F. Distribution networks
F1. Libraires et points de vente
Under the Ancien Régime, the book trades, like other groups of trades, often tended to concentrate in particular neighbourhoods within towns. This was for practical or, (in the case of Paris) regulatory reasons. In the smallest cities, while it is difficult to generalize because of the limited number of professionals involved, it was mostly in proximity to the main churches. Thus in Saint-Lô, around 1780, it was near Notre-Dame Church that the establishment of Pierre-François Gomont was located, and in Alençon, in 1764, Louis Malassis also ran a shop opposite Notre-Dame. In Alençon again, the parish priest of Notre-Dame, M. Bourget, rented to André Jouanne, a bookseller, a place under the portal between two pillars in 1746 for 50 pounds a year, recommending that he be careful not to damage the stone of these pillars.
The booksellers were generally located on the main streets. In the Grande-Rue d´Alençon the Malassis family were to be found and also, between 1767 and 1773, the card maker Jacques Cardon. In Bayeux, it was in Grande-Rue-Saint-Jean that the establishments of the Briards and then of Antoine-Jean Nicolle and his widow were located. In Coutances, a significant number of book trade personnel rubbed shoulders on the Grande-Rue: Gilles Joubert (1774-1791), Julien Fauvel (1740), Jean Servet (1740-1741), Pierre Hébert (1780) and the widow Hébert (1787), but also in the rue Saint-Nicolas: Toussaint Perrotte (1741), Jean-Guillaume Le Duc (around 1768), J.-J. Paris (1780-1788), Guillaume Loquet, bookbinder (1788) and Jacques-Pierre Morin (1788).
Location of book trade establishments in Caen, 1757
Location of book trade establishments in Caen, 1757
Key:That said, in Caen in 1783, 67 book trade members were dispersed across ten parishes, especially those in the city center: 26 (39%) were established in Notre-Dame parish, 12 (18%) in Saint-Pierre parish and 11 (17%) in Saint-Sauveur parish. The most popular location was rue Froide, in the parish of Notre-Dame, which was the traditional preference of printers and booksellers in the city and included 14 printers and booksellers (21%), followed by the Grande-Rue-Notre-Dame which was home to 10 (15%). We notice with booksellers a tendency to choose locations overlooking the arteries of the city, so as to more easily attract passers-by, while trades such as those of printer or bookbinder, where direct sale is not the dominant activity, and also the journeymen, are resident in less important streets, or even in the suburbs.
1. Rue Froide : Pierre Chalopin, Jean Poisson and Pierre-Jacques Yvon, printers ; Charles Le Baron, bookseller
2. Grande-Rue-Notre-Dame : Pierre-François Doublet, printer ; Matthieu Delaunay and Gilles Le Roy, booksellers
3. Rue Saint-Étienne ou rue Notre-Dame : Jacques Manoury, bookseller
4. Rue des Jésuites : Robert Le Tellier et fils, booksellers
5. Rue Saint-Sauveur : Jean-Claude Pyron, printer
6. Rue des Cordeliers or Marché aux Namps : Charles Louvet, bookseller
F2. Types of points of sale
There was a great diversity of points of sale from the humble market stall to large establishments with several rooms and storerooms for the bookseller's stock.
F2.1 Printer-booksellers
Wholesale printer-booksellers normally had the widest range of books and the region from which they attracted their clientèle was much more extensive. In 1700-1701, at Lisieux, Jean Godefroy, a printer and bookseller aged 56 maintained a "boutique garnie de livres qu’il fait venir de Paris, Rouen, Caen et autres lieux"[196]. In Avranches, according the the lcal enquiry of 1768, the printer-bookseller Jean-Baptiste Bernard ran a "boutique assez bien assortie" and "son commerce peut être de 4,000 francs". He offered a good selection: "histoire, philosophie, morale, arts". In Coutances Jacques Le Roy, also a printer-bookseller owned a "boutique de librairie assez bien fournie" and ran a relatively extensive trade[197].
In the 18th century a considerable proportion of the book trade still depended on exchange of stock (livres d’assortiment) carried out at a distance between professional practitioners. We have as an example a Catalogue des livres que je peux vous fournir en feuilles, dont j’ai donné la déclaration à M. de Néville [i. e. François-Claude-Benoît-Brice Le Camus de Néville, directeur de la Librairie], conformément à l’arrêt du Conseil du 30 août dernier, a letter printed by Gilles Le Roy of Caen for the Société typographique de Neuchâtel, dated 24 Janury 1778, which offered a selection of more than titles[198].
F2.2. Retail booksellers
A bookseller without a printing workshop could run a considerable establishment. In 1771, Jacques Manoury senior maintained a large shop with several rooms, a courtyard and "deux magasins remplis de livres de toute espèce" in Caen. In 1775, he still had a "boutique bien garnie, a plusieurs ouvriers, vend toutes sortes de livres". In the same year, Pierre Le Baron held a "boutique assez bien garnie, n’est point imprimeur, fait un bon commerce, [et] pourroit bien payer 9 l." [199].
Street hawkers and booksellers could also set up shops in town. This is the case of Pierre Hébert who during the local investigation of 1768 was in the process of settling in Coutances: "Pierre Hubert [i. e. Hébert] de la paroisse de Muneville le Bingard […] se disant porteur de nouvelles lettres de maîtrise est venu il y a 3 ou 4 mois occuper une petite boutique qu’il a remplie d’assez bons livres, il est a présent en tournée." Charles Le François, another itinerant bookseller originating from Coutances went on to open shops in three cities in the region in Argentan, Avranches and Bayeux [200].
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But many of these shops were very modest. In 1746, in Alençon, the parish priest of Notre-Dame rented a place under the church portal for 50 pounds a year to André Jouanne to establish a shop located on the left when entering through the large central door. This space was six feet deep and could be dismmantled in order to leave the space free during major ceremonies. In 1747, the bookseller obtained an extension of another two feet. In Bayeux, in 1764, the only bookseller and bookbinder, Alexandre L’Écorché, had "un très petit fonds de boutique composé d’heures, de quelques livres de piété et à l’usage des écoles dudit lieu"[201].
But many of these shops were very modest. In 1746, in Alençon, the parish priest of Notre-Dame rented a place under the church portal for 50 pounds a year to André Jouanne to establish a shop located on the left when entering through the large central door. This space was six feet deep and could be dismmantled in order to leave the space free during major ceremonies. In 1747, the bookseller obtained an extension of another two feet. In Bayeux, in 1764, the only bookseller and bookbinder, Alexandre L’Écorché, had "un très petit fonds de boutique composé d’heures, de quelques livres de piété et à l’usage des écoles dudit lieu"[201].
With their small shops, booksellers sometimes had difficulty in surviving. In 1786 Le Roux, a bookeller in Caen, declared to the authorities that in 1784, "chargé d’une nombreuse famille", he had decided to "former un magazin à la Delivrande paroisse de Douvres pour y vendre & debiter des livres durand [sic] le terme de la saison d’été, moment des pélerinages", a shop located within the house of widow Laurent. The widows of booksellers could also run up against problems in continuing their business. The widow of Jean-Michel-Étienne Mariage, a bookseller in Valognes, left with four children, three of them boys, was operating in 1768 witout authorisation: "Depuis son veuvage, son commerce est peu considérable et ne roule guere que sur un fonds de boutique et le debit journalier de livres de dévotion et de classe." She had just made a journey to Paris in an attempt to revitalise her business but finally found a sloution to her problems by marrying Charles Le Coquière[202].
It was frequently necessary to augment the income received from the sale of books. Apart from the acitivies more closely linked to book trades that will be considered later, there are examples of a wider diversification. In 1700-1701, for example, Denis Dumoulin or Du Moulin, bookseller in Honfleur, was also a dealer in grain and vegetables[203].
A frequent method of wideing the selection of titles offered in these provincial bookshops was, as aalready mention, the exchange or bartering of books. In his Catalogue des livres qui se vendent chez P. Le Baron, l’aîné, libraire, à Caen, ruë Froide-Ruë, Pierre Le Baron indicated in 1769 that he practised the exchange of books. Similarly the account book of Pierre shows that in 1738 he was in the process of making arrangements with Herfort de Bonange, in Sées, to exchange books[204]:
F2.3. Linked activities.
le 21 avril 1738 recu de Monsr Bonange 40 rudiments broches le 4 juin 1738 recu 500 rudiments bl[ancs] de Mr Bonange et je luy ay renvoyé le mesme jour 4 biblia sacra in 8o en veau d 13 ll le 18 juin donne a Mr le Conte pour Mr Bonange une once de vermillon en pierre d 12[s] 6 d le 25 juin 1738 envoyé a Mr Bonange par M Le Conte 2 heures de Noailles jaspee 3 ll Recu le mesme jour 1410 rudiments pour avec ceux qu’il m’a deja envoyé former les 2000 dont nous etions convenus le 3 7 bre 1738 envoyé a Mr Bonange par Mr Le Conte 2 conciles de Trents in 24 latin 2 ll 6 s
As books were normally sent out in sheets, it is evident that a frequent task of booksellers would be arranging for them to be bound. Often a journeyman was employed for this task. During the enquiry of 1700-1701, Nicolas Dupray, bookbinder, was a journeyman for the widow of Marin Le Cordier, bookseller in Caen[205]. A number of booksellers were admitted master as bookseller and binder. - that is how Gilles Le Roy began his career in Caen in 1756 before he was admtted as a printer in 1765. Denis Dumoulin, apprentice bookbinder in Paris, was later admitted as a bookseller in Honfleur in 1671[206].
But there is a whole range of other related trades that were practised by booksellers. For example Thomas-Joseph Le Crêne, bookseller in Falaise, was also active as a stationer, bookbinder and lender of books in the course of a long career spanning the period from 1774 to 1822.
In Coutances, Jean-Joseph Servet was described as "libraire et marchand de vin" in Grande-Rue, but, according to the capitation role, il was really a "pauvre, simple relieur de livres", "chargé d’enfants", and in 1741 was levied the sum of 3 l. 2 s. [207]. Jacques Houel was apprenticed as a printer in Caen, then became a mercer before returning to printing[208]. Charles-François Le Coquière tried his hand at combining two professions. He married the widow of Jean-Michel-Étienne Mariage, a bookseller without having completed an apprenticeship or a period as journeyman. According to an enquiry conducted by the deputy of the intendant on 20 November 1772, Charles-François Le Coquière was a painter and it was his wife who kept shop, acting as a result of the privilege accorded to her late husband. Le Coquière, who "mérite à peine le titre de libraire", was nevertheless admitted bookseller and bookbinder in Valognes without any requirement of a certificate of apprenticeship or evidence of having been a journeyman by a decree of the Privy Council dated 28 November 1786[209].
F2.3.1. Bookbinders
We have seen that a number of bookbinders were employed as journeymen by booksellers but many others also worked on their own account. The capitation list for Caen in 1783 lists three "compagnons relieurs" but sixteen others are listed simply as "relieurs" or "relieurs de livres"[210].
In the 18th century the bookbonder often leaves traces of his activity in the form of labels fixed into volumes. One survives from the workshop of Pierre-Guillaume Manoury in a manuscript book of hours and a missal for the use of Bayeux preserved in the bibliothèque municipale in Caen.
Bookbinders were often regarded with suspicion by the authorities who freared that they only distributed books of low quality or which were unauthorised, or even that the were printing them illegally. Subdelegate Radulphe, in the general observations he made on 7 October 1768, points out:
Il seroit bon de definir la reliure de la librairie. Les cinq libraires relieurs ne peuvent pas suffire, quantite d’ouvriers relieurs travaille[nt] sans etre connûs, il est impossible aux magistrats de connoitre et darreter la fraude sil[s] ne connoî[ssen]t avec qui le commettent [sic], dailleurs il y a aujourdhuy de petites imprimeries portatives avec le secours des quelles et du temps on peut imprimer des livrets tres represensibles [sic], les relieurs sans qualité prennent tout et meme on envoye des paquets pour relier à Caen. [211].
From time to time the authorities attempted to tackle the problems posed by bookbinders. Alexandre L’Écorché was authorised to practice bookbinding in Bayeux by decree of the town's police lieutenant general on 30 September 1747. However, following a decree of the Privy Council dated 26 June 1752 forbidding certain individuals from working as bookbinders in the area covered by the Intendance of Caen, Gabriel Briard asked the intendant to apply this prohibition to L’Écorché, which was done by an order dated 22 October 1752. So L’Écorché closed his shop in January 1753, before seeking once again to be admitted as a bookseller and binder in Bayeux, position which he entered into following an order of the Privy Council of 17 June 1754[212].
The craft of bookbinder rarely brought with it a fortune; seven of the nineteen bookbinders in Caen reached the minimum rate for paying capitation in 1783. Several of them sought to be admitted to the ranks of authorised booksellers. Mathieu Delaunay, who had become a bookbinder in Caen after having served an apprenticeship with a bookseller and binder in the town was admitted as a bookseller on 17 June 1754 to enable him to feed his seven children[213]. It was also possible for a bookbinder capable of producing decorative bindings to be a better breadwinner; this is perhaps the case with Jean-François Seyty, described as "relieur et doreur" on the capitation list for Avranches in 1751 and 1756[214].
F2.3.2. Printsellers, playing card makers
Religious images and playing cards were very widespread, and we know that there were a large number of producers to market them. Also, in order to avoid counterfeiting and to prevent the dissemination of undesirable images, the card makers were required in principle to deposit the prints from their plates and blocks with the offoce of cards and engravings of the generality of Caen[215]. A poster, proabably printed byr Jean-Claude Pyron en 1748, gives some idea of the heavy penalties to be paid by those contravening this directive:
Ferme des cartes et cuivres, de par le Roy. Ordonnance de monseigneur l’intendant de la généralité de Caen, qui déclare le nommé Augustin Le Breton, maître cartier en la ville de Caen, convaincu du crime de faux, & pour icelui, le condamne en 3,000 livres d’amende, à la confiscation des sept sizains cinq jeux de cartes sur lui saisis cachettés d’un faux cachet, à la restitution dudit faux cachet dans les trois jours de la signification de la présente ordonnance […] déclare pareillement ledit Le Breton déchu de sa maîtrise de marchand cartier…[216].F2.3.3. Stationers
Stationers also distributed images, almanacs and popular and ephemeral literature. An examination of the roles of capitation and tithes of Caen shows that stationers were often more highly taxed than booksellers and printers. In Caen, in 1742, Jean-Étienne Le Marchand paid 30 l. in tithes and Jacques Bataille 27 l. These two paper merchants are more highy taxed than the widow of Jean-Jacques Godes-Rudeval and her son-in-law Jean-Claude Pyron, printer-booksellers (24 l.), and also than Antoine Cavelier, King's printer (20 l.) [217].
Local printers had close business links with the wholesale stationers of Caen. In 1750-1751, for example, Pierre Chalopin purchased around 600 reams of paper from them for a total sum of 2,079 l. 14 s. It is for this reason that wholesale stationers are included in the book trades while papermakers are omitted. Certainly there were a large number of papermills in the region but only a minority produced paper of a sufficent quality for printing. The État général des villes et lieux ... dans lesquels il y a des moulins à papier provides some details for the généralité of Alençon in 1746[218]:
Avernes. M. Daverner, afferme audit Jacques Bardonne, fabriquant, six pilles [beaters, trip hammers] et une cuve [vat] et ne fabrique que du papier au pot et du papier dit main brune pour servir à faire des cartes a jouer, le tout envoyé [...] aux marchands de Rouen Var [Vari, Écorches?]. François Bernard. 4 pilles 1 cuve. Grand papier paizant [i. e. pesant] 48 livres, deux feuilles paizant 45 livres, carré paizant 24 livres, qui servent à faire des envelop[p]es pour les epingles. Argentan. Monsieur Des Chenets conseiller à la cour des Aydes, Eustache Crunel fabr. 6 pilles 4 cuves, fabrique papier au pot et de la main brune [...] papier très commun et se debitte à Caen et à Rouen et sert de faire du carton et de la carte.F3. General dealers
Beside the booksellers and booksellers authorized to market all kinds of books or printed matter, mercers and other general dealers were authorized to sell alphabets, almanacks, books of hours and small prayer books "printed outside the city of their ordinary residence", according to the terms of the decree of the Privy Council dated 13 March 1730. This particularity was the subject of several disputes between booksellers and mercers. The local survey of 1730 found that large numbers of mercers in Caen, whose trade "est fort estendu pour l’étranger […], ne sont pas exempts de suspicion de faire des entrées de livres ou impressions deffendues avec leurs autres marchandises, non plus que de faire des entrepôts à deux ou trois lieues de la ville, qui favorisent plus aisément ces mauvaises distributions"[219].This assertion reflects a traditional rivalry between booksellers and haberdashers, the latter being authorized to sell booklets of a value of less than four to five sol but too often abusing this tolerance.
During the 1764 investigation, the sub-delegate observed, for example, that at Avranches: "Il y a […] deux particuliers nommés Jean Roger et Guillaume Le Bas qui se mêlent de librairie sans qualité. Il n’y a point de plaintes contre eux, cependant le bon ordre éxigeroit peut être qu’il leur fut fait défense de continuer ce commerce"[220]. Four years later in the same town the sub-delegate of the intendant revevealed that other resident traders such as mercers and stationer "joignent aux différentes espèces de commerce qu’ils font celui des livres"[221].
The jealous vigilance of booksellers in the largest cities did not exclude the rural areas. In 1786, the booksellers of Caen tried to prohibit merchants from selling books to pilgrims from Douvres-la-Délivrande. In accordance with the decree of the Council of State of March 13, 1730, the mercers could only sell ABCs, almanacs on which there is no privilege, small books of hours and prayers. But there was a feeling locally of too strict an application of this legislation which would ruin the "unfortunate little tradesmen of La Délivrande".
Le Paulmier, inspector of the Caen book trades and sub-delegate of the intendant, received the complaints of these merchants, in fact poor women "who find their livelihood in this business". A delegation of three of them went to Caen, "on behalf of more than forty", to beg the intendant that their only means of subsistence lay in the sale of small devotional pamphlets to pilgrims. The applicants even suggested that the action launched against them by the Caen booksellers was only "the effect of a dangerous plot" aimed at securing a monopoly over such sales. Le Paulmier, who reported on the petition of these women, confirmed that "le pèlerinage attire [...] un grand concours de l’étranger qui fait toute l’aisance des habitans [...] le débit d’une petite brochure contenan[t] des faits de dévotion et de prière s’est toujours fait dans ce lieu par des femmes pauvres qui trouvent leur subsistance dans ce commerce"[222].
The poor traders of La Délivrande did not get satisfaction, however. The decree of the Council of State of 10 July 1786 prohibited the mercers of Douvres-La-Délivrande from selling books of more than two sheets of printing, while conceding to them a grace period to settle:
[...] Sa Majesté leur [... accorde] le délai de trois mois, à dater du jour de la publication, pour [...] rendre [les livres] à ceux de qui ils les tiennent, ou les vendre, sans qu’il leur soit permis d’en plus acheter ou recevoir d’autres, ni d’en garder, vendre ou débiter après ledit délai, sous quelque prétexte que ce soit, sous toutes les peines énoncées ci-dessus ; en conséquence, ordonne que tous les livres non destinés à leur usage personnel, qui seront trouvés chez eux, au-delà de ce qui sera porté en leur déclaration ou inventaire, fait lors de la publication, ou après refus de toute déclaration semblable, seront remis aux officiers de la chambre syndicale de Caen, pour être transportés à ladite chambre syndicale, afin d’y être dressé procès-verbal de ceux qui seront prohibés & être mis au pilon en présence de l’inspecteur de la librairie, & ceux qui seront permis, être confisqués & vendus au profit de la chambre syndicale[223].F4. Sales of private libraries
In his Catalogue des livres qui se vendent chez P. Le Baron, l’aîné, libraire, à Caen, ruë Froide-Ruë, Pierre Le Baron indicated in 1769 that he undertook valuations of libraries. In fact the valuation and sale of libraries was very tightly regulated at that time. By virtue of decrees of the Privy Council of 28 February 1723, 24 March 1744 and 30 August 1777, it was forbidden "à tous huissiers de faire prisées de bibliothèques, &c., à tous notaires de les recevoir, ni d’en faire vente publique dans les villes, bourgs & campagnes de l’arrondissement de la chambre, sans qu’au préalable la permission n’en ait été donnée par M. le lieutenant de police, qui au terme des arrêts, & de celui du 1. juin 1782, ne les autorise qu’au préalable la visite n’en ait été faite par les officiers de la chambre syndicale dont ils ressortissent, le tout à peine d’interdiction & de 500 l. d’amende contre les délinquants".
In 1781, Gilles Le Roy of Caen printed a poster detailing the new regulations dated 1 June 1781: Arrest du Conseil d’État du Roi, portant règlement pour la vente des bibliothèques. This publication weas followed by Arrest du Conseil d’État du Roi, concernant les imprimés & placards pour la vente des bibliothèques. Du 25 mai 1781 from the press of Pierre Chalopin[224]. This outlined that in Caen the syndic of the corporation of printers and booksellers was responsible for inspecting the libraries to be sold. A week before the sale catalogue was printed the inspector of the book trades had to receive details of the title of each work and the permission or privilege covering the publication. The syndic would choose one of his assistants to accompany him for the inspection. In the absence of the syndic, the two deputies in post at that time would undertake the inspection together[225].
Only one catalogue for the sale of a library is known for Lower Normandy, the Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de feu monsieur l’abbé de La Bastie, abbé commendataire de Cormeilles, & doyen de l’eglise cathédrale de Lizieux, dont la vente se fera dans la ville de Lizieux, le lundi onze août 1755 en détail, au plus offrant & dernier enchérisseur. This 126-page volume contains 1,333 items - including fifty "music books" - and arranges them by the classification into five classes use by the Paris booksellers: 401 lots for history, 326 for theology and 313 for literature. The owner of this library was hardly a lover of science or law, apparently, but his catalog bore witness to a broad culture; there were works in French as well as in Spanish, Latin, Greek and Hebrew. In addition, many of them reflected a definite taste for contemporary literature, with titles like Robinson Crusoe, Don Quixote or Histoire amoureuse des Gaules. Louis-Henry de Fogasses de La Bastie (1714-1755), abbé commendataire of Cormeilles Abbey, dean of the cathedral church of Lisieux, was also general agent for the clergy of France and secretary to the Assembly of the clergy. Prehaps it is because of the exceptional nature of this collection that at least two copies of his catalogue have survived[226].
F5. Hawkers and itinerant booksellers
It is above all through the researches of Jean-Dominique Mellot that more than eighty itinerant booksellers and hawkers could be listed in the biographical dictionary of the book trades[227]. And his researches uncovered a remarkable phenomenon: a host of itinerant booksellers emerging from a string of little villages around Coutances. From 1727, in the statistical account of the élection of Coutances, we learn that "dans douze ou quinze paroisses voisines de la mer […] il sort tous les ans au mois de mars un grand nombre d’habitants, pour aller les uns vendre dans les provinces du royaume des livres, des estampes et cartes géographiques, les autres porter des balles de mercerie et de quincaillerie"[228]. The report of the sub-delegate for the élection of Coutances on the occasion of the local enquiry of 1768 observes that: "Il y a beaucoup de colporteurs répandus dans les campagnes & qui souvent viennent dans les villes y débiter de petits livres qui sont mauvais, il serait bien à propos d’empêcher ce commerce." However, the extent of this transhumance is not exaggerated; between 1769 and 1772, there were no less than twenty-three individuals from Muneville-le-Bingard, ten from Montsurvent, and around thirty from Coutances or the surrounding villages who maintained commercial correspondence with the widow of Jean-Baptiste III Machuel, a bookseller in Rouen[229].
They frequented Avranches in particular where, in 1768, the intendant's sub-delegate observed that there were many "petits marchand colporteurs" selling books in town. At the same date, the opinion of the sub-delegate of Valognes is that
les colporteurs qui n’ont aucun domicile sont l’objet auquel on devroit faire le plus d'attention, leurs plus grands profits venant du debit qu’ils font de tous ces mauvais livres si attrayants pour la jeunesse, et ce devroit être l’attention particuliere du gouvernement de mettre ordre à cette partie qui attaque si essentiel[l]ement les mœurs et la religion. Les [libraires] domiciliés y prennent bien plus garde par la crainte d’un moment de visite inopinée qui les culbuteroit, à joindre [au fait] que pour l’ordinaire, ils ont plus à perdre que ceux de l’autre espêce.
Thus hawking is not only a rural phenomenon: its network penetrates the cities, where the competition between residents and "nomads" forms part of a conflict between legal publications and "good books" on the one hand, publications which are illegal, subversive, contrary to religion and good customs on the other hand. The argument of immorality and perniciousness, which seems to rather concern the authorities, is also put forward more or less in good faith by the resident booksellers.
[insert map]
Villages in the area Coutances where itinerant booksellers are recorded
An example of the unremitting pursuit to which these small merchants were subjected is provided by the minutes drawn up by Claude-Charles Sarraude, civil and criminal lieutenant general and police of Perche, during a visit made to an inn in Mortagne on 3 June 1765. He inspected a bale belonging to a hawker of books and jewelry, noting, by "the examination that we have made of the chest in which the said books are contained, that there were several foreign editions without approval and royal privilege, in which among others we noticed the book entitled Le Cousin de Mahomet". The hawker's name was Isaac Picam, from Savigny, in the diocese of Coutances. A closer look at the content reveals the presence of:
Villages in the area Coutances where itinerant booksellers are recorded
An example of the unremitting pursuit to which these small merchants were subjected is provided by the minutes drawn up by Claude-Charles Sarraude, civil and criminal lieutenant general and police of Perche, during a visit made to an inn in Mortagne on 3 June 1765. He inspected a bale belonging to a hawker of books and jewelry, noting, by "the examination that we have made of the chest in which the said books are contained, that there were several foreign editions without approval and royal privilege, in which among others we noticed the book entitled Le Cousin de Mahomet". The hawker's name was Isaac Picam, from Savigny, in the diocese of Coutances. A closer look at the content reveals the presence of:
"trois exemplaires d’une histoire japonaise appelée Tanzai & Neardani, trois autres du Cousin de Mahomet, deux exemplaires de l’Anecdote jésuitique. Deux autres d’Angola, deux de Pensées de Jean-Jacques Rousseau, deux de la Nouvelle Heloise, deux du Doyen de Quillerine [sic], cinq chansonniers ou Les Plaisirs de la société, l’Histoire de Frétillon [...] La Paysanne parvenue, Le Diable boiteux, un de Roger Bontemps [...] tous lesquels ouvrages, entre autres les six premiers dénommes, ayant été reconnus [...] pour être pernicieux aux bonnes mœurs, à la religion, et à l’État, tant par des descriptions et avantures licentieux [sic] qu’elles [i. e. ils] contiennent, qu’aux principes et sentiments des plus dépravés."The suspected works were condemned to be burned and a fine of twenty pounds was inflicted on Picam ; according to the hawker the volumes in question had been passed to him by Pierre Dufour and Nicolas-Bonaventure Duchesne, booksellers in Paris[230].
Between hawkers and booksellers, there was however no clear distinction. The examples known certainly lead us to distinguish between the hawkers who carried their goods on their backs, and the itinerant booksellers moving with a cart and often having warehouses in town. On the other hand, it was not impossible for a "nomad" to become sedentary. This is the case of Pierre Hébert in Coutances who, however, in 1768, did not lose his habits of vagrancy: "Pierre Hubert [i. e. Hébert] de la paroisse de Muneville le Bingard [...] se disant porteur de nouvelles lettres de maîtrise, est venu il y a 3 ou 4 mois occuper une petite boutique qu’il a remplie d’assez bons livres, il est a présent en tournée." He still appeared in the role of the capitation of 1781 and his widow succeeded him soon after.
Jean-Francois Quesnel, itinerant bookseller who was in correspondence with the widow of Jean-Baptiste Machuel in Rouen around 1770, became sedentary around 1775 and is attested as a bookseller established in Avranches by the Manuel de l’auteur et du libraire in 1777. Il was still active in 1786-1788 according to the published Caen almanacs for those years. And the name of Quesnel still appears in the Annuaire de l’imprimerie of 1813, a Jean-François Quesnel having been licensed bookseller in Avranches on 1 January 1813 (licence renewed 20 JUly 1818) [231].
At Avranches too, Charles Le François, who bought a master's certificate to open a shop in the city in July 1771, wrote to widow Machuel in Rouen: "Je espere que vous me randerés service de m’ender [i. e. aider] a monter mon boutique passe que il me fot plus d’assortimant que quand je ales ens campangne." [232]. The enterprise started well. He opened another shop in Argentan in October 1771; this one went into bankruptcy in 1777, but still continued to function. Le François was recorded in Argentan and Bayeux in the Manuel de l’auteur et du libraire in 1777 and in the Caen almanacs until 1789. In Bayeux her was even one of the two professional traders nominated to present the "cahier de doléances" of the printers and booksellers of the town to the assembly of the Tiers État in 1789.
F6. Libraries
The university library was the only library of any importance in the town of Caen during the 18th century, but its history was not without vicissitudes. In 1515 it had 294 volumes and, in 1646, 241, but it was reduced to a mere eleven volumes in 1701. But in 1730 Antoine Cavelier printed an ode by Charles Heurtauld addressed À Son Eminence, monseigneur le cardinal de Fleury, ministre d’Etat, sur la libéralité qu’il a faite à l’université de Caen, pour l’augmentation de sa bibliothèque, a donation whose importance was augmented by the Lettres patentes et statuts pour la bibliothèque de l’université de Caen, also printed by Antoine Cavelier in 1731. The reformed library was greatly appreciated, so much so that the widow of Jean-Jacques Godes-Rudeval published in 1734 a Ballade qui a remporté le premier prix de 1734 au Palinod de Caen. L’argument est la bibliothèque nouvellement établie dans l’université de la même ville[233],
the work of a certain Monsieur Hardouin. Cavelier subsequently published the catalogues of the institution, of which the second part appeared in 1736[234].
From 1735, allocations of specific funds were set up for the acquisition of books and each of the four faculties (Arts, Law, Medicine, Theology) delegated a representative to advise the librarian on book selection. However it seems that the person responsible for the library between 1731 and 1758, the abbé Pierre Buquet, did not maintain a catalogue, kept no register of loans and lost no less than 700 titles! Despite these setbacks, the establishment which possessed 657 works in 1732, already held 5,500 in 1735, 7,114 in 1759 and 13,000 in 1775, after the handing over of the collections of the college of Jesuits, whose congregation had been suppressed in France in 1762[235].
***************to here***************
Cela dit, la bibliothèque de l’université n’est pas accessible en permanence. En 1759, le libraire Gilles Le Roy écrit à ce propos : "Si cette bibliothéque eût été publique pendant toute l’année & tous les jours de la semaine, Le Roy, libraire, n’eût pas sans doute projetté d’en établir une autre ; mais la premiére n’étant ouverte que pendant les exercices de l’année scholastique, il a crû qu’il seroit avantageux à l’université même & aux autres corps de la ville d’en avoir une où l’on pût lire pendant toute l’année & tous les jours de la semaine. La maison qu’il occupe lui fournit un emplacement convenable." [236]
La bibliothèque proposée ne semble cependant pas avoir pris l’essor espéré par Le Roy. Il est probable qu’il ait plutôt tenu une sorte de cabinet de lecture attaché à son établissement.
En 1761 le parlement de Normandie approuve le règlement d’une bibliothèque pour la ville de Vire. La même année, Gilles Le Roy imprime à Caen un Concordat entre messieurs les officiers et avocats du bailliage de Vire pour la formation d’une bibliothèque commune, document qui contient aussi le catalogue de la bibliothèque. Celle-ci, qui ne semble pas être d’une énorme envergure — sa description ne tenant qu’en douze pages in-4° —, sera malheureusement détruite avec les locaux de la bibliothèque municipale de Vire en 1944[237].
En 1771, le Virois Thomas Pichon dit Tyrell (1700-1781), agent au service de la Grande-Bretagne qui décédera à Jersey, lègue par testament sa collection de livres à condition qu’il "en sera fait une bibliothèque publique [dans sa ville natale…] à laquelle sera préposée une personne capable de conserver le tout". Disciple des encyclopédistes, le donateur a constitué une collection riche d’ouvrages philosophiques et scientifiques. Un don analogue consenti le 16 décembre 1755 en faveur de la ville de Coutances par M. de Brucourt, ancien lieutenant aux Gardes françaises, est à l’origine de la bibliothèque publique de la commune.
Les institutions religieuses sont souvent dotées de bibliothèques d’une certaine importance et ouvertes à un public non exclusivement ecclésiastique. Les chapitres des cinq cathédrales de Basse-Normandie ont constitué des bibliothèques considérables, celle par exemple de Lisieux, établie en 1474, et celle de Bayeux, en 1429. De plus, dans les bibliothèques municipales de la région, on retrouve aujourd’hui des imprimés et manuscrits provenant notamment des abbayes d’Aunay-sur-Odon, Saint-Sever, La Lucerne, Savigny-le-Vieux, l’Abbaye Blanche, Cerisy-la-Forêt, Saint-Évroult, Saint-Martin-de-Sées, Notre-Dame-de-Silly, Notre-Dame-de-la-Trappe, Lanly, Belle-Étoile, etc., ainsi que les richesses du Mont-Saint-Michel. Quant aux magnifiques boiseries de la bibliothèque de l’abbaye de Val-Dieu, dans l’Orne, elles ont été transférées à la fin du XVIIIe siècle à Alençon pour y meubler l’ancienne chapelle des jésuites. Enfin les séminaires de Bayeux, Caen, Lisieux, Avranches, Coutances, Valognes, Domfront et autres villes ont tous disposé de bibliothèques non négligeables, qui se retrouvent au moins partiellement aujourd’hui dans les collections des bibliothèques municipales[238].
Lesquelles collections se sont enrichies également par des dons de particuliers ou par des acquisitions réalisées auprès de libraires de la région comme de la capitale.
Si nous sommes mal informés sur les cabinets de lecture bas-normands du XVIIIe siècle, il est cependant avéré que plusieurs libraires de la région louaient des livres, par exemple Jacques Manoury père à Caen en 1758, Thomas-Joseph Le Crêne, libraire, papetier, relieur et loueur de livres à Falaise, ou bien Jacques Groult, libraire et relieur à Bayeux, dont on sait qu’il louait des romans et livres d’histoire.
F7. Réseaux de diffusion
The bankruptcy balance sheet of the Caennais bookseller Jean-Jacques Manoury, in September 1778, allows us to very clearly identify the main characteristics of the book trade in our region. His creditors, apart from his father, who advanced him the sum of 4,780 l., Are mainly booksellers from Paris (six, for a total amount of 2,254 l.), As well as counterparts from Lyon (four, for 3,363 l. 6 s in all), from Rouen (two, for 1,200 l. In total) and Reims (Hubert-Martin Cazin, for 1,000 l.), But also professionals established across borders from France, in this case in Liège (Clément Plomteux, for 1,200 l.), Neuchâtel (two booksellers, for 2,400 l.), Amsterdam (Marc Michel Rey, for 600 l.), Bouillon (Jean-Pierre -Louis Trécourt, one of the managers of the Société typographique de Bouillon, for 600 l.) And Geneva (Jean Samuel Cailler, for 1,800 l.). The only local creditor: Jacques Joubert, from Coutances, to whom Jean-Jacques Manoury owes 150 l. But among debtors, we find "Mangin, libraire à Falaise", pour 180 l. 19 s., Thomas-Joseph "Le Crene, libraire à Falaise", pour 60 l., Jacques "Grou[lt] de Bayeux", pour 44 l. 4 s., et Nicolas Chalmé, de Vire, pour 122 l. [239]
Thus the largest cities in the region, notably Caen and to some extent Alençon, seemingly serve as bridges between Paris on the one hand and the important center for Normandy in Rouen - a more significant hub for the region than Lyon - , and on the other hand the booksellers of the smallest localities. The hawkers and fairground booksellers get their supplies either from the largest cities in Lower Normandy, in particular from Chalopin in Caen, which prints a lot of popular literature from the Blue Library and almanacs, or in Rouen, in particular from the Machuel, as evidenced by the remains of their correspondence.
In Caen, in 1764, the investigation found that "les libraires tiennent leurs livres de Paris, de Rouen, et de Lyon"[240].
De même à Lisieux, en 1700-1701, l’imprimeur et libraire Jean Godefroy possède une "boutique garnie de livres qu’il fait venir de Paris, Rouen, Caen et autres lieux"[241]. Et en 1764, Jacques Pistel de Préfontaine (ou Pitel-Préfontaine), libraire à Falaise, fait imprimer à Paris les usages du diocèse de Sées et "tient un assortiment de toutes les nouveautés qu’il tire de Rouen et de Paris"[242].
Fairs and markets played an important role in the dissemination of the book. The region had three important bookshop fairs, two in Caen, starting on 17 February and 13 April, which lasted eight days, and one in Falaise, the Guibray fair, which lasted eight days and began on 15 August. Also in Guibray were the small fairs of the Sainte-Croix on 14 September and of Saint-Michel on 30 September. Thus in 1713 there could be found in Guibray "des marchandises de toutes espèces […] apportées en cette foire pour y être vendues tant en gros qu’au détail": six booksellers from Paris, Caen and Rouen came with books to a value of 8,000 l. each, 48,000 l. in total; ten wholesale stationers from Caen and other towns were also present with 60,000 l. of goods, as well as three dealers in morocco leather (a probable source of supply of raw materials for the bookbinders of the region) from Caen and Rouen avec 70,000 l. of stock for sale[243]. We also know that in 1704 ten booksellers from Caen, Rouen and Paris displayed 40,000 l. of goods there, of which they only sold a quarter. This fair rivalled that of Caen, where in 1704 four booksellers from Rouen and Caen brought 10,000 l. of good, of which they sold 4,000 l., plus 3,000 l. in images and "petits livres". Other statistics of sales of books are known for Caen at the start of the century: in 1706 and 1707, 2,000 l. ; in 1711, 5,000 l., and in 1712, 8,000 l. Later in the century the statistics resume and show an increase, although with considerable variations, for the overall valueof transactions: en 1761, 15,000 l. ; en 1762, 25,000 l. ; en 1764, 34,000 l. ; en 1767, 40,000 l., but in 1768 only 20,000 l. It is necessary to add figures for the "petits livres" and prints, for example : in 1709, 200 l. ; in 1710, 1,000 l. ; in 1761 and 1762, 7,000 l. ; between 1765 and 1767, 9,000 l., and between 1777 and 1780, 4,000 l. a year[244].
For the last stage in the diffusion of books, from the bookseller to the reader, we have little information for the region. The documentation gathered on the activities of Jean-Jacques Manoury, of Caen, provides an extremely rare opporunity to reconstruct this stage. On 20 January 1775, Manoury promised Walle, manger of the bookshop of the widow of Alexandre L’Écorché in Bayeux, the "Journal de M. de Maupeou, 3 volumes in-12" for the price of 9 l. and on 24 February 1775, Walle wrote to one of his clients, "M. de Fontenay en son château par Isigny":
Voici deux ouvrages nouveaux qui me sont arrivés. Je croirais vous manquer en connaissant votre goût pour la littérature et surtout pour le patriotisme si je ne vous en faisais pas part sur-le-champ. Le premier est le Journal historique de la révolution opérée par M. de Maupeou, qui parait maintenant en trois volumes, que je vous passerai à 15 l.This correspondence does not only show the respectful attention shown to clients at a distance from the bookshop but also the profit that the intermediary booksellers could obtain from them. The volumes bought for 9 l. from Manoury were resold to the client for 15 l. As for Manouryhe had acquired them from Gabriel Regnault, a bookseller in Lyon, for the sum of 6 l. [245]
F8. L’information bibliographique
Les annonces publiées dans la presse locale et régionale ne sont pas d’un intérêt majeur du point de vue de l’information bibliographique, même vers la fin de l’Ancien Régime. Prenons l’exemple des premiers mois de l’année 1786. Dans les Affiches de la Basse-Normandie du 26 février figure une annonce pour la sixième édition du Nouveau Dictionnaire historique de dom Louis-Mayeul Chaudon publiée par Gilles Le Roy[246] ; le 30 avril, on annonce Mes souvenirs de Louis-Joseph Legay, édités à Caen chez Jacques Manoury l'aîné et à Paris chez François Belin, ainsi que le Traité des jardins de René Le Berryais que Manoury l’aîné a publié en 1785[247] ; enfin le 7 mai, Gilles Le Roy avise le public qu’il vient de faire l’acquisition de l’ouvrage de Jean-Baptiste Flaust intitulé Explication de la coutume & de la jurisprudence de Normandie, en deux volumes, et le propose au prix (fort élevé) de 54 l. Or ce dernier titre a été publié par l’auteur à Rouen dès 1781. Au total on ne relève donc que trois annonces de parutions — et d’une fraîcheur toute relative — en cinq mois.
Plus importante est la diffusion de la presse nationale qui informe le public provincial des nouveautés parisiennes. L’intérêt de cette diffusion est souligné dans une brochure de 1759, Projet d’une bibliothèque publique, chez Le Roy, libraire, à Caen : "Les bons journaux sont bien propres aussi à nous instruire du mérite des livres nouveaux ; c’est dans ces vûes qu’on fera venir tous ceux qui paroissent, comme les journaux des Sçavans, de Trévoux, Le Mercure, Le Conservateur, [le Journal] encyclopédique, [le Journal de] Verdun, [le Journal] chrétien, L’Année littéraire, &c." [248]
Les catalogues produits par les libraires offrent eux aussi une bonne indication de la disponibilité des titres mais, comme nous l’avons constaté, on n’en connaît malheureusement que très peu pour la région. L’imprimeur-libraire Gilles Le Roy est à l’origine des trois qui ont survécu au passage du temps : Catalogue des livres de belles-lettres… qui se vendent à Caen chez Le Roy (1759) ; Nouveau Catalogue de parties des livres qui se vendent chez Gilles Le Roy (1775) ; Catalogue d’une partie des livres qui se vendent chez G. Le Roy, imprimeur du Roy, hotel de la Monnoye, 1779.
F9. Les transports
The network of post routes in Lower Normandy in 1721
Towards the end of the period covered Lower Normandy had a frequent postal link with Paris.
Postal services between Paris and Lower Normandy in 1781
Jours de départ Destinations
tous les jours Honfleur, Lisieux, Caen, Bayeux
tous les jours sauf jeudi et dimanche Alençon
lundi, mercredi et samedi L’Aigle, Mortagne, Sées, Argentan, Falaise, Saint-Lô, Coutances, Carentan, Valognes et Cherbourg
mercredi et samedi Avranches
mardi et samedi Vire
Departures for the transport of bales were less frequent, Normally coaches left from the rue Saint-Denis :
Le transport des balles entre Paris et la Basse-Normandie en 1781
Jours de départ Destinations
lundi Bayeux, Saint-Lô, Coutances
mardi à vendredi Carentan, Cherbourg
mercredi et jeudi Alençon (départ de la rue Pavée-Saint-André-des-Arts)
jeudi Honfleur, Sées, Argentan, Falaise, Vire, Avranches
samedi Valognes
dimanche Lisieux, Caen
As for the speed of transport, it has been calculated that in 1780 stagecoaches travelled about 8.8 kilometers per hour, or some 105 kilometers per day on the basis of twelve-hour days[249]. It thus took two to three days to cover the distance from Paris to Caen and another one to two days to reach Cherbourg. Even so this journey time represented a considerable acceleration since 1765, when the hourly speed of vehicles was only 4.8 kilometers per hour on average. Mail therefore travelled faster, but when it came to bales and bulk freight transport, it reached around 35 kilometers per day for ordinary haulage and 80 for the fast track, which ran 24 hours a day.
In a maritime province such as Normandy, transport by sea was also possible - Rouen was the largest port of entry for goods on the north coast of France - although this could also pose problems in the eyes of authorities. Indeed the local enquiry of 1730 warned: "Il y a à Caen, ou autres ports de mer dans la généralité de Caen, une facilité d’entrée pour les livres et impressions de l’étranger en ce qu’il n’y a point de visites établies aux embarqueurs pour leur sortie, et aux déchargeurs à leur arrivée." [250] There was thus a fear of illegal imports, unloaded in depots with the complicity of seafarers, for distribution throughout the kingdom.
If the bales of books arrived by land or by sea, under article 90 of the regulation of 1723 and other subsequent ones, all shipowners or waggoners of "carrosses, coches, messagers & autres voituriers, tant par eau que par terre", were prohibited from delivering "aucuns ballots ou balles de librairie, imprimerie, ou estampes à quelques personnes que ce soit & [défense est faite] à qui que ce soit de les recevoir, & [le roi] veut qu’ils soient portés en la chambre syndicale, pour y être visités, à peine de mille liv[res] d’amende & de confiscation de chevaux &c." At each session of chambre syndicale, consignments of books which had been brought there during the previous days of the week, either in transit for other cities or intended for the booksellers of the city of Caen, were opened and examined – a procedure which slowed the flow of books.
Bundles of books were sometimes intercepted by the chambre syndicale of the Paris booksellers before they even left for their long journey to Normandy. On 11 June 1759, Leblanc, director of the coaches of Lower Normandy, wrote to M. de Malesherbes, director of the book trades (directeur de la Librairie), to request the delivery of copies of the Mémoire pour servir à la justification de la direction de la loterie de Cologne, detained by the chambre. Malesherbes replied that it was necessary to have the Mémoire examined beforehand, and on 12 June he wrote to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the Duke of Choiseul, asking for his opinion on the text. On 14 June Choiseul having declared that he did not oppose the publication, Leblanc was finally free to send the bundles to Lower Normandy[251].
G. Revolution or evolution?
To conclude our short sketch of the world of books in 18th-century Lower Normandy, it should be emphasized that this period is not historically isolated. If the year 1701 corresponds to the first of the great enquiries of the Ancien Régime on the book trade and at the beginning of a decade when the authorities introduced new regulations, in particular the decree of the Council of State of 21 July 1704 fixing the number of printers admitted in each locality of the kingdom, it is also the culmination of a series of reforms and developments initiated from the personal rule of the Sun King. Likewise, the storming of the Bastille in 1789 did not necessarily bring about an immediate revolution in the world of the book. In Lower Normandy, the proclamation of press freedom did not open the door to a crowd of new printers and booksellers eager to flood their fellow citizens with periodical publications and patriotic leaflets. Those already active in the book trade found the means to work with the revolutionary authorities and there are relatively few newcomers who join their ranks. In Coutances, on 30 January 1791, the lawyer Charles-François Agnès announced to the municipality that his eldest son Jean-Nicolas was going to open a printing workshop. Twenty-two years old, he did not complete an apprenticeship but would not exercise until 1804[252]. Two other sons in the Agnès family also became printers in the region: Denis, established in Mortain in 1795, and Pierre-Charles, assisting his older brother in Coutances.
The title of King's printer was soon replaced by that of national printer (imprimeur national) and we find for example the widow of Antoine-Jean Nicolle in this role in Bayeux, just like Gilles Le Roy in Caen in 1793 and Pierre-François Gomont the same year in Saint-Lô. The three départements newly created in Lower Normandy each have their own printer in 1790: for the Orne, Jean-Zacharie Malassis le jeune and, for Calvados, Gilles Le Roy. District printers also appear: the widow of François-Augustin Malassis l’aîné in Alençon in 1790, the widow of Antoine-Jean Nicolle in Bayeux in 1791. The local professionals also share out the titles of printers of the new institutions: for the general council (conseil général) of the commune of Caen, it was Gilles Le Roy, who succeeded Pierre-Jean-Aimé Chalopin in 1791; for the Bayeux tribunal, it was François-Clément Groult in 1791, and for the bishop of Calvadosthe same year the widow of Antoine-Jean Nicolle in Bayeux. The local societies of the Amis de la Constitution also employed a series of printers: at Bayeux the widow Nicolle, at Caen Pierre-Jean-Aimé Chalopin, at Lisieux Jacques Delaunay in 1791.
As for book fairs, they continued to be held as they had been for centuries but adapting to the new revolutionary calendar: those in Caen begin on the 29 pluviôse and 24 germinal and last eight days, and that of Guibray, in Falaise, begins the 28 thermidor for the same duration of eight days.
In 1781, the l’Almanach de la librairie listed 55 people from the book industry established in localities in Lower Normandy. In 1798, the l’Almanach typographique of Year VII (1798/9) listed 27 of these out of a total, probably incomplete, of 40 names; that is, more than 67% of the establishments listed already existed before the Revolution. Even in 1813, on the more complete list appearing in the Annuaire de l’imprimerie, it can be found that 29 of the 70 houses reported (that is to say 41%) survived the vicissitudes of the thirty years which had passed since the publication of Perrin's Almanach de la librairie in 1781. This remarkable survival rate shows that the Revolution of the French nation was not necessarily synonymous with revolution for the people of the book. They often learned to adapt to, and even benefit from, the changes.
References
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