C. Booksellers and printers : a social group
C1. Structure of the group
The printers and booksellers of Lower Normandy formed a fairly small group. Between 1701 and 1789, only 89 individuals practiced this profession in the region. It was also a very closed group. The fathers of thirty of the Bas-Norman printers of the 18th century were themselves printers: fifteen in Caen, five in Alençon, three in Valognes, two in Vire, two in Avranches and one in each of the cities of Rouen, Coutances and Lisieux. Six of the fathers were booksellers, all from Caen. In one of these families, one of the brothers was a printer and several entered the profession by marriage, one by marrying the sister of a printer, another by marrying the daughter of a printer and two more by uniting with the daughter of a bookseller. No less than twenty-four widows took over the workshop after the death of their husband. Often they did not continue to exercise for long, sometimes being set aside and then taken over by their son. But others, like the widow of Antoine-Jean Nicolle in Bayeux, continued to exercise for years and produced many titles of interest. In fact, there were only three printers and bookstores whose parents' profession is not related to the book trades: a cultivator, a professor and a "bourgeois". But we must admit that there are 17 individuals whose parents' profession is not known.
For the most part these families were of Catholic faith. There is only one exception in the person of Jérémie Le Bourgeois, printer and bookseller in Caen, who, the son of a Protestant, did not present a certificate of catholicity in 1730. The Caen engraver Jean Lamy also came from a family of the reformed faith. The bookseller B. [Barthélémy?] Gaillard, who settled in Falaise without success around 1780, was from a Protestant family in Montauban, but he abjured after his installation in Falaise.
C2. Social relations
C2.1. Links with local elites
The very nature of the printing and bookselling profession brings with it a great diversity of contacts with all the categories of society constituting the print market outlined above. Even before being received a master, it was necessary to apply to either the college or the university to obtain the certificate of Latinity, and also to the church for the certificate of catholicity and good conduct. Once established, the printer-bookseller was to build relationships with the authors and officials of the institutions who needed his services. Among the notables, his work put him in contact with the intendants of the généralitiés and the officers of the various administrations of the region, with the clergy, from the humble country priests to the bishops, for whom they printed not only the books of liturgy and devotion but also works of theology or controversy. Educational institutions, colleges but especially the University of Caen also supplied important clienteles, as did the Academy of Caen. The importance of such contacts must be emphasized when it comes to attracting protectors and even patrons. It is to reconcile the good graces of the authorities that Antoine Cavelier donated, as we have seen, a total of 2,000 books to the library of the University of Caen in 1728/This donation was only agreed on condition that the two places of printer of the university were united in favour of Jean-Claude Pyron, grand-nephew of Cavelier.
Moreover, to facilitate relationships, Pyron has the advantage of birth. His father André Pyron was a royal professor of law at the University of Caen and his grandfather Guillaume Pyron, a professor of Greek at the university, married Anne Cavelier, herself the daughter of the university's printer. As for Jean-Claude Pyron's mother, Marie-Madeleine Poignavant, she was related to the dean of the faculty of theology of Caen, also inspector of the book trades, Pierre Poignavant. Finally Pyron himself married in 1730 Marie-Madeleine Godes-Rudeval, daughter of Jean-Jacques Godes, printer-bookseller, and his witness to the marriage was Pierre Vicaire, professor of the university. The doors are then opened to him to become a printer for the King, the university, the city, "H.A.S. Monsignor the Admiral", etc. He was also assistant to the syndic of the Chambte Syndicale of the book trades, prior judge-consul and alderman of the city of Caen. And, enjoying a large income in funds in 1775 according to the vingtième tax rolls, he is very comfortably off[118].
C2.2. Involvement in the corporation and other local institutions
It was almost impossible for the printers and booksellers of Caen not to play a role within their corporation, given the small number of its members. Even a trustee and four assistants represented a sizeable percentage of the total number of masters of the book trades in the city. It was not the same for the other cities of the region where the number of people of the book was too small for a corporation to be established there. From 1777, in any case, they depended on the union chamber from Caen.
It was also rare for printers and booksellers to become political leaders or gain access to an office. There are also no book members in the Caen Academy. However, later in the century they are listed among freemasons. Only the most prominent printers were able to join the local judiciary. Jean Cavelier was alderman of the city of Caen at the beginning of the 18th century and his son Antoine was a judge consul. In 1767, Jean-Claude Pyron was described as "ancien prieur juge-consul et échevin de la ville de Caen". François-Augustin Malassis filled the same functions in Alençon between 1745 and 1747.
C2.3. Commercial networks
It was especially within commercial networks that it was important to establish contacts. The need to develop a sufficiently attractive catalogue required constant attention. It was a question of establishing links not only with the other booksellers of the region but especially with those of Paris, Rouen and Lyon in order to obtain the most interesting novelties and even "philosophical" books (often from suppliers located outside the kingdom). The bankruptcy balance sheet of Charles Le François, a bookseller in Argentan in 1777, provides information on the network of partners he built during his career. Judging by his debts, most of his trade apparently took place with Parisian booksellers. He therefore owed 15,851 l. to eleven counterparts in Paris (5,974 l. to "Mr de Saint", presumably Jean Desaint, 3,181 l. to "Mr [Charles] Saillant", and so on). He was in business contact with the booksellers of Rouen, to the tune of 2,695 l. for Dumesnil and 746 l. for Machuel (probably Laurent Dumesnil and Pierre Machuel). His debts to colleagues from Caen were almost as high: 2,944 l. due to Gilles Le Roy, 148 l. to Pierre Le Baron and 209 l. to Pierre Chalopin. He also bought books from Geneva, where he owes 457 l. to a certain Desbarrières and 257 l. to a man named Le Roy.
Within a small group of individuals competing in a limited market, it is not surprising that conflicts arise from time to time. One of the bitterest opposes Jean-Claude Pyron against Gilles Le Roy over the King's office as a printer in Caen. On 3 November 1766, Le Roy wrote to the Comptroller General of Finance: "Il y a longtemps que j’ay a me plaindre de l’inexactitude et peu d’activité de […] Pyron […] un homme qui, pour passer tout son tems a la campagne, abandonne son imprimerie à des ouvriers qui paroissent n’y pas prendre grand intérêt." In 1767, the king's printing office was shared between the two rivals, an uncomfortable situation which lasted until Pyron's death around 1786.
In Alençon the situation at the beginning of the century was more complicated. Pierre Augereau was received printer-bookseller in Alençon in 1703, replacing Martin Delamotte, after having married his widow. However Martin Delamotte, with Jean Malassis, had acquired half the privilege of printer of the King and the college of Alençon. Malassis being the first to die, Jean, his son Jean-Pierre wanted to make himself sole master of the privilege, but Delamotte opposed it. A judgment of 1681 maintained Delamotte in the enjoyment of half the privilege with the widow and the son of Jean Malassis. On the death of Martin Delamotte, Pierre Augereau continued to work with his widow who in 1696 ceded to him the benefit of his privilege. But in 1703 Jean Malassis opposed the appointment of Augereau as holder for half the office of printer of the King and the college of Alençon and asked the sovereign to declare him his only printer. A decree of the King's Privy Council dated 23 July 1703, however, ordered that Pierre Augereau and Jean-Pierre Malassis jointly enjoy this title, during the life of the widow of Martin Delamotte. Pierre Augereau died in 1706 and, by a decree of the Privy Council of 29 November 1709, his widow obtained the right to continue to operate the printing office in Alençon, even in the case "where she ceased to remain widowed", a decision which allows her to marry for the third time in 1710, taking Jacques-François Bréhein-Brandin as her husband. And the conflicts between the two families do not end there; in 1725, the ex-widow of Martin Delamotte and Pierre Augereau unsuccessfully opposed the reception of François-Augustin Malassis.
C2.4. Family relations and matrimonial alliances
The family was at the heart of the printing establishments and bookshops of the Ancien Régime. A large part of these trades were in fact in the hands of lineages which traditionally exercised them over several generations, this circumstance often seen as a guarantee of the company's reliability and stability. In an autograph memoir dated 1730, Antoine Cavelier confirmed that he was "seul imprimeur royal, successivement à ses ancêtres depuis plus d’un siècle". Similarly, in a letter of 28 October 1816, Jean-Zacharie Malassis junior asked the Chancellor of France to transmit to his grandson Augustin-Jean-Zacharie Poulet-Malassis the title of printer to the King retained by his family before the Revolution. He traced the history of his family: Jean-Zacharie Malassis was received printer for the King and bookseller in Alençon by decision of the Privy Council of 9 February 1770, in succession to his father Louis Malassis, himself received on 29 March 1734, in succession to his father Jean Malassis who had been received by decree of the Council on 17 December 1680, also in succession to his father - a tradition of more than a century. Yet such assertions were sometimes a little exaggerated. If one can believe a petition from Pierre Clamorgan dated 28 February 1780, for example, his family had maintained a printing press in Valognes "for over a century", but it does not appear in the survey of 1700-1701.
Marriage often brought a dowry or an inheritance which could consolidate an existing business or even launch a career. In Valognes, Charles-François Le Coquière, painter, married the daughter of Jacques Clamorgan, widow of Jean-Michel-Étienne Mariage, bookseller in the same city, but it seems that it was the wife who continued to run the bookshop.
It could also happen that the daughter of a printer married the newcomer to the profession. Witness Julien Fauvel, printer and bookseller of Coutances, who took for wife the daughter of Jean de La Roque, bookseller in the same city. In Bayeux, Jean Briard married 21 September 1675 Anne Le Blanc, daughter of the Caen printer Claude Le Blanc, before leaving to settle in Caen. But it was often the widow of a printer who remarried a member of the book trades. Thus Joachim Clamorgan, printer and bookseller in Valognes, married on 7 February 1703 Renée Le Baron, daughter of François Le Baron, printer of Caen. Jacqueline Le Prévost, born around 1656 in Rouen, married Martin Delamotte III, printer and bookseller from Alençon and also from Rouen. After his death in 1696, she married Pierre Augereau, printer and bookseller, who died in turn in 1706. On January 28, 1710, she contracted a third marriage, with Jacques-François Bréhein-Brandin, who was not a bookseller. It was sometimes another family member who was responsible for maintaining the tradition. François-Bonaventure Mistral, based in Lisieux, married a "Miss Pain", niece "and presumptive heiress" of the widow of the Lisieux printer Jacques Aunay du Ronceray, who resigned in his favour.
Whether by marriage or migration, a family might extend its presence to several cities in the region. The Briards were established in Caen and Bayeux, the Le Baron family in Caen and Saint-Lô, the Le Roy family in Caen and Coutances. According to the act of succession of Pierre-François Gomont, of Saint-Lô, dated 29 June 1819, his nephew François Gomont was also a printer in Saint-Lô, Auguste Gomont, another nephew, was a bookseller in Condé sur-Noireau, and Jean-François Gomont was a printer-bookseller in Valognes between 1792 and 1825. Around 1790, Pierre-François married Marie-Françoise, sister of Gabriel Adam, printer-bookseller in Vire. This makes the links between families of people in the book trades more complex.
For the French itinerant booksellers, the journey through the northern half of France is often the result of a close family enterprise. Noël Gille, from Montsurvent, worked in cooperation with his brothers Jean and Pierre. The brothers Julien and Jean Amys, of Muneville-le-Bingard, prepared for a joint escapade in Saint-Lô around 1770, as we learn from a letter addressed to the widow of Jean-Baptiste III Machuel, bookseller in Rouen.
But these family ties do not always prevent conflicts. On 30 July 1790, the widow of Francois-Augustin Malassis senior from Alençon, complained to the departmental administration:
Messieurs, Depuis plus de soixante ans j’étois l’imprimeur de la généralité d’Alençon ; j’en ai rempli, j’ose le dire, les fonctions à la satisfaction du public et sans aucun reproche ; mais MM. les administrateurs du département de l’Orne viennent malgré la possession dans laquelle j’étois de faire les ouvrages, de nommer M. Malassis le jeune à ma place ; je ne pénétrerai point dans les motifs qui les ont portés a lui accorder la préférence qui m’étoit due, à raison de mon ancienneté et de ma conduite passée.One can imagine that the relations between the octogenarian aunt and her nephew were not exactly cordial.
C2.5. Relations between masters and workers
There is little information on the relationships between masters and workers in the 18th century, but if we judge by certain epithalamia printed for masters at weddings, there was often a paternalistic atmosphere in companies. In the Chalopin workshop, small printed pieces were composed by the "humbles et fidèles ouvriers de l’imprimerie de messieurs Chalopin, père & fils" for the marriage of two members of this dynasty of booksellers and printers who had been practicing in Caen since 1666, when Charles Chalopin became master[119]. The most elaborate of these pieces is a sheet framed with typographic fleurons bearing in the centre the title: À Pierre-Exupère-Policarpe Chalopin fils, & Françoise-Ursule Loriot, le jour de leur mariage, par les ouvriers de leur imprimerie, surrounded by four quatrains : "Au bonheur", "À l’amitié", "À la fidélité" et "Aux époux". Other pieces refer to the marriage of Pierre-Jean-Aimé Chalopin and Catherine de Morigny, around 1760. One of them, Compliment à Monsieur et Madame Chalopin sur leur mariage, begins:
Vole, cher Chalopin, dans les bras du Plaisir ;Unfortunately such verses, so carefully written and printed by workers, did not necessarily prejudge the success of the marriage. Could this be the same Madame Chalopin, of "démarches odieuses", who "quitta la maison de son mari à deux heures après minuit le 26 février 1763, […] fuite nocturne qui a tous les caractères d’un enlévement", if we believe the facts related in the Précis pour le sieur Chalopin contre la dame son épouse, a factum printed in Rouen in 1770 ?
Les traits de Morigny, son goût, son caractère,
Ton penchant, sa douceur, son amitié sincère,
Et plus encore le désir
De l’amuser & de lui plaire,
Des jours les plus heureux vont te faire jouir […]
C2.6. Wealth and taxation
Printer-booksellers often achieved a high standard of living in the towns where they operated. In 1768, the eight book trade members listed in the tax assessment of the vingtième in Caen were assessed between 30 and 4 livres. In descending order we found: Jean-Claude Pyron, printer, 30 l. ; Gilles Le Roy and Pierre Chalopin, printers, 24 l. each ; Jean Poisson, printer, 20 l. ; Jacques Manoury, bookseller, 18 l. ; Pierre Le Baron the elder, bookseller, 8 l. ; Charles-Joseph Le Tellier 4 l. 10 s. and Mathieu de Launay 4 l. However, in 1768, assessments greater than 10 l. are rare in Caen among the rest of the population, most of them fall below 5 l. Among the high assessments (over 20 l.), where the printers were to be found, we also encounter some clothiers, haberdashers, two stationers (Jean-Étienne Le Marchand and François Lentaigne) and only two of the 21 tanners mentioned in the register[120].
According to the register of the capitation of 1783, the four printers were assessed between 122 l. 15 s. 3 d. (Pierre Chalopin) and 61 l. (Jean Poisson). Gilles Le Roy paid 112 l. 14 s., and Jean-Claude Pyron, printer, 70 l. As for the twenty-one journeyman printers, twelve of them pay the minimum of 1 l. 10 s, six others 1 l. 15 s. and the most highly assessed journeymen, Charles Le Sauvage and Jean-Henry Rougemont, only 5 l. 6 s. The other categories of book trade personnel appear less affluent than the printers. The five booksellers paid between 31 l. 14s. (Jacques Manoury) and 17 l. 2 s. (Pierre Le Baron), and a bookseller (Jean-Pierre Desaunais) pays 4 l. 6 s. Of the sixteen binders, seven were assessed at the minimum 1 l. 10 s. and four at 1 l. 15 s. The most highly assessed binder was the widow of Antoine Blanlot who contributed 10 l. 13 s. Thus the bookbinders are situated at about the same level of wealth as the journeymen printers.
References
[118]. AD Calvados: C.5537. Vingtième d'industrie 1775-1776.
[119]. Girard (1990)
[120]. AD Calvados, C 5532.
This page last updated 26 June 2020.
