal format of the bibliothèque bleue is provided by small books often doudecimo paperbacks in blue wrappers with wooden engravings. Similar examples are found in “chapbooks” in England, but there are also loose sheets, sometimes printed eight at a time on a single sheet of paper with a poem, a satirical text, a declaration by a politician before an election or the description of a crime or a public execution. These broadsheets were sold by the printers in Exeter or in the other larger towns of the region to the hawkers who passed round the villages, a group which is now mostly unknown. [45] We lack documentation such as the widow Machuel of Rouen's correspondence with a whole network of itinerant booksellers between 1768 and 1773, analyzed so elegantly by r Jean-Dominique Mellot [46].

It must be pointed out that the English bookshop and printing press was not completely without regulation after 1695 but by other means than censorship before publication and the licenses and patents granted by the central government as in France. The registration of books after publication to confirm copyright was introduced in England by the Copyright Act of 1709. In 1710 163 works were registered with the Stationers Company, in 1711 258 titles, but the novelty soon lost its attraction; between 1717 and 1725 only between 33 and 45 titles were recorded each year [47]. We can contrast the 36 titles recorded in 1725 with the 577 titles listed in the Monthly catalogs or the 1250 titles published in London this year which appear in the Eighteenth century short title catalogue. And printers far from London in the south-west of England did not take care to record 200 km away the sheets that passed through their presses.

A form of regulation of printers and booksellers was carried out remotely from the government by legal means in the Court of Chancery where there is a series of lawsuits concerning the counterfeiting of books. For example, the Stationers Company proceeded against Joseph Bliss of Exeter in 1716 and 1717 and King's printer John Baskett's printer against Andrew Brice of Exeter in 1726 [48].

But printers also had to be wary of parliamentary privilege. Before 1771 it was forbidden to print an account of the proeedings in Parliament. In November 1718 George Bishop, printer of Exeter, was charged with having printed a report of the deliberations in the House of Commons in his newspaper and was summoned to appear before the Commons where he asked for a pardon "having a Wife and Family to provide for in the country". His rival in Exeter, Joseph Bliss, summoned at the same time, obtained a pardon by letter and a third Exeter printer, Andrew Brice, appeared before the Commons on 14 January 1719 when he claimed that he had the intelligence from "News-Letters sent to Coffee-Houses at Exeter" [49].

Another means of regulating the press was by a prosecution for seditious libel sometimes invoked against publications opposed to the ideas of the government. At the beginning of the century it was often for Jacobite publications and towards the end under the government of Pitt against publications considered revolutionary. Thus in 1716 Philip Bishop was arrested for printing Jacobite verses “Nero secundus” and he died in prison before the trial. [50]. The same fate happened to Edward Farley who reprinted the Persian letter a Jacobite article which had appeared in London in Mist's weekly journal on 24 August 1728. Due to a lack of evidence the attorney-general recommended the trial be abandoned but it was too late. Farley died in prison a few days before the order for his release. [51] In 1754 one of his descendants, the printer Mark Farley, was sentenced to a year in prison for printing a seditious song for the birthday of the pretender Charles Stuart [52].

Another means used by the government to limit the expansion of the press was taxation. In 1712 the Parliament introduced the stamp duty which imposed a fee of ½d for each copy of a newspaper printed on a half sheet or 1d for each sheet [53]. For pamphlets it was only necessary to pay 2s for the whole edition. During the 18th century the tax was increased by the government to a minimum of 1d in 1757, 1½d in 1776, 2d in 1789 2½d in 1794 and 3½d in 1797 which made the price of a newspaper very considerable and would prevent less wealthy people from placing a subscription. It was not direct censorship because the stamped paper was purchased by printers in advance of printing. In the southwest, printers and readers found methods to mitigate the effects of the tax; we know that, for example in Tiverton during the Revolution in France, people grouped to share the subscriptions to the newspapers which thus spread radical ideas in the city and the surrounding villages [54].

To finish our comparison, there is a little irony. After the Revolution, press freedom formed part of the Declaration of Human Rights of 26 August 1789, even if no real steps were taken to put it in place and printers still had to take care not to print anything against revolutionary ideologies [55] . In England people looked with dread on what were considered republican excesses on the other side of the Channel. Even more disturbing was the number of radical societies being formed, the most prominent of which was the London Corresponding Society. In 1794 many of its adherents were arrested and charged with treason. In several cities in Devon, the works of Tom Paine were publicly burned in 1792 and 1793. Concern continued until 1798 when suspicion was expressed of secret societies, including the Freemasons, who were perhaps going to open the doors to an invasion. This atmosphere resulted in a statute approved by the King in July 1799 which had the consequence of introducing more restrictions on the press in England than in France. From 1799 the Quarter Sessions in each county had to draw up a register of presses according to the statute An act for the more effective suppression of societies established for seditious and treasonable purposes [56]. In Devon the registers were continued until 1873 [57]. The same statute made it mandatory that the printer put his name on each printed piece.

But this situation only lasted for a decade. The First Empire, abandoned the reforms of the Revolution by once again reserving the professions of printer and bookseller to a limited number of patent holders by decree of February 5, 1810, a regime extended to lithographic printers by ordinance of October 8, 1817 Until the Third Republic in 1870 the contrasting situation between these two regions during the 18th century was re-established.

.

References

1. Statutes 1662 (13 & 14 Car. II. c. 33). An Act for preventing the frequent Abuses in printing seditious treasonable and unlicensed Bookes and Pamphlets and for regulating of Printing and Printing Presses, (Statutes of the Realm: vol. 5: 1628-80 (1819), p. 428-435

2. Michael Treadwell, "Lists of master printers : the size of the London printing trade, 1637-1723",  Aspects of printing from 1600, Oxford, Oxford Polytechnic Press, 1987, p. 141-170

3. BNF Ms : n.a.f. 399-400 : "Estat de la librairie de France sous M. le chancelier de Pontchartrain […] le tout recueilly et rédigé par messire Jean-Paul Bignon, conseiller d’État ordinaire, chef du Bureau de la Librairie et Bibliothécaire du Roy", 1701.

4. Ian Maxted, The Devon book trades: a biographical dictionary, Exeter, J.Maxted, 1991.

5. Ian Maxted, Books with Devon imprints: a handlist to 1800, Exeter, J.Maxted, 1989.

6. Census of Great Britain 1851: Population tables 1:  Vol. 1, London, W.Clowes & Son for Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1852, p. clxviii.

7. INSEE, Population des départements depuis 1801 (dans leurs limites actuelles) http://www.insee.fr/fr/ffc/asf/population/ASF08_021DD3.xls, accessed June 2009.

8. BNF ms. fr. 22065, pièce 63, et 22129, f^o 45.

9. BNF ms. fr. 22129, f^o 111.

10. BNF ms. fr. 22177, f^o 151.

11. AN V⁶ : Minutes d’arrêts du Conseil privé. 

12. AN V⁶ 1125.

13. Statutes 1662 (13 & 14 Car. II. c. 33). [voir note 1]: Section 9: "That no person … shall erect or cause to be erected any Presse or Printing House … unlesse he … shall first give notice to the Master or Wardens of the said Company of Stationers … And that no Joyner Carpenter or other person shall make any Printing Presse no Smith shall forge any Iron worke for a Printing Presse no Founder shall cast any Letters which may be used for printing … unlesse he … shall first acquaint the said Master and Wardens of the said Company of Stationers"

14. Statutes 1662 (13 & 14 Car. II. c. 33). [voir note 1]: Section 2: "no private person or persons whatsoever shall att any time hereafter print or cause to be printed any Booke or Pamphlet whatsoever unlesse the same Booke and Pamphlet … be first entred in the Booke of the Register of the Company of Stationers of London"

15. John Latimer, The annals of Bristol in the eighteenth century, Bristol, 1893, p. 48-49.

16. R. N. Worth, "Notes on the history of printing in Devon", Transactions of the Devonshire Association, vol. 11, 1879, p. 507.

17. Exeter freemen 1277-1967, edited by Margery M.Rowe and Andrew M.Jackson, Exeter: Devon and Cornwall Record Society, 1973, Special series; no. 1

18. T.N.Brushfield. "Andrew Brice and the early Exeter newspaper press", Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 20, (1888), p. 163-214.

19. BNF Ms : fr. 22183-85 "Etats de la librairie et imprimerie du royaume en 1764", known as: Rapport Sartine.

20. BNF Ms : fr. 21832 "Etat général des imprimeurs du royaume,  1777".

21. Antoine Perrin, Almanach de la librairie … réimpression anastatique de l’édition de 1781, préface par Jeroom Vercruysse, table analytique par Jean-Marie Collins, Aubel, P. M. Gasson, 1984. Les gens du livre de la Basse-Normandie dans l’Almanach de la librairie d’Antoine Perrin (1781), On-line version: http://bookhistory.blogspot.com/2008/12/basse-normandie-1781.html

22. John Pendred, The earliest directory of the book trade ... 1785, edited by Graham Pollard, London, Bibliographical Society, 1955.

23. BNF ms. fr. 22101 : Libelles diffamatoires et livres prohibés, perquisition de Manoury fo.107-120

24. AD Calvados : C.2886, C.2887.

25. AD Calvados : C.2887/25.

26. Ian Maxted, The British book trades 1710-1777: an index of masters and apprentices, Exeter, J.Maxted, 1983. On-line version: http://bookhistory.blogspot.com/2007/01/apprentices-introduction.html

27. Ian Maxted, The British book trades 1731-1806: a checklist of bankrupts, Exeter, J.Maxted, 1984. On-line version:  http://bookhistory.blogspot.com/2007/01/bankrupts.html London gazette en ligne: http://www.london-gazette.co.uk

28. Ian Maxted, The British book trades 1775-1787: an index to insurance policies, Exeter, J.Maxted, 1992. On-line version: http://bookhistory.blogspot.com/2007/01/insurance-introduction.html

29. Ian Maxted, The British book trades 1784-1811: a tabulation of national directories, 2009, On-line version: http://bookhistory.blogspot.com/2007/10/britain-1784-1811-introduction.html

30. R.M. Wiles, Freshest advices: early provincial newspapers in England, Columbus, Ohio State University Press, 1965, on-line version: http://www.ohiostatepress.org/Books/Complete%20PDFs/Wiles%20Freshest/01.pdf

31. In the Archives départementales du Calvados are located for example: C4538-C.4563 (rôles de capitation des bourgeois), C.4564-C.4599 (capitation des arts et métiers, Caen 1757), C.4726-C.5203 (rôles de dixièmes) C.5308-5537,  (rôles de vingtièmes) etc. On-line example: Les gens du livre de la ville de Caen dans la capitation de 1783 : http://bookhistory.blogspot.com/2008/12/caen-1783.html

32. British Library, English short title catalogue, http://estc.bl.uk accessed June 2009.

33. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, BN Opale plus, http://catalogue.bnf.fr/

34. Catalogue collectif de France. Base patrimoine, http://ccfr.bnf.fr/portailccfr/servlet/LoginServlet

35. Normannia, Catalogue collectif normand. https://www.normannia.info/collections, accessed January 2019. Access is not as good as when this paper was first drafted in 2009. Alain René Girard, Répertoire bibliographique des livres imprimés en France au XVIIIe siècle. Tome VIII : Caen, Baden-Baden, V.Koerner, 1998. Gaston Lavalley, Catalogue des ouvrages normands de la Bibliothèque municipale de Caen, Caen, L. Jouan, 1910-1912, 3 vol. Adrien Pluquet, Bibliographie du département de la Manche, Caen, Massif, 1873 etc.

36. An attempt has been made to fill this gap for places outside Caen by drawing up Listes de livres imprimées en Basse-Normandie on-line in  http://bookhistory.blogspot.com/2009/06/basse-normandie-prosopographie.html

37. Alain René Girard, Ian Maxted, Jean-Dominique Mellot, Dictionnaire des imprimeurs, libraires et gens du livre dans la Basse-Normandie 1701-1789, Geneva, Droz, 2020. A major source is: AN V⁶, minutes d’arrêts du Conseil privé. 

.

38. Alain René Girard, Répertoire bibliographique des livres imprimés en France au XVIIIe siècle. Tome VIII : Caen, Baden-Baden, V.Koerner, 1998.

39. Listes de livres imprimées en Basse-Normandie : Bayeux  http://bookhistory.blogspot.com/2009/06/livres-imprimes-bayeux.html

40. Jean Sgard (dir.), Dictionnaire des journaux, 1600-1789, Paris, Universitas, 1991.

41. Trewman’s Exeter flying post 23 December 1819, p.  4b.

42. The Exeter Mercury; or, West-Country Advertiser, 6 October 1763.

43. Bailey's British directory ... for ... 1784, London, Printed by J.Andrews, 1784, p. 380.

44. Pierre-Yves Corbel, "La bibliothèque bleue à Caen : les Chalopin", Anonymat et signature, novembre 1989, p. 223-229. Anne Sauvy, "La librairie Chalopin. Livres et livrets de colportage à Caen au début du XIX siècle", Bulletin d'Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine, nr. 11, 1978, 95-140. René Hélot, La bibliothèque bleue en Normandie, Rouen,  Société rouennaise de bibliophiles,  1928.

45. Ian Maxted, "Single sheets from a country town: the example of Exeter" , Spreading the word: the distribution networks of print 1550-1850, Winchester, St Paul's Bibliographies, 1990, p. 109-29

46. BM Rouen Ms. : g. 190 bis : Correspondance de la veuve Machuel, libraire. Jean-Dominique Mellot, "Rouen et les "libraires forains" à la fin du 18^e siècle : la veuve Machuel et ses correspondants (1768-1773)", Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des Chartes, 147, 1989, p.503-538. Ian Maxted, "A hotbed of hawkers: Muneville-le-Bingard and the itinerant book trade of northern France during the Ancien Régime", Historical networks in the book trade, edited by John Hinks and Catherine Feely, London, Routledge, 2017, p. 133-147.

47. Michael Kassler, Music entries at Stationers’ Hall 1710-1818, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004, p. xxvi

48. R.J.Goulden, Some Chancery lawsuits 1714-1758: an analytical list, Croydon: Goulden, 1983.

49. Journal of the House of Commons

50. Brushfield (voir note 18), p.172).

51. R.M.Wiles, (voir note 30), p.283-288

52. Alexander Jenkins The history and description of the city of Exeter, Exeter: P.Hedgeland, 1806, p. 207

53. Statutes 1712 (13 Anne c. 18).

54. Edwin S.Chalk, "Circulation of XVIII-century newspapers", Notes & queries, vol. 169 (1935), p.336

55. The Déclaration des droits de l'homme was printed for the first time in Alençon en 1789 dans : Lettres patentes du Roi, qui ordonnent l'envoi aux tribunaux, municipalités et autres corps administratifs, des décrets de l'Assemblée Nationale, qui ont été acceptés ou sanctionnés par Sa Majesté. Du 3 novembre 1789, Alençon, Veuve Malassis l’aîné, imprimeur du Roi et de l'Assemblée Nationale, 1789. Article 11 affirme : " La libre communication des pensées et des opinions est un des droits les plus précieux de l’homme; tout citoyen peut donc parler, écrire, imprimer librement, sauf à répondre de l’abus de cette liberté dans les cas déterminés par la loi."

56. Statutes 1799 (39 George III cap. 79), An act for the more effectual suppression of societies established for seditious and treasonable purposes; and for the better preventing treasonable and seditious practices

57. Devon RO Q/S 52, Q/S 68