Normandy Book trades 1700-1789: D.

The world of the book in Lower Normandy 1700-1789

D Printing : the workshop and the bookshop

D1. The printers

D1.1. Changes in the numbers of printers

The inquiry carried out in 1700-1701 at the level of the whole kingdom of France provided numerous details on the twenty or so printers then active in six towns in Lower Normandy: thirteen in Caen, two in Alençon and Coutances, and one each in Bayeux, Lisieux and Vire. We also know of the existence of three printers in Avranches and another in Saint-Lô.

A local survey of 1730 found that there were still seven printer-booksellers and four booksellers in Caen[121]. In the intendance of Caen, the cities of Avranches, Bayeux, Coutances, Saint-Lô and Valognes each housed a printer-bookseller. In 1737, another local survey found only six printer-booksellers in Caen, two in Avranches and one each in Bayeux, Coutances, Saint-Lô, Valognes and Vire[122]. In 1758 Caen and Avranches each lost a printer and there are none left in Vire[123]. The local inquiry of 1768 found in Caen no more than four printer-booksellers and six booksellers, in Avranches one printer-bookseller and a bookseller, similarly in Bayeux, in Coutances one printer-bookseller and four booksellers, finally, in Saint- Lô and Valognes, no printers but four and one booksellers respectively[124].

The national surveys of 1764 and 1777 also show a considerable reduction in personnel, with only eleven printers spread over seven localities in Lower Normandy in 1777 - which confirms the editions of the Almanach de la librairie published by Antoine Perrin en 1777, 1778 et 1781.

D1.2. Examination of qualifications

The minutes of the admission of Pierre-Jean-Aimé Chalopin as a master printer-bookseller, in Caen in January 1785, summarise the details of the certificates and tests required to obtain a position [125].

In the presence of the lieutenant general of the city police and the syndic and assistants of the Caen Chambre Syndicale, proceedings started with the examination of the applicant's certificates, namely a certificate of his situation as a master's son (in this case Pierre Chalopin), a certificate of catholicity and an "attestation de monsieur le recteur de l’université de cette ville & comme [quoi] il étoit congru en langue latine et qu’il sçavoit lire le grec".

Then the jury moved from the Chambre Syndicale, rue de Geôle, to the Pyron workshop, rue Saint-Sauveur, for a practical test, Jean-Claude Pyron and Gilles Le Roy being designated examiners. They first asked the candidate a number of questions:

Questions of Pyron :
? "combien de sortes d’impositions"
? "de combien de pièces une presse est-elle composée"
? "comment se fait l’encre de l’imprimerie"
? "quelles matières entrent dans sa composition"
"auxquelles questions ledit sieur Chalopin a très bien satisfait."

Questions of Le Roy :
? "combien de sortes de caractères essentiels pour fournir une imprimerie"
? "combien le règlement exige de presses" [à Caen]
? "s’il sçait mettre une forme en train"
"ce qu’il a à l’instant exécuté."

Then, after a test of composition from a manuscript, other more practical questions:
? "dans quel état le papier devoit être mis pour être imprime"
? "s’il devait être plus ou moins trempé eu égard aux différents caractères"
? "quelle étoit la matière le plus utile et la plus usité[e] pour laver les formes"
? "s’il n’arrivoit point que les feuilles doublassent quelquefois sur les presses, d’où cela pouvait provenir et quelle [sic] étoit le remède."

To the minutes of these proceedings were added the proof sheets printed by the applicant, which have unfortunately not survived.

D1.3. Value of the capital

The equipment, type, stock of books and the building that houses them represented a considerable capital investment, as did the purchase of paper for each publication, even if this was sometimes paid for by the sponsor. If we do not have an inventory making it possible to evaluate the capital sum involved for printing offices of Lower Normandy, we know for the North of France the value of the printing works of the Lille workshop of Charles-Louis de Boubers of Corbeville, comprising three presses and ten typographic fonts, was estimated in 1785 as 6,854 l. 2 s. while the bookstock is valued at 2,375 l. 8 s. and the furniture, effects and jewellery 1,988 l.

What we do know, however, is that during the bankruptcy of Jean-Jacques Manoury de Caen in 1778, his goods were valued at 53,182 l. for 16,046 volumes, and his movable property and jewellery at 4,000 l.

In the absence of more precise indications, it is nevertheless possible to note that the value of a good stock of books can then be much higher than the equipment of a typographic workshop and also more than the movable goods of the printer himself[126].

D2. Location within the urban environment

The question of the geographical location of booksellers and printers will be addressed in section F, relating to distribution networks, but it should already be noted that the printer needed premises of considerable dimensions, preferably in the city centre, to house his workshop, his bookshop, possibly his stores or warehouses, and his home. Thus the Malassis were established in Grande-Rue d´Alençon and the Briards in Grande-Rue-Saint-Jean de Bayeux. In Caen, printers had grouped together in rue Froide (or Froide-Rue) since the 16th century, but also in Grande-Rue-Notre-Dame. The facades overlooking the main streets were more suitable for printers and bookshops because they were likely to attract more customers.

D3. The workshop

The workshop was at the heart of the printing profession and concentrated most of the daily activity of the company, even if the printer was also a bookseller - which is most often the case in Lower Normandy.

D3.1. Location of the workshop in the house

With heavy equipment such as printing presses and metal fonts, one would expect to find the workshops on the ground floor of the occupied premises. However, as in Paris, Rouen or Lyon, this is in fact rarely the case, and this because of the light and ventilation requirements - necessary for the spreading and drying of the printed sheets, which had been previously soaked.

On 8 May 1768, a police search carried out in the presence of Joseph d'Hémery, inspector of the book trades in Paris, at Jacques Le Roy's house in Coutances found on the first floor a printing press made up of two presses. Two days later, the police officers transported themselves to Caen to Gilles Le Roy's house, where between nine and ten in the evening they searched a printing office located on the third floor containing four presses[127].

The minutes of the search carried out at the printers and booksellers of Caen on 4 and 5 May 1771 confirm this practice on the basis of more complete information. At Manoury's, rue Neuve-Notre-Dame, we learn that the printing workshop was upstairs, at Pyron, rue Saint-Sauveur, it is located on the third floor, similarly with Poisson, rue Notre-Dame, and with Chalopin[128].

D3.2. Equipment

The surveys offer a general perspective on the content of the workshops, and for some individuals the minutes of the searches allow a more detailed description of the interiors.

It is rare that a printer has to start from nothing to equip his workshop. If it is passed on from father to son, the material is naturally inherited, but it can also happen that a printer buys a workshop and its equipment. Thus, in Coutances, after the resignation of Jacques Bellamy, Jean de La Roque acquired his printing press in 1719. When, in Caen, the general manager decided in 1759 to remove the workshop of Pierre-François Doublet, then very old, Pierre Chalopin bought his equipment the same year. In Bayeux, Antoine-Jean Nicolle also bought a printing press, that of the widow of Gabriel Briard who resigned in his favour on 13 October 1775, but, according to the testimony of the widow Nicolle in 1810, this acquisition could only be made "à un très haut prix".

D3.2.1. Presses

The investigation of 1700-1701 informs us that the twenty printers then in activity in the region had 34 presses. Only three of them had three presses; eight had two, and nine had only one.

In 1764, on the other hand, if the number of workshops had reduced, the survey listed for Caen an increased level of equipment: "The S. Poisson 3 presses, the S. Yvon 2 presses, the S. Pyron 3 presses, the S. Chalopin 3 presses "- proof that, as in most other regions, the surviving printing works had on the whole benefited from the lower quota of printer places to increase their equipment during the century.

D3.2.2. Type fonts

In 1700-1701 the royal enquiry also provided information on the type fonts owned by 18 printers in six towns of Lower Normandy. Among these workshops 13 or more held petit canon (28 points), grand romain (18 points) saint-augustin (14 points), cicéro (12 points) and petit romain (10 points). The other type sizes are much more poorly represented, for example only four printers held petit texte (8 points) six parangon (20 or 22 points). Four held Geek fonts, normally in saint-augustin or cicéro, two preserved "fontes françoises", that is to say civilité types, and two could print music from moveable type. But it is clear that the data provided by the enquiries are not always complete.

The printers who possessed the largest range of fonts at the start of the 18th century were Antoine Cavelier and Guillaume-Richard Poisson in Caen, each with nine different set of types. On the other hand several workshops were poorly equipped: in Bayeux the widow of Marin Briard could only report four old fonts, and the same applied to the widow of Antoine Jouanne.

In 1764, the enquiry, which covered ten printers in six towns in Lower Normandy, was less detailed. As in 1701 the large majority owned petit canon, grand romain, saint-augustin, cicéro and petit romain. All printers in Caen and Alençon possessed nine different fonts. But it was only printers in Caen that held Greek fonts, and only Jacques Le Roy in Coutances and Jacques Aunay du Ronceray in Lisieux could print music from moveable type.

Certainly on this final point the enquiry can be found lacking since, in 1766 Pierre Chalopin printed in Caen La Science pratique du chant de l’Église avec musique note[129] and a more detailed list of the fonts available in the main printing offices in Caen, drawn up in 1758, mentioned music fonts as being held by Chalopin. Witness to the content of a well-equipped printing office is the detailed listing of the fonts held by Pierre Chalopin at that date:

Un gros canon romain et italique
Un petit canon st. augustin avec son italique
Un petit canon cicero avec son italique
Un parangon avec son italique
Un gros romain avec son italique
Deux st augustin avec leurs italiques
Un gotique
Trois cicero avec leurs italiques
Une fonte de philosophie avec son italique
Deux de petit romain avec leurs italiques
Un de petit texte avec son italique
Un de nonpareille avec son italique
Une fonte de notes
Et toutes les lettres de deux points du corps
Avec un assortiment de vignettes.

Due to the lack of type foundries in the region, it was necessary for the local printer to source from outside, usually in Paris. It was impractical to investigate the evolution of typographical styles and the appearance of new fonts, such as those of Pierre-Simon Fournier or François-Ambroise Didot, but it is obvious that fonts have sometimes been in use for some time - inventories readily distinguish new and worn fonts. By examining for example the typography of the almanacs of Caen, we notice that Pierre-Jean-Aimé Chalopin still uses the long "s" ( ? ) in 1790, but that for the almanac of the year 1808 he now uses the normal "s". It seems that most printers in Basse-Normandie abandoned the long "s" during the Revolution. Gilles Le Roy and P.-J.-A. Chalopin always use the long "s" in Caen in 1792, like Gilles Joubert in Coutances. In 1791 on the other hand, the widow of Antoine-Jean Nicolle in Bayeux already made use of the normal "s" as well as Jean-Nicolas Agnès in Coutances in 1792, Gilles Le Roy in Caen in 1793 and Jean-Zacharie Malassis in Alençon in 1793.

D3.2.3. Paper

In an era when each sheet of paper was handcrafted, acquiring good quality for printing was a considerable expense. We know the names of more than 300 papermakers active in Lower Normandy during the 18th century[130]. Enquiries carried out in the généralité of Caen indicate a slight increase during the course of the century: 51 paper mills in 1743, 50 in 1765, 51 in 1769 and 1771, 54 in 1772 and 55 in 1776[131]

However many of these manufacturers did not produce paper of high enough quality for printing. For example although the enquiry into paper mills carried out in the généralité of Alençon, carried out in 1745, showed that certain mills sold their production to printers in Caen and Rouen, it also listed many whose products were destined for other purposes: "du papier au pot et du papier dit main brune pour servir à faire des cartes à jouer" or à "faire du carton et de la carte" or "à faire des envelopes pour les epingles"[132] In addition the wholesale stationers could make access to the paper they required difficult for the local printers. According to the enquiry of 1730[133] :

Il y a de présent à Caen un nombre de nouveaux marchands papetiers, qui se rendent les maistres de tous les papiers de la generalité, par des marchez avec les papetiers ouvriers a leurs moulins, […], ces anavremens sont expressément deffendus.

Tous les papetiers [en marge : ouvriers] descendent communément chez ces marchands courtiers, qui font embarquer journellement pour l’étranger, sans despost et sans visite : d’où il résulte que faute de depost public comme autrefois, les imprimeurs à Caen manquent tres souvent de papiers dans leurs plus pressans besoins ; que faute de visites quantité de papiers se honnent [ honnissent?] de mauvais apprest et infidelles de compte, et de facon ; et que les imprimeurs sont forcés de payer à la volonté desdits courtiers, au prejudice du Roy, et du bien public, et manquent des bonnes et meilleures qualités nécessaires pour la beauté et perfection de leurs ouvrages, et notamment pour le service du Roy, Remede Le rétablissement à Caen d’un bureau ou entrepost public, comme autrefois, pour la décharge par les papetiers [en marge : ouvriers] de leurs marchandises, la liberté des imprimeurs, et autres employans de s’en fournir, la visite des papiers pour obvier aux fraudes, les embarquemens des papiers faits présence d’un imprimeur et d’un me cartier avec représentation de leurs passeports, pourroient remédier à ces abus, au grand bien du public, et du service du Roy. It is certainly established that printers were involved in considerable expenditure to procure suitable paper. For example we know that between April and September 1750, Pierre Chalopin acquired a stock from Lentaigne, wholesale stationer in Caen, at a cost of around 1 200 l.:

Compte courant avec Mr Lenteigne le jeune marchand papetier à Caen […]
Facture des papiers pris chez Mr Lenteigne depuis la foire de Caen 1750 jusqu’au mois de septembre 1750
du 30 avril 1750 135 R de champy bis a 42 s f	283 ll.	11s
le mesme jour 72 R de champy fin a 3 ll f	216
le 6 juin livre chez Mr Piron 15 R caré g forme a 6 ll 5 s f	93	15
le 1er juillet 50 rame caré 9 formé a 6 ll 5 s	312	10
le 6 aoust 104 rame de champy bis a 42s	218	8
le 7 aoust une rame de champy fin a 4 ll 10 s 4	10
le 29 aoust 11 R de grand caré a 6 ll 5 s	68	15
[Total]	1197 ll	8 s

D3.3. Personnel

Of the 89 individuals who exercised the profession of printer-bookseller in the entire region of Basse-Normandie between 1701 and 1789, 32 probably received their training in the father's workshop - this is certainly confirmed for 16 of them - and two in that of their stepfather. Among the apprentices, 14 served in Normandy (eight in Caen, two in Avranches, one in Lisieux, one in Saint-Lô and two in Rouen) and eight learned their craft elsewhere, including four in Paris one in Bourges, one in Poitiers and one in Marseille. Finally, there were two masters who learned the trade of bookseller, an amateur printer, and five whose curriculum we do not know.

The 1700-1701 survey provided a wealth of information on the careers of printers then operating in Lower Normandy. We learn that Germain Langlois, printer in Caen, "né en la paroisse de Lasson [tout près de Caen], agé de 66 ans, a fait 5 ans d’ap[p]rentissage à Caen chez Claude Le Blanc, a servi environ 2 ans à Paris chez Jean Esnault [i. e. Hénault] et chez Le Passier [i. e. Lespicier ?], 7 mois a Blois, puis chez le susd. Claude Le Blanc et chez Joachim Massienne. [Il] a esté rec[e]u maistre en 1673 et sest etabli le 15 decembre de lad. année"[134]. The same source reveals around twenty professional biographies for Lower Normandy. The Caen printers, even if they were apprenticed in their native city, often with their father, generally left to work as journeymen in other cities, especially in Paris or Rouen, but also in Bourges, Blois, Orléans. And if Jean Malassis of Alençon and François Guilbert of Argentan left to follow their apprenticeship in the capital, the two Lisieux printers Jean Godefroy and Remy Le Boullenger followed theirs in Rouen. The future masters frequently served in several localities, and in more than one workshop in each, while awaiting admission as a master. For example Jean Briard, after three years of apprenticeship in Caen with Claude Le Blanc, "a servi à Lisieux et à Rouen chez les srs. Boullanger [i. e. Le Boullenger], à Paris chez Esnault [i. e. Jean Hénault], Cognard [i. e. Charles Coignard], et [Claude] Nego", before being permitted to "tenir boutique et imprimerie à Caen apres avoir exercé 18 mois à Bayeux et sest etabli aud. Caen en 1677".

In any workshop of importance, we can therefore find an apprentice, often the master's son, and several journeymen to compose the texts and put them to press. The number of journeymen over the period tended to increase. The 1700-1701 survey lists 16 printers employing journeymen, 30 in total, including five sons who worked for their father, just under two journeymen per workshop. During the 1764 survey, the 10 printers identified had 32 companions, more than three each on average[135]. In 1783, the four printers named on the capitation roll for Caen account for 21 journeymen, an average of five for each workshop[136].

Given their number and their status (a journeyman who could theoretically become a master during his career), journeymen were included in the Dictionnaire des imprimeurs, libraires et gens du livre en Basse-Normandie 1701-1789 (2020), without however hoping to arrive at an exhaustive tally, which is impossible given the relative silence of the archives. But if the average number of journeymen per workshop is estimated at three, we can estimate their total workforce at around 300 across Lower Normandy between 1701 and 1789.

D3.4. Organisation of workflow: concurrent production

The equipment and personnel of a single workshop were often used to compose and print several works at the same time. In the course of a search of Jacques Le Roy, printer in Coutances, on 8 May 1768, his two presses were found to be printing "la Théologie de Poitiers, les heures à l’usage du diocèse de Coutances" and "les petites matines de Notre Dame" were being set up in type. The inspectors found nothing suspect there. Arriving at the premises of Gilles Le Roy in Caen, on 10 May 1768 between nine and ten in the evening they discovered that of his four presses two were working on legal documents (factums), and one other on a text for the Intendance. They also reported having found two compositors "travaillant à une lettre circulaire pour annoncer la mort d’une religieuse de la Visittation [sic] de Caen"[137]

Three years later on 4 and 5 May 1771, there was still intense activity in the printers' workshops of Caen on the occasion of another search: at Jacques Manoury's workshop they were working on "l’impression des Révolutions d’Italie pour le compte du Sr. [Edme-Jean] Le Jay, libraire à Paris, [au] bréviaire à l’usage du diocèse de Bayeux, [au] diurnal a l’usage du même diocèse et [à] plusieurs ouvrages" ; at Jean-Claude Pyron, "on […] travaille pour l’eucologe de Bayeux, aux ouvrages de l’université, des fermes du Roy, et a [sic] des livres classiques avec privilèges" — dont aucun n’est jugé suspect — ; in Jean Poisson's workshop, "l’on travaille au Traite des abeilles par Mr de Boisjougan [i. e. Boisjugan] [138] […] au petit catéchisme […] et à differens ouvrages de ville" — once again nothing to arouse suspicion for the authorities[138].

D4. The workshop and the bookshop

While the workshop is most frequently located upstairs, the bookshop is housed on the ground floor, where passers-by can easily take a look at the assortment of books offered to the public. Points of sale will be discussed in more detail in section F.

In addition, among the premises necessary for a printer-bookseller, there were areas used as stores to stock works in sheets, either printed by the owner (so-called "livres de fonds"), or received in exchange from other printers and booksellers (so-called "livres d'assortiment").

D5. Associated activities

D5.1. Bookbinding

Even if printed books were generally shipped without being bound, the printer-bookseller often needed to bind a proportion of the books intended for sale to individuals. There were self-employed bookbinders in the city, but it might be beneficial for the printer to use a permanent bookbinder. The investigation of 1700-1701 mentioned in Lisieux Jean Godefroy, printer and bookseller who had no companion but whose son bound books[140]. Antoine Blanlot, bookbinder of Caen in Froide-Rue, presented a request on 24 November, 1763 and was discharged from paying the vingtième for the current year by ordinance of 12 December, 1763, "attendu qu'il n'est que journalier", being employed by one of the printers in the street[141]. Charles Le Monnier, a journeyman bookbinder living in rue Froide, is listed in the capitation rolls for 1779 and 1783 in Caen ; he probably worked for one or more of the printer-booksellers in the same street[142].

The same applies to the booksellers, often described as "libraires-relieurs". Pierre-François Gomont claimed to be "longtemps libraire-relieur" when, on 2 October 1786, he asked to be registered officially as a bookseller. He was received as a master bookseller and binder in Saint-Lô by the Chambre Syndicale in Caen, by virtue of a decree of the King's Conseil d’État dated 2 April 1787[143].

D5.2. Periodical publications

Even if the periodical press, for essentially political reasons, was not as widespread in the 18th century in the French provinces as in certain neighbouring countries, such as the Netherlands or England, the publication of a newspaper was likely to guarantee a regular income to a printer. La Gazette de Caen, published in 1732, offers an example. On 29 August 1733, le Journal d’un bourgeois de Caen, probably produced by the architect Lamar, reported: "La Gazette de ce jour, qui se distribue dans la ville de Caen par extrait abrégé, a commencé d’être imprimée par le sieur Jean Poisson, libraire et imprimeur de la ville, au lieu et place de Charles Briar [i. e. Briard] qui les imprimait ci-devant"[144].

But these experiments remained rare and a long-lasting periodical only appeared in Normandy in 1762 with the Annonces, affiches et avis de la Haute et Basse-Normandie, published in Rouen. The provincial newspaper press is thinly scattered across France before the Revolution. Nevertheless in Caen we can find the Affiches, annonces et avis divers de la Basse-Normandie, printed by Louis-Jean Poisson between 1786 and 1796, and in Alençon in 1788 Jean-Zacharie Malassis published the Affiches, annonces et avis divers de la province du Perche[145].

The same applies to periodicals. The two titles that appeared in Caen during the 1740s, the Nouvelles littéraires and the Trésor de littérature, only had a brief existance, and even the Mémoires de l’Académie des belles-lettres de Caen only published four volumes between 1754 and 1760.

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References
[121]. AD Calvados, C 2886 (enquête 1730).
[122]. AD Calvados, C 2886 (enquête 1737).
[123]. AD Calvados, C 2886 (enquête 1758).
[124]. AD Calvados, C 2886 (enquete 1768).
[125]. AD Calvados, C 2887/25.
[126]. Barbier (2002), p. 117 et 214 ; AD Calvados, 13B 68.
[127]. Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. fr. 22099.
[128]. Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. fr. 22101, 70.
[129]. Girard (1998) 6620.
[130]. Gaudriault (1995). Liste de papetiers en France, p. 166-280.
[132]. AD Calvados, C 2899, C 2900.
[132]. AD Orne, C 32.
[133]. AD Calvados : C2886
[134]. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms., nouv. acq. fr. 399, fol. 180.
[135]. Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. fr. 22184.
[136]. AD Calvados, C 4553.
[137]. Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. fr. 22099, 24.
[138]. Un exemplaire de l’édition du Nouveau Traité des abeilles et nouvelles ruches de paille…, de M. de Godefroy de Boisjugan, écuyer, membre des sociétés royales d’agriculture de Rouen et de Caen (Caen, Jean Poisson, 1771, in-8°, fig.), est conservé à la Bibliothèque nationale de France sous la cote S-12778. Autres exemplaires dans les Bibliothèque municipale de d’Alençon, de Caen, de Cherbourg et de Rouen.
[139]. Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. fr. 22101, pièce 70.
[140]. BNF ms. Nouv. Acq. Fr. 399 [141]. AD Calvados, C 5531.
[142]. AD Calvados, C 4550 et C 4553.
[143]. AN, V6 1133 (2 avril 1787, n° 9 — document manquant en place le 15 août 1995).
[144]. Journal d’un bourgeois de Caen 1652-1733, publié pour la première fois d’après un manuscrit de la bibliothèque de Caen (Caen, Charles Woinez, 1848), annoté par G. Mancel. Cf. Girard (1998) 3208, 3305.
[145]. Sgard (1991).

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This page last updated 26 June 2020.