The French Book Trade in the Ancien Regime, 1500–1791 [Reprint 2014 ed.] 9780674432581, 9780674432550

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THE FRENCH BOOK T R A D E IN THE ANCIEN 1500-1791

REGIME

THE FRENCH BOOK TRADE IN THE

ANCIEN

REGIME

1500-1791

iDavid

HARVARD

T.

Tottinger

UNIVERSITY

Cambridge,

PRESS

Massachusetts 1958

© Copyright, 1958, by the President and Fellows of Harvard

College

Distributed in Great Britain by Oxford University Press, London Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 58-5596

Designed, by Burton Set in Linotype Harvard

University

Bound

Printing

by Stanhope

Baskeruille

J Jones,

and printed

Office, Cambridge,

Bindery,

Jr.

Inc., Boston,

at

Massachusetts, Massachusetts

U.S.A.

PREFACE Source material for the history of the book trade in France before the Revolution exists in abundance. During the period itself there was much publication of laws, bibliographies, works of reference, craft manuals, and so on. Within the past hundred years, and especially about the turn of the present century, a mass of pertinent documents and other data has appeared in learned journals, trade magazines, bibliographies, general histories of France, and elsewhere. Among the more important of these items we should mention, first of all, Gallia typographica, which Georges Lepreux planned as a series of twenty-one volumes of biographical sketches and documents for the printers, type founders, binders, and dealers up to 1791. This project was interrupted by the first World War, after it had reached five volumes. In the second place, the twelve volume Bibliographie lyonnaise by Henri Louis Baudrier and his son Julien, covering the printers of Lyon, was published from 1895 to 1921. In 1903 Louis Radiguer issued an account of the master printers and their workmen in which he devoted the first section to the ancien regime. In 1905 Paul Mellottee brought out an excellent, though now somewhat antiquated, economic history of printing. Louis Morin at the same time wrote extensively on printing at Troyes. More recently, Georges Renard, Henri Jean Martin, and Paul Chauvet have resumed the tradition. The range of all this investigation and publication may be seen by a glance at the footnotes in the present volume. A great part of the modern books and articles have been based upon two enormous collections now preserved in the archives of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. The first of these, comprising the manuscript records of the printers' and publishers' guild, consists of 247 folio volumes, each measuring about sixteen by twentyfour inches and four inches thick. The second, the 133 folio volumes known as the Collection Anisson, was formed by the chief inspector of the book trade in the middle of the eighteenth century, Joseph d'Hemery, and sold by him to Jacques Anisson DuPerron;

vi

PREFACE

it is a well-arranged gathering of all sorts of trade memorabilia. Henri Omont made a summary checklist of the contents of the first collection in 1886; Ernest Coyecque made a rather full inventory of the second, which was issued in two volumes in 1899. During the 1920's the distinguished economists Prosper Boissonade and Lucien Febvre called attention several times to the fact that French scholars had provided a great amount of scattered and fragmentary material outside the archives that should be synthesized into an account of the early book trade. The neglect of this field is all the more surprising when one realizes that the trade in Germany and in England had by that time received adequate treatment. None of the works we have mentioned above parallels the present study. They are primarily, if not exclusively, concerned with the history of printing; we are here concerned with the more comprehensive publishing industry — or profession, if you will. In this context, printing is an auxiliary trade, a single element in a larger total. But since printers were the only craftsmen — except the binders for a rather long period — who shared with the publishers membership in the book guild, printing must necessarily claim much of our attention. This book is not, however, a history of French typography or type founding. Furthermore, since publishers are interested in many other fields than belles-lettres, this is not. a history of literature. Its main purpose is to survey the business of making, marketing, and distributing all kinds of books from the end of the incunabula period down to the Revolution, with rather incidental treatment of manufacturing questions. The point of view is that of the behavioral sciences rather than that of the humanities or the mechanical arts. The general plan is simple: we take up in succession the economic status of the authors, the masters in the guild, the journeymen printers and dealers, the apprentices, and (with less detail) the papermakers, the illustrators, and the binders. Human life, however, cannot be divided sharply into mutually exclusive areas, and so our elements should finally coalesce into a unified picture of a highly intelligent group of men communicating their thought to their own time and to the future through the instrumentality of a no less interesting group preoccupied with the technicalities of

PREFACE

vii

organization, management, selling, printing, binding, engraving, and papermaking. Fumbling and experimenting at first, they end by being the effective makers and carriers of the ark of civilization. The reader should be advised of a few of the mechanics of writing that I have utilized. I have given a good many dates, but only where clearness demanded an indication of chronology. The use of a roman numeral in connection with a man's name — for instance, Robert (I) Estienne, Fed£ric (II) Morel — indicates that he was the first or second of that given name. The footnotes are intentionally full in order to serve as a guide to future investigators. Finally, certain general topics — the value of money, the civil government, and the guild system — have been treated in the Appendices because they required more discussion than was advisable in the text itself or in footnotes. Three chapters have found earlier publication in slightly different form: Chapter XI, " T h e Protection of Literary Property," in The Romanic Review for April 1951; Chapter IV, "Censorship," in the Boston Public Library Quarterly for January and April 1954; and Section 4 of Chapter VIII, "Maintenance of Quality," in the Gutenberg Jahrbuch for 1952. I am grateful to the editors of these publications for permission to incorporate the material in this book. I cannot adequately acknowledge all the help extended to me in the course of this investigation. I must, however, mention with warm thanks Professor Arthur F. Whittem and Dr. Fritz L. Redlich of Harvard University; Dr. Vincenzo Cioffari of D. C. Heath and Company, Boston; Milton E. Lord and Zoltän Haraszti of the Boston Public Library; Professor Nathan Edelman and Professor Frederic C. Lane of the Johns Hopkins University; and Robert H. Haynes, Miss Alice Reynolds, and other officers of the Harvard College Library. I am especially grateful to Professor Arthur Harrison Cole of Harvard University, who through all the years of my research and writing has stood by with unflagging interest, encouragement, and friendship. David T. Pottinger Cambridge, Massachusetts November 195J

CONTENTS PART

AUTHORS I.

IN T H E

SOCIAL D E T E R M I N A N T S 1. Social Classes 2. Education Religion

II.

4

20

T H E A U T H O R A N D HIS P U B L I C

23

23 28

A U T H O R , PUBLISHER, A N D P R I N T E R 1. Author and Publisher 2. Author and Printer 3. Proofreading CENSORSHIP 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

V.

REGIME

5

1. Book Production

IV.

ANCIEN

13

2. Kinds of Books Published 3. Formats 39 III.

ONE

43

43 45

49 54

The Nature of Censorship 54 The Censoring Authorities 60 Malesherbes as Director of the Book Trade 66 Censorship Administration in Practice 70 Evasions of the Law 72 Penalties for Violations of the Law 76

R E W A R D S OF A U T H O R S H I P

82

1. Inherited or Acquired Wealth 82 2. Patronage 85 Ecclesiastical Preferment 90 4. Professional and Other Occupations 5. Income from Literary Work 95

92

χ

C O N T E N T S PART

D E V E L O P M E N T VI. VII.

TWO

OF

T H E

O R G A N I Z A T I O N OF T H E BOOK GUILD 1. 3. 5.

Number

of Workers

114

during the Sixteenth

Organization

during the Seventeenth

Century

Organization

during the Eighteenth

122

Century

The Guild as a Family Monopoly

136

7.

Trade Activity

138

outside the Guild

117

Century

6.

131

A D M I N I S T R A T I O N OF T H E B O O K T R A D E j. j.

The Chancellor

and the Director

5. Internal

149

of Quality

Management

156 160

PART

T H E

THREE

MASTERS

THE MASTER PRINTERS

173

1.

Craft

Development

of the Printing

2. Shop Equipment Capital Investment

179 182

T H E M A S T E R LIBRAIRES 1.

Development

Relations

184

of Bookselling

2. Capital Investment 3. Restrictions

and Publishing

on Booksellers with Printers

and Publishers ig4

with Other Publishers

6. Relations

with the Public

The Publisher's

184

190

5. Relations 7.

173

175

4. Shop Management

Wealth

201 207

146

of the Book Trade

147

Guild Prerogatives

4. Maintenance

X.

111

111

Organization

2. Police Inspection

IX.

T R A D E

T H E B R O T H E R H O O D OF ST. J O H N T H E E V A N G E L I S T

2. Earliest Trade Conditions

VIII.

BOOK

197

192

146

107

CONTENTS XI.

xi

P R O T E C T I O N OF L I T E R A R Y P R O P E R T Y ι.

The System of Privileges

210

210

2. The Struggle for Protection in the Seventeenth Century Practice and Theory in the Eighteenth Century 223 4. Final Attempts at Reform. 234 PART

FOUR

THE WORKMEN XII.

T H E JOURNEYMEN 1. Journeymen

241

and Alloues

241

2. Deteriorating Position of the Journeymen 3. Terms of Employment 247 Relations with the Masters; Wages 252 5. Workmen's Associations 255 6. Strikes XIII.

262

T H E APPRENTICES

269

1. Necessity for Apprenticeship

269

2. Prerequisites for Apprenticeship 271 Formalities of Induction and Discharge 4. Apprenticeship 5. 6. 7. 8.

244

Fees

273

276

The Master's Duties 277 Term of Service 278 Number of Apprentices 279 Social Conditions 281 PART

FIVE

AUXILIARY TRADES XIV. XV. XVI.

PAPERMAKING

289

BOOK ILLUSTRATION BINDING

310

324

CONCLUSION

341 APPENDICES

A. Money and Purchasing Power 351; B. Some Details of Civil Government 353; C. The Guild System 354 INDEX

357

216

ILLUSTRATIONS T H E UNIVERSITY Q U A R T E R OF PARIS facing page 96 Courtesy of the Harvard College Library. Engraving by N. de Fer; from Nicolas de La Mare, Traiti de la police, 4 vol. (Paris, 1705), I, 87, "Huiti£me plan de Paris." T h e book trade was confined to the University Quarter, though dealers might also have a shop in the Palais de Justice just across the river. T h e broad street running from top to bottom at the center of the map is the Rue Saint Jacques, where most of the bookshops were located. T h e Church of Saint Mathurin and the Church of Saint Jean de Latran were on this street half way between the river and the bottom of the map. T h e Sorbonne is just below these churches. C H U R C H OF T H E M A T H U R I N S facing page 97 Courtesy of the Harvard College Library. Engraving by Ransonnette; from Aubin Louis Miliin, Antiquites nationales, 5 vol. (Paris, 1790-1795), III, xxxii. This was the church in which the Brotherhood of Saint John the Evangelist held its religious ceremonies. Headquarters of the guild were for many years next door. T h e church was destroyed during the Revolution. MALESHERBES (1721-1794) facing page 112 Courtesy of Biblioth£que Nationale, Paris. Duplessis 29160.19. Engraving by C. E. Gaucher. Director of the Book Trade (1750-1763); author of Memoires sur la librairie et sur la liberty de la presse (Paris, 1809); beheaded during the Revolution. JOSEPH D'HEMERY (1722-1806) facing page 112 Courtesy of Biblioth^que Nationale, Paris. Duplessis 21098. Engraving by N. F. Regnault, ca. 1780. From 1748 until the Revolution d'Hdmery held several inspectorships and was popularly known as Inspector General of the Book Trade (cf. post, pp. 147-149). He formed the extensive collection of trade memorabilia which he sold later to Jacques Anisson DuPerron and which is now called the Collection Anisson (Β. N. mss. ί η η ς . 22061-22193). SEBASTIEN CRAMOISY (1585-1669) facing page r 13 Courtesy of Bibliothfeque Nationale, Paris. Duplessis 11081. Engraving by Gilles Rousselet, 1642. Consul or Alderman of Paris, Overseer of the Poor, Royal Printer (16331664), Director of the Imprimerie Royale (1640-1669), and the most powerful publisher of the seventeenth century (cf. post, pp. 198-200).

xiv

ILLUSTRATIONS

SHOPS IN T H E P A L A I S DE J U S T I C E

facing page 256

Courtesy of Biblioth£que Nationale, Paris. Blum 1065. Engraving by Abraham Bosse. This plate shows three shops in one of the corridors of the Palais. T h e one on the right is for the sale of lace collars and cuffs. T h e one in the center is a "gift shop" selling fans, gloves, ribbons, masks, etc. T h e one on the left is a bookshop; names of bestselling authors and books are written above the shelves, and the stock is also displayed on the counter. ΡA P E R M A K I N G

facing page 257

Courtesy of the Harvard College Library (Houghton Library). Engraved by Βίΐΐέ, 1776; from Josephe Jerome Le F r a ^ a i s de Lalande, Art de faire le papier (n. p., [1776?]), Plate VIII. T h e upper section shows, on the left, a workman dipping his mold in the vat of pulp; in the center, a man turning out the mold onto the felt; on the right, two men lifting the paper onto a pile for taking to the drying loft. Molds, presses, and other tools are scattered in the foreground. T h e lower section shows the drying loft in the attic of the mill, with women placing the sheets of paper on the racks. ENGRAVER'S W O R K R O O M AND SALESROOM

facing page 272

Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Giraudon 18301. Etching by Abraham Bosse, January 1642. T h e workman on the right is preparing a plate in taille-douce; the one on the left is making an etching. In the rear, three customers are looking over the display of finished engravings offered for sale. ENGRAVER'S PRESSROOM

facing page 273

Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Giraudon 18302. Etching by Abraham Bosse, January 1642. T h e two men on the left are inking plates; the third is pulling the impression. Note how different this press is from the familiar one used in typographical printing. Finished prints are hanging on the lines to dry.

Tart One

AUTHORS IN THE

ANCIEN

REGIME

A u t h o r s are the primary and in many ways the most important element in the publishing business. Without them there would be no manuscripts and none of the complicated processes by which the thought of an individual is transmitted to great numbers of contemporary and future readers. Our study must therefore begin with the author. Our task would be much simpler in many respects if we had anything like the statistics that are available for the last seventyfive or one hundred years. French bibliographers, however, have not yet produced any companions to the short-title catalogues which have proved so useful for investigations of the English book trade. There are, it is true, a number of statistical analyses covering restricted periods of time or special categories of books but none that attempt an inclusive survey of the whole body of writing published during the ancien regime. Valuable though such fragments are, we have been obliged to seek a fresh basis for our wider discussion of authorship. This basis we have fixed in a selection of six hundred biographies of writers included in Hoefer's Biographie universelle, Nic£ron's Hommes illustres, and the dictionaries of Moreri and Bayle. Two hundred are from the sixteenth century, two hundred from the seventeenth, and two hundred from the eighteenth. A large proportion were suggested by recent catalogues of French, English, and American booksellers, and these were supplemented from Thomas' catalogue, Tschemerzine, and other bibliographies, with a final random choice from Hoefer to make up the total. Only those were included for whom an adequate sketch could be found. In addition the list was checked to secure alphabetical distribution and chronological spread over each century. For each author the analysis covers his dates, place of birth and of death, ancestry, education, occupation other than authorship, and data regarding his publications. T h e latter include only first editions published in France during the author's lifetime; they omit second and later editions, the second of two formats

4

A U T H O R S IN T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

published simultaneously, collected editions, contributions to memoirs of learned societies, and pamphlets. T h e total number of titles is 1468 for the sixteenth century, 1899 for the seventeenth, and 1584 for the eighteenth through 1791 — a grand total of 4951. Further analysis also shows the format and the language (French or Latin) and makes a simple classification of subjects treated. No one should claim absolute uniformity and accuracy in the compilation of so large a body of material, nor is there any need for meticulous exactness since the data are intended merely as a guide in lending some precision to otherwise generalized conclusions. From our figures, for instance, we cannot find out what was being read in any decade though we can find out what was being written and published. W e cannot deduce anything regarding the purchasers of these books though we do learn a good deal about the status of the authors. W e can follow various trends among the more intelligent groups of readers but we have little indication of the vast amount of ephemeral publication which from the beginning kept the presses busy. There had to be an author, or an authoreditor, for all the anonymous chapbooks, dream books, story books, cook books, health hints, and so on, as well as the floods of controversial pamphlets on religion and politics. These authors were the harmless or the maleficent drudges of the trade. Their names, if ever they were known, have sunk into oblivion along with their work. For our purposes they must simply be left out of account.

CHAPTER

SOCIAL

Ι

DETERMINANTS

T h e social determinants of authorship — all those elements of life which concern the writer's position in the total population, the social and financial standing of his family, his education, and his religion — call for first consideration. T h e y not only place the author against his background but they have a direct bearing upon the size of the book market and the recruiting and enlarging of a body of writers to meet the demands of the trade and its public.

SOCIAL

DETERMINANTS

5

ι. Social classes Since there was no census in France until 1801, 1 population studies show wide divergences in their estimates of the totals for the ancien regime. The figure probably reached 19.5 million by 1500. 2 but the wars of religion reduced it to about 14 million in 1590. 3 Quesnay, writing in the Encyclopedic in 1756, placed it at 24 million for 1660, at 19.5 million in 1700, and down still further to 16 million in 1756. 4 Expilly gave a total of a little under 21 million in 1764 and just over 22 million in 1768. 5 T h e highest estimate of all is that of Lazowski, an inspector of manufactures, with 28 million in 1787.® On the whole the population was rural. Although Paris had grown from about 300 thousand in 1550 to twice that number in 1768,7 Lyon with 135 thousand was the only other city at the end of the eighteenth century with more than 100 thousand. Lille comes next with 67 thousand and Nimes with 50 thousand; Dijon was low with 20 thousand.8 Historians have adopted various classifications in their efforts to present a coherent view of French society before the Revolution; for our purpose it is sufficient to use the broad divisions recognized by the ancient assembly of the States-General: the First Estate, or clergy; the Second Estate, or nobility; and the Third Estate, comprising all the remaining inhabitants. The Estates, however, were classes rather than castes;9 there was continual movement both upward and downward from one to another, and no man was irrevocably bound to the rank in which he was born. T h e clergy included all the ecclesiastics of the realm from the ' H e n r i See, La France economique et sociale au XVIII' siecle (Paris, 1925), pp. 14-15. " L u d e n Schöne, Histoire de la population franfaise (Paris, 1893), p. 90. 3 Emile Levasseur, La Population franfaise, 3 vols. (Paris, 1889-1892), I, 284-288. 1 Encyclopedie, VII, 812-831, s. v. Grain. 5 Jean Joseph Expilly, Dictionnaire geographique, historique et politique des Gaules et de la France, 6 vols. (Paris, 1762-1779), III, 121-126; V, 808. •Schöne, pp. 215-216. ' A b e l Lefranc, La Vie quotidienne au temps de la renaissance (Paris, 1938), p. 165; Georges Mongredien, La Vie quotidienne sous Louis XIV (Paris, 1948), p. 29; Pierre Clement, La Police sous Louis XIV (Paris, 1866), p. 147; Expilly, V, 399· 8 Henry S6e, Histoire economique de la France, 2 vols. (Paris, 1939-1942), I, 352. 9 Joseph Aynard, La Bourgeoisie franfaise (Paris, 1934), pp. 3 1 3 - 3 1 7 .

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

6

REGIME

ten wealthy and powerful archbishops, along through the members of various monastic Orders, and down to the humble parish priests, vicars, and curates. T h e i r number was never very large, probably not more than 175 or 200 thousand in the latter part of the eighteenth century. 10 T h e nobility was made up of several groups of diversified ancestry. A t first it consisted of the almost completely independent sovereign seigneurs who shared the soil of France in the earliest Middle Ages. T h e i r descendants — the nobility "of the sword" — had, however, largely disappeared by the seventeenth century, and this rank was henceforth an aristocracy of wealth rather than of birth. Rich merchants and tax farmers, high dignitaries such as members of the Council of State and the provincial governors or intendants, and prominent members of the legal profession rose directly or through marriage into this new nobility "of the robe." During the eighteenth century there was a complete fusion with the older group. 1 1 T h e whole Second Estate comprised in 1789 not more than 52 thousand families, with an estimated 220 thousand members. 12 A l l the population not included in the clergy or the nobility made up the T h i r d Estate. It comprised various classes such as the peasants, the workmen in the towns, the squireens in their rural manors, and the taxpayers in general. T h e great mass enjoyed few rights or privileges; only an upper group among them, the bourgeoisie, had a significance comparable to that of the clergy or the nobility. It is this division of the T h i r d Estate, the bourgeoisie, that is from many points of view the most interesting element in the social structure of the ancien regime. These people had a strongly developed sense of the value of money. T h e y were thrifty. T h e y saved tiny profits, built them up with avaricious zeal, and became the first capitalists. T h e clergy and the nobility, of course, had far more 10

Sie, France

Histoire

de

dconomique,

la population

p p . 54-55; E x p i l l y , II, 365;

mondiale,

1700-1948

(Paris,

Marcel

1949), p.

R.

Reinhard,

101;

Levasseur,

I, 288-229. "Marie

Kolabinska,

La

Circulation

p. 74; A n t o i n e Fureti£re, Dictionnaire Noblesse; See, France societe

franfaise

economique,

moderne,

" L e v a s s e u r , I, 229.

2 vols.

des

ilites

universel,

en

3 vols.

France

(Lausanne,

1912),

(La Haye, 1690), II, s. v.

pp. 94-98; P h i l i p p e Sagnac, La Formation (Paris, 1945-1946), II, 5 4 - 6 1 , 169; I, 35-37.

de la

SOCIAL DETERMINANTS

η

money, but they were interested only in how to spend it; the bourgeoisie knew how to manage their funds and at an early date were often able to give their daughters twice as large a dowry as that of the princesses of the blood. 13 T h u s they could climb into the higher ranks and satisfy their love for social distinction. Even greater was their longing for security, a trait that accounts for their large purchases of landed property (always at bargain prices) and their liking for posts in the civil service. 14 T h e y had a vast respect for culture and learning; they filled their houses with good furniture and they sent their sons to secondary school and university. A t first their deep religious feeling was evident in an austerity of manners but in the seventeenth century this was lightened by the Catholic humanism of Fran£ois de Sales. One may accuse them of greed, rigidity, and snobbishness, but one must also admire their stability, their honesty, their shrewdness, and their ambition. T h e bourgeoisie, however, was characterized by sharp lines of demarcation between the high and the middle and the low strata. In the seventeenth century, after the nobility of the robe became a recognized class including the members of the Parlements and other sovereign courts, the high bourgeoisie consisted of the officers of bailiwicks, seneschals' courts, presidials, and provostships, and the bankers and other financiers; below them were the avocats, notaries, registrars, procureurs, and other lawyers. Most of the lawyers of the lower rank might be considered as belonging to the middle bourgeoisie, a group which sought honor and position rather than wealth. It also included the physicians, and especially the professors of medicine in the Universities of Paris and Montpellier, with the surgeons and apothecaries far behind. Here too we should place the University professors, wealthy printers and publishers, architects, and artists. In the petty bourgeoisie were the heads of the six powerful merchant guilds of Paris and other cities and the masters of various crafts in a rigidly defined scale of dignity. 15 T h e "high" group was rather a minority; the "petty," though made up of greater numbers, was rich, intelligent, and scornful of the artisans, the small shopkeepers, and the peasants so Rigine Pernoud, Les Origines de la bourgeoisie (Paris, 1947), p . 86. Pernoud, chapter 5; Aynard, pp. 245-247; Sagnac, I, 106. 15 See, France economique, pp. 161-165; Charles Normand, La Bourgeoisie franfaise au XVII' siecle (Paris, 1908), 211-232; Lefranc, pp. 129-135. 13

14

8

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

far beneath them in prestige. T h e distinguishing mark of all grades was that the members did not work with their hands; they enjoyed an income from their investments or they managed a business organization or they were engaged in a profession. And of the professions, the law was the most highly regarded. In 1780 Expilly calculated a total of 4 million for the bourgeoisie, including businessmen, merchants, and artisans.16 T o this should be added his figures of 300 thousand officeholders and magistrates and 95 thousand university professors, lawyers, physicians, and surgeons. T o indicate exactly the position of specific authors in this social pattern would require a mass of contemporary statistics which unfortunately do not exist. W e therefore turn to our group of six hundred men and from them shall seek to gain certain indications which may fairly be considered true of authors in general. T h e biographical sketches on which we rely do not state the family connections of 291 men (48.5 per cent). Of the remaining 309 there were 17 with relatives in ecclesiastical positions, 85 families among the nobility of the sword or in military or naval posts, and 207 in the T h i r d Estate. W e might naturally expect a larger number of boys to be influenced by the intellectual interests that must have prevailed in families where at least one member was attracted by the Church as a career. Actually we have included four who had no more connection than that of protege to a churchman: Claude Fauchet (1530-1601) to Cardinal de Tournon, Gilbert Genebrard (15371597) to the Bishop of Clermont, Gentian Hervet (1499-1584) to Cardinal Pole and Cardinal Cervin, and Lefevre d'Staples (14551537) to the abbot of St. Germain des Pres. Most of the others were nephews to prominent ecclesiastics. Restif de la Bretonne (17341806) was younger brother to a churchman. T h e family of Jean Calvin (1509-1564) had many connections with the Church. Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614) was the son of the Protestant minister in a village in the Dauphin0. Since the higher positions in the armed services were open to practically none but members of the Second Estate in the traM

Reinhard, p. 100.

SOCIAL

DETERMINANTS

9

ditional sense of the term, we may possibly include among the eighty-five families we have placed in this category nine that were connected with the army or the navy. Descartes' father was an officer who distinguished himself in the defense of Poitiers against the Huguenots; the grandfather of Joseph Scaliger (1540-1609) commanded the Hungarian troops for seventeen years; the father of Michel de Marolles (1600-1681) was a captain of the king's Swiss guards; Bernard Forest de Belidor (1693-1761) lost his parents in infancy and was adopted by an artillery officer. The father of Frangois Petis de la Croix ( 1 6 5 3 - 1 7 1 3 ) is also included because he was royal interpreter for Turkish and Arabic, a post that implies close association with the old nobility. Nine others, all but one of whom were born in the provinces, came from the lower ranks of the nobility, those impoverished families that had barely enough income to launch their sons on a career among the envied group at Court. In a number of cases it is rather difficult to say whether a family belonged to the feudal nobility or to the new nobility of the robe. There can be no doubt of Fran$ois Malherbe (1555-1638), who claimed descent from a companion of William the Conqueror and from a Crusader; nor Pierre Pithou (1539-1596), who traced his ancestry back to a Crusader of 1190; nor Rene Joseph Tournemine (1661-1739), w h o was a descendant of the Plantagenets; nor Jean Frangois de Neufforge ( 1 7 1 4 - 1 7 9 1 ) , whose family had been famous since the fifteenth century. Accounts differ regarding the father of Pierre Matthieu (1563-1621), some saying that he was a weaver, others that he was a nobleman at the court of Henry IV. All the others are described as of "ancient, noble family" or of a "noble" family obviously old and wealthy. In any case the old nobility shows up favorably with 27.5 per cent of the 309 authors whose ancestry can be surely fixed in our list, or even with 14.16 per cent of the whole group of 600. When we consider the 207 families that were definitely in the group of the bourgeoisie, we need not make too fine distinctions among the 94 whom we can identify with the law or with semilegal positions in the State. They may all be placed in the high bourgeoisie. In wealth, education, social position, and care for their sons they exhibit the characteristic virtues of this class. And the

ίο

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

sons themselves extended the family reputation as far into the future as literary prominence can provide for. In this group we may also include seven families connected with public finance, eleven fathers who were either physicians or surgeons, six who were apothecaries, seven engaged in the book trade, two teachers, and two architects. Nineteen families are described as "good," and three fathers as "well educated." There are eleven merchant families, most of them wealthy; outstanding among them is that of Jacques Savary des Bruslons (1657-1716), maintaining a high reputation in business from the middle of the sixteenth century. Six of our authors were sons of farmers, the small landholders (laboureurs) who were just on the borderline between bourgeoisie and peasantry. Some thirteen authors described as coming from "poor but honest" families may well be included among the middle bourgeoisie if only because they exhibit in high degree the climbing characteristics of that class. Rene Benoit (1521-1608) rose to be dean of the Faculty of Theology at Paris, preacher and confessor to Mary Stuart, and one of the two churchmen who gave instruction to Henry IV just before his conversion. Jean Fernel (1497-1558) paid his way through medical school by teaching and was finally recognized as "the modern Galen." Guillaume Postel (1505-1581), a village schoolmaster, had his money stolen on his way to Paris and was in a hospital for two years as a result of the beating given him by the thieves; and yet he lived to become a prodigy of learning with forty-seven books to his credit. Geoffroi T o r y (1480-1533) was the reformer of French typography. Edmond Richer (15551631) was one of a committee of four who drew up a schedule of reforms for the University of Paris. A n d in the late eighteenth century Jean F r a ^ o i s Marmontel (1723-1799) proved that the conventional success story was still possible. Finally, from the petty bourgeoisie there are twenty-four artisan families — far beneath the haughty lawyers and magistrates — among whom we find a wide range of trades. There are the sons of three cutlers, two goldsmiths, two printers, two watchmakers, two pastry cooks, a maker of purses, a fuller, a potter, a trunk maker, a pewterer, a cooper, a tapestry maker, a weaver, a worker in silk, a type founder, a glover, and a button maker. T h e father

SOCIAL

DETERMINANTS

of Ambroise Pare (1517-1590), the founder of modern surgery, was a poor trunk maker, and he himself began his career in the usual way of apprentice to a barber-surgeon. Bernard de La Monnoye (1641-1728) was the son of a rather well-to-do pastry cook who was able to give his son a good education. Moliere's father was either a tapestry maker or an upholsterer. Charles Rollin (1661-1741), the great educator and rector of the University of Paris, was the son of a cutler and himself a master in that trade. Diderot's family had been cutlers for two centuries before his birth. Beaumarchais (1732-1799) learned the trade of watchmaker in his father's shop. Most of the families in this group seem to illustrate the tendency of the petty bourgeois to live austerely and save money over several generations until at last the opportunity would come to start a gifted son on the perilous voyage to possible distinction. A n analysis of the geographical status of our six hundred authors confirms the theory of the tendency of modern civilization toward urban development. Our sources fail to give any indication of the places of birth and death for forty-five men or 7.5 per cent. A total of 440 were born outside Paris (73.34 per cent) but only 152 (25.33 P e r cent) died outside Paris. There were 109 (18.16 per cent) who were born in the capital, and 270 (45 per cent) who died there. T h e various figures are most conveniently shown in the accompanying table.

SIX HUNDRED AUTHORS Place of birth and death, by centuries 16th century

Born outside Paris; died ? Born outside Paris; died Paris Born outside Paris; died outside Born Paris; died ? Born Paris; died Paris Born Paris; died outside Born ?; died Paris Unidentified

57 47 52 8

13 3 2 18

iyth century

18th century

30

26

72

1

33 7 32

7 52 5 29

Total

Per cent of 600 18.83

190

31.66

137

22.83

20

3-34 12.34

10

2

74 »5

2

2

6

1.00

14

13

45

7-50

2.50

12

A U T H O R S IN T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

SIX HUNDRED AUTHORS Place of birth and death, Place of Total

Outside Paris In Paris Unidentified

birth Per cent of 600

summary Place of Total

death Per cent of 600

440

73-34

109

152

18.16

270

45.00

51

8.50

178

29.67

25-33

Such statistics indicate the drawing power of Paris from the beginning of the ancien regime. Here was the center of learning and culture where an author could meet warm friends or jealous rivals. An observer looking around in the crowded University section of the city, where the book business was concentrated, would probably find it difficult to pick out the writers from the rest of the throng. He might see a gay young blade come from the Court in all his brocaded finery to consult his bookseller, but most of the passers-by would belong to the academic group. In the sixteenth century and even to the Revolution the latter dressed in the medieval fashion — a rectangular flat cap, a sleeveless closed gown over knee-length breeches, a round-necked sort of cassock showing under a deeply curved front opening. T h e lawyers could be distinguished by the long, full sleeves of their black robes and by the white bands at the collar. T h e physicians in the earlier days would be seen riding a horse or mule through the narrow streets and would be noticeable for their red robes with shoulder knots and bands; but by the eighteenth century they would wear a coat of cloth or velvet with fine lace for the shirt frill and cuffs, and they would carry a hooked cane or a gold-headed stick. A great many would have a beard, long and full in the early days, or trimmed to a point in later times. In contrast to the simple clothing of our own day, all these inheritances from the Middle Ages seem bulky and constricting. W e must conclude that the author of the ancien regime, even if he were adjusted to contemporary living conditions, was never truly comfortable. His desk and chair were badly adapted for bodily ease, the light in his study was poor, the temperature of his house was either suffocatingly hot or disagreeably cold, the

SOCIAL DETERMINANTS

13

noises of the neighborhood were Bedlamic with hawkers' cries, frequent pealing of church bells, and the like. He wrote with a quill pen and muddy ink on rough paper, instead of with a noiseless typewriter. He had no secretary or research assistants. His few reference books were cumbersome folios. Nevertheless he did a long day's work, a tradition that persisted down into the eighteenth century when Bernard de Montfaucon (1655-1741), at the age of eighty-five, said that for forty-six years he had always spent thirteen or fourteen hours a day in reading or writing. 2.

Education

T h e reason there were so few authors from the lower strata of society is that education, in the narrower sense, was confined to the upper classes and really touched only the bourgeoisie. T h e eldest sons of noble families were usually given some instruction by private tutors at home and then sent to a riding school or a military academy, where emphasis was laid upon courtly behavior, fencing, dancing, and horesmanship, with a smattering of foreign languages, mathematics, geography, and history. 17 This was considered sufficient preparation for life in the army or at Court. T h e bourgeois family, on the other hand, which looked forward to public office, to a law career, or to a university position for its sons, was deeply concerned with broad education. T h e common people, the peasants, received either none at all or at best a very poor one. And it must be remembered that beyond religious training the schooling of girls was not much considered until Madame de Main tenon's institution at Saint-Cyr (1686-1719). Coeducation was never even thought of. In the absence of exact contemporary statistics on literacy, we have two estimates which in a general way reveal something of the state of affairs. A b o u t 1877 Louis Maggiolo investigated for the Ministry of Public Instruction the number of couples who signed marriage registers in 1686-1690 and in 1786-1790. T h e figures were based on reports from 15,928 parishes, which Levasseur thinks is enough to give validity to the results. Between 1686 and 1690 " Howard Clive Barnard, The French 1922), pp.

Tradition

116, 193-196; A r t h u r T i l l e y , Modern

PP· 370-374·

in Education France

(Cambridge, Eng.,

(Cambridge, Eng.,

1922),

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

>4

REGIME

there were 217,009 marriages in these parishes. A total of 93,391 couples were able to sign their names (63,068 husbands; 30,323 wives). T h a t is, 43 per cent could sign (29 per cent men; 14 per cent women). A century later there were 345,226 marriages. This time 74 per cent were able to sign (47 per cent husbands; 26.8 per cent wives). 18 A second view of the effectiveness of public instruction is contained in a short book De 1'education publique published at Amsterdam in 1762 without author's name but probably written by Diderot. He estimates that the total population of France was at least 18,000,000, of which about 2,000,000 were boys of school age, that is, from seven to sixteen years. Three hundred colleges, each with an average of 500 students, took care of 150,000, and the Christian Brothers and other organizations looked out for 30,000 more. T h e total of those who were getting an academic education was therefore only 180,000; and the total of those who had no teaching at all or only of the most defective sort was 1,820,000. Diderot considered this a most amazing situation in view of the importance generally attached in his time to public education. Of course he is talking about something very different from the ability to sign one's name on a marriage register. Both estimates, however, support the conclusion that the market for books was small, that the pool from which authors might be drawn was limited, and that the publishing of serious books was a luxury industry. 19 When we turn to the fortunate minority who were able to secure an education, the picture grows somewhat brighter. As soon as a peasant or an artisan or a petty bourgeois had saved a little money, he sent his son to join the sons of the higher bourgeoisie and the lower nobility at a college. T h e entering age was fourteen or even younger. T h e course extended over six years, with an additional two years of "philosophy." Scarcely half the students remained for these two years and then went on to the university. T h e only subject of instruction was Latin, the gateway to the human and divine sciences a boy might afterward study and the " L e v a s s e u r , II, 477-478; Ministfere de l'instruction p u b l i q u e et des b e a u x arts, Statistique

de

l'enseignement

primaire,

" B a r n a r d , p. 244; Denis Diderot 1762), pp.

161-164.

2 vols. (?), De

(Paris,

1880), II,

l'education

publique

clxvi-clxxi. (Amsterdam,

SOCIAL

DETERMINANTS

one accomplishment indispensable for a reputation as an educated man raised above the common herd. History, science, and mathematics received the scantiest attention and then only to illustrate religious truths. Religious exercises, which were a constant application of the knowledge of Latin, were frequent during the school day. Even the final two years of philosophy were devoted to practice in the use of Latin as applied to logic, metaphysics, morals, and medieval notions of physical and mathematical sciences. T h e prototype of all the universities was that of Paris, which was founded in the thirteenth century. During the sixteenth century many provincial universities were added, but during the next two centuries the only new one was Dijon (1722), which brought the total to twenty-two. T h e real center of scholarship and teaching, however, was the College Royal or College de France, a group of twenty professors established in 1530 by Francis I. Without buildings of its own for many years and without the right to grant degrees, this band of learned men consistently opposed the narrowness and sterility of the University. There were seven chairs of Greek and Hebrew, one of Latin, one of philosophy, two of mathematics, and one of medicine. Syriac, Arabic, Turkish, Persian, French literature, astronomy, chemistry, botany, canon and natural law, history, and ethics were also provided for. T h e roster of teachers includes some of the greatest names in European scholarship. Among the subjects taught at the universities, theology was by far the most honored and the most important. As Petit de Julleville says, theology was the queen of the sciences rather than the first of the sciences; and at Paris the Faculty of Theology, which met in the great hall of the Sorbonne, held a commanding position in public relations as well as within the University itself. T h e only progress in the natural sciences was led by the physicians.20 For many decades, it is true, they considered pharmacy and surgery beneath their notice, but anatomy and physiology eventually commanded great respect. M P. Frieden, Das französische Bildungswesen in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Paderborn, 1927), pp. 53-57; Louis Petit de Julleville, ed., Histoire de la langue et de la litterature frangaise, 8 vols. (Paris, 1896-1899), III, 670-687.

i6

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

It may be assumed that all authors benefited from the formal educational system. Most of them, as we have seen, belonged to the bourgeois class which set a high value on learning. Even though we have no data on the academic affiliations of 354 men in our control group of 600, the career of all of them indicates a training well beyond the elementary school. For many we can trace an actual connection with one or another of the great colleges — Beauvais, Clermont, du Plessis, Harcourt, La Fleche, Navarre, Montaigu, and so on. Fifteen were prepared at home by a tutor, and twentyfour had the advantage of extensive foreign travel. T h e greater number of those whose attendance at a university is noted were graduates of Paris; of these there were thirty-seven in the sixteenth century, fifteen in the seventeenth, and twenty in the eighteenth. In the ancien regime as always there were infant prodigies whose later careers fulfilled their early promise. 21 Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigne (1550-1630) knew Latin, Greek, and Hebrew at the age of six and translated Plato's Crito at ten. Charles de Bouelles (1470-1553) showed his studious habits at an early age. T h e great Protestant theologian Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614) spoke and wrote Latin fluently at nine and went on to a distinguished career at the court of James I of England. Rene Chopin (1537-1606) was a Doctor of the Law Faculty of Paris at seventeen, and Celse Hugues Descousu (1480-1540) at twenty-two. fitienne Pasquier (15291615), the complete personification of the sixteenth-century magistrate, was an avocat in the Parlement of Paris at twenty. Marc Antoine Muret (1526-1585) at the age of twenty-one became a professor of belles-lettres at Bordeaux, where Montaigne was one of his pupils. Charles Patin (1663-1693), like his older brother Guy a famous physician, could express himself easily in Latin at six. Pierre Aubert (1642-1735) and Fran$ois Mathieu Beauchäteau (b. 1645) published successful books before they were eighteen. A t twelve years Alexis Claude Clairaut (1713-1765) read a paper on mathematics before the Academie des Sciences. Ά Gifted children attracted considerable attention in the ancien regime despite the lack of psychological terminology. In 1688 Adrien Baillet published a most interesting volume, Des Enfans devenus cilebres par leurs etudes ou par leurs icrits: traite historique. It covers ancient as well as modern times and all countries. There are biographies of thirty-four French boys whom we would now class as geniuses.

SOCIAL

DETERMINANTS

17

Since our inquiry embraces authorship in all branches, we do not need to emphasize the long line of purely literary men. We should rather point out the less well-known group of scholars who from century to century kept France in the forefront of European learning. The list may well begin with Guillaume Bude (14671540), the most learned man in Europe at the beginning of the sixteenth century and the most remarkable representative of French humanism of the time. For generations afterward the doctors of the University never pronounced his name without touching their caps in reverence. His younger contemporary Hugues Doneau (1527-1591) had such a prodigious memory that he knew the whole legal code by heart.22 Other erudite jurists were Charles Dumoulin (1500-1566), Nicolas Rigault (1577-1654), and Louis de Hericourt du Vatier (1687-1752). The physicians include Andre Dulaurens (d. 1609), Philippe Hecquet (1661-1737), and the Count de Fourcroy (1755-1809). Among the historians are Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553-1617), Bernard de Montfaucon (1655-1741), and Le Nain de Tillemont (1637-1698). Charles du Fresne Du Cange (1610-1688) wrote a dictionary of medieval and low Latin and another of medieval and low Greek, both of which are in constant use by philologists today. The homogeneous character of knowledge and, in a way, its comparatively limited extent are indicated by a number of scholars who had the reputation of knowing a tremendous number of subjects. Symphorien Champier (1472-1533), for instance, wrote on history, medicine, astrology, theology, and natural history. T h e fifty books of Pierre Ramus ( 1 5 1 5 - 1 5 7 2 ) cover mathematics, history, theology, and editions of the classics. Jean Bouhier (1673-1746) spanned jurisprudence, philology, literary criticism, ancient and modern languages, ancient and modern history, translations, eloquence, and poetry. During the Renaissance, as Douglas Bush says of seventeenth-century authorship in England, 23 the ideal of amateur versatility was a matter of course; and in the eighteenth century, though there was greater specialization, the tradition was carried on by 22

Jean Pierre Nic£ron, Mimoires pour servir ά l'histoire des hommes illustres dans la ripublique des lettres . . . , 43 (44) vols. (Paris, 1729-1745), X X X I I I , 3 5 9 -

367·

83

Douglas Bush, "Seventeenth Century Authorship," The Mint, no. 2 1948), p. 144.

(London,

i8

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

such men as fitienne Souciat (1671-1744) and Jean Sylvain Bailly (1736-1793). SIX HUNDRED AUTHORS Books written in Total

Sixteenth century 1500-1509 1510-1519 1520-1529 1530-1539 1540-1549 1 55°-1559 1560-1569 i57°~1579

1580-1589 i59°-i599 Totals Seventeenth century 1600-1609 1610-1619 1620-1629 1630-1639 1640-1649 1650-1659 1660-1669 1670-1679 1680-1689 1690-1699 Totals Eighteenth century 1700-1709 1710-1719 1720-1729 1730-1739 1740-1749 1750-1759 1760-1769 1770-1779 1780-1789 1790-1791

books

Latin No. in

Latin

Per cent in

34 53 44 73 148 292 273 260 195 96

21 41 26 46 52 111 73 61 44 28

61.76 77-36 60.00 63.00 35· 13 38.00 26.73 23.46 22.56 29.16

1468

503

34.20

105 148 116 182 264 232 246 208 196 202

33 61 31 43 70 82 81 28 36 15 480

3143 41.22 26.72 23.62 26.51 35-34 32-92 13.46 18.37 7.42 25-30

1899

29 11 6 3 2 8 6 7 8 2

16.57 9.00 6.00 2.68 1.50 3-03 2-53 3-3» 4.12 5.40

Totals

175 122 100 112 136 264 237 207 194 37 1584

82

5.20

Grand totals

4951

1065

21.51

Latin

SOCIAL D E T E R M I N A N T S

19

T h e unity of knowledge was reinforced by the universal employment of Latin as a living tongue. It was the only language used by the servants in Henri Estienne's household and in Montaigne's boyhood home. More important still, it provided a means of communication between scholars of different countries as well as between those of various disciplines. It must be noted also that it was the language not merely for theology and science and mathematics but also for a large body of literary criticism and poetry. The extent to which it was used is strikingly evident from an analysis of the 4951 books written by our group of six hundred authors. Of this total, 1065 or 21.5 per cent were in Latin. In the decade from 1 5 1 0 to 1519 we find 53 books, of which 4.1 (77.36 per cent) were in Latin. T h e percentage for the whole sixteenth century is 34.2, and for the seventeenth, 25.3. The eighteenth shows a sudden drop to 5.2 per cent — an indication of the change in educational theory and practice as well as of the popularization of knowledge. The decline was further hastened by the fact that well before the end of Louis XIV's reign French itself had become practically the international language. T h e beginning of the long struggle between Latin and French for supremacy is to be found in the laws of the early sixteenth century.24 In June 1 5 1 0 an edict of Louis X I I pointed out that many abuses and inconveniences had arisen because judges had always conducted trials and investigations in Latin; it was therefore ordered that henceforth all lawsuits and inquiries were to be conducted in the dialect of the region where a trial was held. In August 1539 Francis I ordered that all laws, contracts, registrations, court procedures, and the like should be pronounced, registered, and delivered in French "and not otherwise." A story told by Crevier in his history of the University of Paris foreshadows the end and at the same time vividly illustrates the wide gap separating the educated and the uneducated. 25 In 1538 the University investigated various irregularities in the manufacture and sale of paper, a trade which had always been under its control. The syndic began the proceedings in Latin, just as he 24 Isambert, Jourdan, Decrusy, Recueil general des anciennes lois franfaiscs, 29 vols. (Paris, 1821-1833), X I , 596; X I I , 622. x Jean Baptiste Louis Crevier, Histoire de l'universite de Paris depuis son origine jusqu'en Ι'αηηέβ i6oo, 7 vols. (Paris, 1761), V , 328.

20

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

would in any academic matter. One of the papermakers who had been summoned before the committee thereupon called out, " T a l k French, talk good French, and I'll have an answer for you!" T h e dean of the Faculty of Medicine, shocked at this lack of respect, demanded that the offender instantly make public apology. It was so voted by all the professors. T h e culprit, however, was obstinate and made an appeal to the Parlement. T h e court suspended the vote of the Faculty but cautioned the papermaker that in the future he should use only humble and honest words in his dealings with the University and forbade him to use arrogant, insolent, or disobedient words. 3.

Religion

During the whole of the ancien regime France was a battleground for conflicting religious forces. These controversies gave rise to an incalculable amount of writing, much of it in pamphlet form, it is true, but a still larger bulk in full-length books. Any summary of French authorship must therefore consider at least briefly the religious situation of the period. It is often forgotten that one of the most influential writers of modern times was a French theologian, Jean Calvin (1509-1564), whose doctrines are still adhered to by a very large proportion of Protestants. But Calvin was not the only Frenchman of his era to turn away from the traditional point of view. In our group of authors we find at least eighteen Protestants, among them F r a ^ o i s Hotman (1524-1590); Pierre Ramus (1515-1572), who was killed in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre; Fran$ois Viete (15401613), the founder of modern algebra; and Bernard Palissy ( 1 5 ι ο ί 590), the self-taught potter who made a name for himself in natural history, physics, geology, paleontology, and chemistry. Some who became Protestants went back into the Catholic fold, but most of them remained firm in their new beliefs. Nevertheless the savagery of the religious wars no less than the bitterness of the controversial literature indicates how deep the feeling ran. And how nearly France was lost to the Church is evident from the flippant remark attributed to Henry IV when he decided to become a Catholic: "Paris," he said, "is worth a mass!" During the seventeenth century the two factions lived side by side in an uneasy

SOCIAL

DETERMINANTS

peace under the terms of the edict of Nantes (1598). After a hundred years Louis X I V , as part of his plan for centralization, forced conversion upon large numbers of the Huguenots, drove more than a hundred thousand of them into exile, and revoked the edict of Nantes in 1685. Thereafter France was officially and superficially a solid Catholic nation. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the struggles within the Catholic Church itself were scarcely less violent than the fight against Protestantism in the sixteenth. 20 One of the most powerful divisions, the Jesuits, was at the center of many of the quarrels until finally expelled from the kingdom in 1762. Another party, the Molinists, who were followers of Luis de Molina (15351600), a Spanish Jesuit, met resistance from groups that fought one another on various grounds. A third party, the ultramontanes, supported papal supremacy against those who upheld the doctrine of the Gallican Liberties, that is, that the national church of France should be practically autonomous and in temporal affairs superior to the authority of the Pope. Still another faction in the late seventeenth century was led by Fenelon and Madame Guyon, who spread the mystical teachings of Miguel de Molinos (16401697) known as Quietism; but when Fenelon's book, Des Maximes des Saints, was condemned in Rome through the influence of Bossuet, this controversy declined. 27 T h e most violent quarrels of all involved the Jansenists, a sect founded by a Dutch bishop, Corneille Jansen or Jansenius (15851638), who while professor at the University of Louvain wrote a book entitled Augustinus. This appeared in 1640, after his death. From the beginning his attitude on various matters of doctrine met with opposition, particularly among the Jesuits. Although his book was also condemned by the Sorbonne, seventy of the doctors appealed the decision to the Parlement. Once more a long series of conferences in Rome considered the business and in 1653 censured or qualified certain propositions. T h e disputes, however, went on until in 1665 Louis X I V ordered the clergy to submit to the official 26 Ferdinand Hoefer, ed., Nouvelle biographie generale . . . , 46 vols. (Paris, 18551870), X L I , cols. 320-323, s. v. Quesnel; Encyclopedie, VIII, pp. 448-450, s. v. Jansenisme; X V I I , pp. 381-384, s. v. Unigenitus; X , pp. 629-630, s. v. Molinisme. 27 Algar Griveau, Etude sur la condemnation du livre "Des Maximes des Saints," 2 vols. (Paris, 1878), passim.

22

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

judgment. Further decrees from the Pope in 1694 and 1696 would seem to have settled the matter. In 1702, however, it was suddenly opened again and the fury of the argument was increased by the fact that this time political rivalry between the Jesuits and the Parlement entered into it. Meanwhile Jansenist doctrines had been restated and amplified by Pasquier Quesnel, a priest of the Oratory, in his book Reflexions morales sur le Nouveau Testament, first published in 1671 and in an enlarged edition in 1693. T h e center of the revived sect was now the nunnery of Port Royal, near Paris, and its chief exponents were St. Cyran, Angelique Arnauld, and Blaise Pascal. T h e i r most powerful supporter was the Cardinal de Noailles, archbishop of Paris and the bitter enemy of Le Tellier, the Jesuit confessor of Louis X I V . Papal condemnation of Quesnel's and of Pascal's books increased the bitterness of the situation. T h e Pope gave his final word in 1713 when he issued the bull or constitution known, from the first word of the document, as the Unigenitus. It approved Le Tellier completely. Shortly afterward Louis died and the regent called a council which reversed the decision by sending Le Tellier into exile. T h e regent then persuaded Noailles and the Parlement to accept the bull, and so a kind of peace was restored for a while. Nevertheless the controversy over the Unigenitus continued to bring forth an incalculable amount of writing till late in the century. W e know the names of the most celebrated of the authors and we recognize the influence of Jansenism in the work of Racine and Boileau among others, but there is a large company of writers on the subject who are now forgotten.

CHAPTER

THE AUTHOR

AND

11

HIS

PUBLIC

Gutenberg's activities were an important element in one of those explosive periods in history when human beings have been propelled into a new relation to their physical and intellectual surroundings. A t just that moment a world on the brink of unprecedented expansion needed more rapid and effective methods of communication. T h e wealth of new information and thought that marked the beginnings of the modern world could not have

T H E A U T H O R A N D HIS P U B L I C

23

been imparted by the slowly moving pens of the traditional copyists and their collaborators in the monasteries. Realization of the possibilities in the printing process was not, however, an immediate development. T h e first demands upon it were for a larger and cheaper supply of university textbooks — medieval treatises in theology, rhetoric, and science. There was also a call for devotional manuals, editions of scholastic and mystical writers of the past, copies of the Vulgate, prayer books, and compendiums of canon law. By the turn of the century we begin to note the appearance of a few independent authors, but still no one perceived the real power of the press until Martin Luther started to use it to further his religious reforms. Among his contemporaries was a group of new teachers, men like Guillaume Bude and Desiderius Erasmus who also were not university professors but authors appealing directly to the public through the printed book. 1 Between them and, at the other end of the ancien regime, such authors as Diderot, Buffon, and Marmontel, lies the fluctuating history of the pre-Revolutionary French book trade. T o understand it as the industrial and commercial scaffolding of the intellectual life of the time we must consider two questions: first, how extensive the trade was, how many books did these various authors publish; second, what did they write about, how did the subjects of their books vary over the years? 1. Book

production

Since 1895 there have been several attempts to estimate the amount of book production before the nineteenth century. For the years up to 1500 —the so-called incunabula period — we can now make a fairly accurate count. On the basis of the work done thus far on the comprehensive Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke we can say with a considerable degree of accuracy that about 40,000 titles were issued in Europe in the fifteenth century. It is impossible, however, to allocate these exactly by countries, partly because more than three-quarters are written in the international 1 Henri Hauser et Augustin Renaudet, Les Debuts de l'dge moderne, la renaissance et la reforme, 3d ed. (Paris, 1929), p. 133; Jean Plattard, La Renaissance des lettres en France de Louis XII ά Henri IV (Paris, 1925), pp. 214-219, 11-16.

24

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

language, Latin. Only about 4.6 per cent of the total are written in French. 2 Koehler estimates that 810 were published in Paris and 315 in Lyon, a total of 1125. 3 For the numbers after 1500 we are reduced to sheer guesswork. T h e numerous bibliographies issued during the ancien regime and in modern times concentrate on special categories of books — rare and valuable editions, various branches of literature, notable libraries and collections, and so on. There has been no attempt to cover the whole field of authorship, and indeed any such effort would be impracticable. W e can be quite sure, however, that in comparison with the total of 12,050 new titles and new editions issued in the United States in 1953, the yearly figures for the ancien regime would seem ludicrously small. T h e most rewarding approach to the problem is to consider either the output of a certain publisher or the number of books in a definite classification over a significant period of time. T h e former method is especially useful for the sixteenth century though we still cannot be sure that all the titles of a given publisher have survived. Philippe Renouard, one of the great bibliographers of the nineteenth century, attributed to the Estienne family, from 1502 to 1664, a total of 1590 books, an average of just over 9 a year. Henri (I) Estienne (1460-1520) issued 123 editions in eighteen years, and Robert (I) Estienne (1503-1559) an average of 18 during his first twenty-five years at Paris.4 Simon de Colines (1480-1546) produced 99 in his first six years of activity and 31 each year between 1520 and 1525; between 1520 and 1546 he issued 734, an average of 28.® In an equal span of time — from 1557 to 1583 — Federic Morel issued 337, an average of 13.® Josse Badius Ascensius did almost as well as Colines; from 1503 to 1535 be brought out 708, an average of just a little over 22.7 Galliot du 2 Encyclopedic frangaise, ed. A. de Monzie et Luden Febvre, XVIII: La Civilisation ecrite, ed. Julien Caen (Paris, 1939), 22, 8-10. 3 Waldemar Koehler, Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der buchgewerblichen Betriebsformen seit Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst (Basel, 1897), pp. 32-33. 4 Elizabeth Armstrong, Robert Estienne, Royal Printer (Cambridge, Eng., 1954), pp. 9, 27. 5 Philippe Renouard, Bibliographie des editions de Simon de Colines (Paris, 1894), pp. 1-423. »Joseph Dumoulin, Vie et oeuvres de Federic Morel (Paris, 1901), pp. 161-234. 17 Philippe Renouard, Bibliographie des impressions et des oeuvres de Josse Badius Ascensius, 3 vols. (Paris, 1908), I, 60-63.

T H E A U T H O R AND HIS P U B L I C

25

Pr£, whose public was limited to the better educated classes, published an average of 4; his busiest year was 1531 when he issued 15, and the next was 1532 with 10.8 T h e unfortunate fitienne Dolet published 83 books in his short business career from 1538 to 1544, but in one of those years he issued no less than 35.® As for the second method of considering our problem — the totals for a single category of books — the longest range of figures comes from the annals of the Barbou family and extends from 1536 to 1820, a magnificent record of nearly three centuries. The house was founded at Lyon by Jean Barbou in 1536. After he died in 1543, his son-in-law, Balthasar Arnoullet, carried on for a few years for the benefit of the family. In 1573 Hugues Barbou left Lyon and established an office in Limoges, and in 1 7 1 1 Jean Joseph Barbou opened one in Paris. The business was to a large extent limited to official reports and school books, with a good deal of paper trade on the side. Such a list has a long life and needs few additions from time to time, and it is therefore not surprising to find that in the majority of years only one new title appears. The Limoges branch did not surpass its 1699 record of seven until 1721 when it went to nine. Only four times later in the century did it go beyond. The Paris house issued eleven in 1717 and 1723, twenty-two in 1754, and thirty-two in 1770. These figures were not representative of the trade in general; they indicate a sure-selling, conservative line on which the Barbou family had something of a monopoly. 10 In another category, accurate and revealing statistics have been worked out by Professor Geoffroy Atkinson for geographies and books of travel, voyages, and explorations, published between 1481 and 1609. T h e total of his list (those in French) is 558 items, but this includes a few second editions and editions published in more than one place. Only five appeared in the fifteenth century. Half were issued in Paris, a quarter in Lyon, and another quarter in provincial cities, Flanders, Switzerland, and Germany. He defines a book as a publication of more than fifty pages, a brochure ' A r t h u r Tilley, Studies in the French Renaissance (Cambridge, Eng., 1922), pp. 204-218. •Richard Copley Christie, £tienne Dolet (London, 1880), pp. 497-543. 10 Paul Ducourtieux, Les Barbou, imprimeurs Lyon-Limoges-Paris, 1524-1820 (Limoges, 1896), pp. 1 1 7 - 1 3 2 , 217-270, 321-370.

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

26

REGIME

as one o£ fifty pages or less. T h e proportion of books to brochures is three to two. During the years of internal peace just before the wars of religion there were six times as many books as brochures, but from 1560 to 1579 there were a hundred brochures and only sixty books. After 1598 we again find more than twice as many books as brochures. It is evident that during the war period the publishers did not want to risk their money on large books of slow sale. Further proof of this situation is to be found in the fact that in the twelveyear period from 1598 to 1609 as many travel books were published as in the twenty-eight years between 1570 and 1597. In 1574 and again in 1597 only one was published. But from 1598 to 1604 there were more than in the years of peace from 1550 to 1559. In the next five years, 1605-1609, there were as many as had been published from 1470 to 1550. These figures cannot be explained by any sudden increase of interest in America. In fact there seems to have been little curiosity about the New World at any time. Professor Atkinson lists twice as many books on the Turks and their empire as on America. T h e number of books on the Turks and Asia actually increased from 1598 to 1609 while the number on America decreased both absolutely and relatively in the same period. 11 Another valuable calculation is that which has been worked out by Mile Jeanne Duportal for the seventeenth century. 12 She notes that according to the catalogue of the Biblioth£que Nationale, the Bibliotheque du Roi contained 10,658 volumes about 1650, and 35,589 volumes about 1680; this is an increase of 25,000 in thirty years. In 1670 about 10,000 had been added through the purchase of an important private collection. When we subtract this acquisition, we find that 15,000 were obtained from other sources between 1650 and 1680. Practically all of these must have been deposit copies, that is, copies supplied by publishers as part of the legal procedure for guarding their publishing rights. Roughly, all this would indicate an average production of 500 titles a year in the third quarter of the seventeenth century. This 11

G e o f f r o y A t k i n s o n , Les Nouveaux

horizons

de la renaissance frangaise

(Paris,

1935). PP· 434-472. 7-1213 J e a n n e D u p o r t a l , £tude sur les livres ä figures idites a 1660 (Paris, 1914), pp. 66-70.

en France

de

1601

T H E A U T H O R A N D HIS P U B L I C

27

estimate, Mile Duportal points out, is supported by Louis Jacob de Saint-Charles (Pere Jacob), the first volume of whose Bibliographia Gallica was issued in 1646 as an attempt at a complete catalogue of all books issued in France from 1643 to 1645. T h e total for 1645 is 365. T h e difference between 365 and 500 is unimportant in view of the wide margin of error that must be admitted for both figures. Still another approach to our question is that of Daniel Mornet, who has analyzed the contents of five hundred catalogues of book collections that were offered for sale mainly between 1750 and 178ο.13 These catalogues represent the holdings of the most considerable collectors in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, though not necessarily actual purchases since some of the libraries were inherited in whole or in part. But the publication dates do presumably represent a wide span of the ancien regime and not merely current books. Furthermore none of them are rare book collections, and the owners are from different social classes in Paris rather than wealthy bibliophiles throughout the kingdom who concentrated on expensive specialties. Of the 500 collections, 330 have less than a thousand titles (not volumes), and 424 have less than two thousand. In 109 catalogues only "prinSIX HUNDRED AUTHORS Number writing in each decade

3 •ft, ο ο 3 Ό

1500-1509 1510-1519 1520-1529 153°-,539 1540-1549 1550-1559 1560-1569 ^ο-^θ 1580-1589 1590-1599

ο S; 34 53 44 73 Μ8 292 273 26ο 195 96

Λ

Ό 3 •Ο,

3 •ft.

ο -C Ο ο -ο

~

ο £ 9 4-5 18 9° 19 9·1 3* ι6 ·° 5° 25·ο 72 36·Ο 66 33° 72 36·0 66 33° 43 2ΐ·5

Q 1600-1609 1610-1619 1620-1629 1630-1639 1640-1649 1650-1659 1660-1669 1670-1679 1680-1689 1690-1699

ο £ 1°5 148 1ΐ6 182 264 232 246 2ο8 >96 202

ο £ 48 44 42 45 58 64 68 6Ο 72 72

Ο ο -ο

21.0 22.0 21.ο 22-5 29·° 32·Ο

34·° 3°·° 36·° 3®·°

β Q 1700-1709 1710-1719 1720-1729 •73°-ΐ739 1740-1749 1750-1759 1760-1769 1770-1779 1780-1789 1790-1791

ο £ 175 122 ιοο ιΐ2 136 264 237 207 194 37

7ΐ 35-5 59 29.5 5® 2 8 0 56 2 8 0 66 33·ο 97 48·5 85 42·5 85 42-5 53 26.5 23 11·5

"Daniel Mornet, "Les Enseignements des bibliothtques privies 1750-1780," d'histoire litteraire de France, XVII (July-Sept., 1910), 449-496.

Revue

28

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

cipal" works are listed; Mornet suggests doubling the number of items in order to arrive at the actual number in the collection. Now it must be remembered that the private home library was one of the indispensable ornaments of the bourgeois household, a mark of social distinction. In the absence of anything like our universal public library system, such collections were also of practical usefulness in any cultured family. Nevertheless two-thirds of them would seem to have been rather small, and less than onefifth could be described as imposing. As a further contribution to the problem the accompanying tables and the graph represent an analysis of the number and kinds of books represented in the work of our six hundred authors. W e find a drop in the number of active authors from 1590 to 1639 and again from 1710 to 1739, and the number of publications follows the same curve. T h e explanation is that each period was a time of economic and social distress in the country at large and of unsettlement and reorganization in the book industry itself. W e find, too, that readers in the ancien regime were supplied with books on all the subjects that interest the public of our own day; the only kind of book that we miss from these lists is the "juvenile," the book written specifically for younger readers. 2. Kinds of books

published

One of the most profitable elements in the publishing business was that large and indefinite class known as "popular" books. These were distributed by the hawkers in the city streets and by the wandering peddlers through the country districts who added books to the miscellaneous collections in their packs. Among them were the almanacs, which were to be found in even the poorest homes. These almanacs were epitomes of useful information on the calendar, weather, medicine, manners, and ethics, together with verses, riddles, proverbs, jokes, and anecdotes. T h e n there were brief manuals of devotion, saints' lives, carols, health hints, fairy stories, romances of chivalry, etiquette, the interpretation of dreams, prophecies, and the like. Printed on cheap, rough paper and adorned with crude woodcuts, these books were read on feast days to the assembled villagers by the local schoolmaster or squire, or they were pored over at the fireside, carried to the

T H E A U T H O R A N D HIS P U B L I C

29

fields, read and re-read hundreds of times, talked about on every occasion, and eventually recited by heart. Black with years of thumbing, they were carefully noted in every peasant's inventory SIX HUNDRED Curve

of production

AUTHORS

(4951 titles

=

100 per

cent)

I I I I I I ι I I I I I ι I I 1 I I I I I I I I I I I I II

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and bequeathed as a precious possession. There is no way to estimate the number of titles or the size of the editions, but we know that throughout the ancien regime they supplied a real need for entertainment and fostered some desire for education among the lowest classes. Gradually the petty bourgeoisie advanced to the

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32

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

point where they demanded short treatises on business arithmetic, stories of foreign countries, translations, and books of hours. Even on this somewhat higher level, however, estimates of quantity are impossible. W e can only say that all this kind of publishing provided much work for the printers and that it entailed the services of a good number of compilers or editors, men who were at least on the fringes of authorship. 14 Textbooks for the elementary schools made up another large class of books for which we have no statistical data. Those that were used for the study of French comprised alphabets, spelling books, books on punctuation, and grammars. Those for beginners in Latin were generally written entirely in Latin. Few of the texts for primary instruction in religion have come down to us; they were worn to pieces by generations of children. Among the educated classes the books in greatest demand were religious. This classification covers not only the Bible, systematic theology, liturgiology, and patristics but dignified works of devotion, controversial treatises, and the like. In the work of our 600 authors we find 379 titles in theology for the sixteenth century, practically 26 per cent of the total for that period, and 478 for the seventeenth, only a very slightly lower proportion for that total. These figures reflect the dominating position of theology in the intellectual life of the time. As Hauser remarks, theological disputes seemed, at the period of the Council of Trent, to absorb all the energy that men could devote to the search for truth. 15 T h e efforts of the Reformers to spread their point of view called forth equally vigorous measures from the Catholics. T h e bourgeoisie with their eagerness for information were delighted with the novelty of reading the Bible and the saints' lives in French. T h e Protestants held Calvin's Institutes in a regard second only to that for the Scriptures. "Under Louis X I V , " says Boulenger, "religious questions interested the crowd much as political questions today. 11

Dictionnaire

(Paris,

1951), p p .

civilisations

72

des lettres franfaises, 195-197;

(Paris,

Henri

ed. Georges Grente, II: Le

Pirenne,

La

Fin

du

1931), 248; A l b e r t Babeau, La

Ville

2 vols. (Paris, 1884), II, 276; Gustave Fagniez, L'£conomie Henri

IV

sous

sociale

Seizidme

Age,

(Paris, 1885), pp. 303-307; Joseph A y n a r d , La Bourgeoisie Hauser et R e n a u d e t , p. 529.

Steele

Peuples

I'ancien

franfaise

et

regime,

de la France

(Paris, 1897), p. 63; A l b e r t Babeau, La Vie rurale dans I'ancienne

p. 150. 16

moyen

sous

France

(Paris, 1934),

T H E A U T H O R AND HIS P U B L I C

33

They were discussed in the stagecoach, the ferryboat, the inn. Roy, an English traveler, remarked at the beginning of the eighteenth century that whereas in Italy it was considered impolite to ask strangers 'what faith they professed, in France one has scarcely exchanged three words with one's neighbor before this question is asked.' " 16 For the eighteenth century the figures show a considerable decrease in theological books. Our group wrote only 266 or about 16.7 per cent of the total for the century. T h e five hundred libraries analyzed by Mornet show only 10 theological items among every 165 books or a little over 6 per cent of the total, but these were not necessarily books written only in the eighteenth century. Actually he found four times as many works on theology as on travel, and almost five times as many as on natural history. Nevertheless he was correct in saying that whereas the book buyer of 1630-1680 was interested only in Jansenism or supernaturalism or the rules of poetry, the buyer of 1760-1780 thought much more about the metamorphoses of insects, the manufacture of silk stockings, the free circulation of grain, and the education of young people. In any case there was a great drop from 1645, the year for which d'Avenel estimated a production of 44 per cent in religious books. 17 History, with a total of 815 for our six hundred authors (16.4 per cent for the three centuries), stands closest to theology. Mornet found that out of every four books in his catalogues a little more than one was in history, that of France being most represented, then England, then Spain. The curt methods of the medieval chroniclers were of course speedily shaken off, and in the hands of such great historiographers as Mabillon and Montfaucon the story of the past became pure literature. Closely allied to historical studies were the important books on numismatics, beginning with Bude's epoch-making treatise on Roman coinage, De asse.19 In 1663 Colbert founded the Academy of Inscriptions and Medals (later, the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres), " J a c q u e s Boulenger, Seventeenth

Century

(New York, 1920), p. 283.

"Georges d'Avenel, Les Revenus d'un intellectuel de 1200 ά ιρίβ (Paris, 1922), Ρ· 3ΐ4· 18 Pierre Muret, La Preponderance anglaise, Peuples et civilisations 11 (Paris, 1937), 284-308.

34

A U T H O R S IN T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

which became the official center for studies in numismatics, history, paleography, and diplomatics. Economics, which made a start in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries with Laffemas and Monchretien, became a lively topic for discussion and writing under the influence of Quesnay, Turgot, and other physiocrats in the middle of the eighteenth century. One of the earliest uses of the press was in the service of philology, a subject which shows 406 titles for our special group or a little over 8 per cent of the total for the three centuries. Here we include grammars, editions of the Greek and Latin classics, and classical dictionaries. Such books were the primary interest of the humanist scholars — Bude, Lefevre d'Staples, Toussaint, Robert Estienne, Vatable, and Postel. T h e chief promoter of Latin studies during the reign of Louis X I I was Josse Badius Ascensius who printed and published many of the ancient writers and also wrote himself manuals of grammar and rhetoric. In 1507 the first Greek press was set up in Paris. Among the first works provided by the philologists were Robert (I) Estienne's Latin dictionary and Greek dictionary. These were accompanied and followed by a host of other dictionaries and syntheses. Durey de Noinville, who published an inclusive bibliography of dictionaries in 1758, lists 23 in the sixteenth century, 117 in the seventeenth, and 218 in the eighteenth up to 1758.19 Besides languages, the subjects include agriculture, love, anatomy, antiques, argot, hunting and fishing, law, etymology, finance, geography, mathematics, rhyme, and many others. Mornet's list gives top place to Bayle's dictionary; it was found in 288 out of the 500 libraries. But at the same time there was Mor£ri's great dictionary which developed from one folio volume in 1674 to a twentieth edition of ten folio volumes in 1759, and Furetiere's dictionary of 1690 in three folio volumes which became the Dictionnaire de Trevoux in eight volumes (1771). Nicdron's biographical dictionary (1729-1745) ran to forty-three volumes with a Supplement in one volume. T h e outstanding bibliographical work of du Verdier and La Croix du Maine comprised six volumes. These are merely samples of the incredible growth of such pubM Jacques Bernard Durey de Noinville, Table alphabetique des dictionnaires (Paris, 1758); the figures given above are only for books published in France.

T H E A U T H O R A N D HIS

PUBLIC

35

lications, culminating in the eighteenth century in the greatest enterprise of the time, the thirty-five volume Encyclopedic of Diderot and D'Alembert. T h e solid and valuable scholarship of the ancien regime is also exhibited in the large number of works on the canon law and on the civil law. T h e noblesse de robe was a learned group above all. T h e y had a profound knowledge not only of the letter of the law but of administration. Many of them could write with remarkable lucidity. Bodin, Cujas, Pasquier, and Pithou in the sixteenth century; Menage, Patru, and Richelet in the seventeenth; Bouhier, Henault, and Montesquieu in the eighteenth — these are still names to conjure with in French legal history. Furthermore, like the best lawyers at all times and in all countries, they had a great range of intellectual interests and wrote with authority on many subjects other than their special profession. Although our group of authors wrote only twenty-one books on educational theory, it must be pointed out that this subject always attracted a great deal of attention, even in the sixteenth century. In 1687 new impetus came from the publication of Fenelon's Tratte de l'education des filles. Fenelon here proposed to abolish the traditional instruction of the convents, which consisted of little more than reading, writing, and religion, and to set up a new program which would include history, arithmetic, and even domestic science. His ideas, together with those of Rollin and Locke, were widely discussed in the next decades, and finally came Rousseau's revolutionary £mile (1762). Pedagogical books increased fivefold at once; the quantity of talk and writing on education became enormous. D'Alembert, Diderot, La Chalotais, and dozens of reformers plunged into the fray. But Rousseau conquered his public once and for all and remained for generations the leading influence on the schools not only of western Europe but of America as well. 20 Much of the discussion of literary work went on in the salons of the time, a peculiarly French institution which from the beginning of the Renaissance exerted a tremendous effect upon all 20 P. Frieden, Das französische Bildungswesen in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Paderborn, 1927), pp. 57-69; Arthur Tilley, Modern France (Cambridge, Eng., 1922), p. 374; Frederic Ε. Farrington, French Secondary Schools, 2d ed. (New York, 1915),

P- 37·

36

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

21

facets of thought and writing. In these polite assemblies poetry was the favorite topic, but men like Ambroise Pari and Bernard Palissy in the early days started a tradition of versatility. 22 At first, translations from the classics, medieval romances of chivalry, and questions of literary style and of etiquette drew eager attention. T h e next step was imitation of the authors who were read, and thus the fashionable world made its first excursions into the field of belles-lettres. By 1660 literature had completely conquered its public, writers abandoned their attitude of intellectual snobbishness, the theater became a vigorous institution; in short, the way was open for the great classical period under Louis XIV. 2 3 For the more serious and technical branches of authorship encouragement came through the medium of the various Academies which flourished in the provinces as well as in Paris. The Academie Fra^aise, founded by Richelieu in 1635, undertook philological research for its program and in 1694 completed the official dictionary of French. Colbert was an active supporter of its work, and he extended his patronage of research and authorship by founding several other Academies. In contrast to the universities, which concentrated most of their work on teaching, the Academies were devoted to investigation and to publication of the results. The favoring climate established for authorship by the Academies and the salons was most important for French scholarship and literature. In the rough society of the sixteenth century, letters would have had little chance for development without the protection afforded by these groups. T h e totals for poetry in our analysis are, it is true, much below those for theology and history, but to them should be added the figures for belles-lettres (which includes essays and literary criticism), for romances, and for translations. A very large proportion of the poetry was in Latin; in the early 21 Jules Bertaut, La Vie litteraire en France au XVIII' siecle (Paris, 1954), pp. 18-76. 22 Francois Decrue de Stoutz, La Cour de France et la societe au XVI' siecle (Paris, 1888), pp. 1 5 8 - 1 6 1 ; Abel Lefranc, La Vie quotidienne au temps de la renaissance (Paris, 1938), pp. 53-59, 66-70. 23 Georges Mongridien, La Vie litteraire au XVII" siecle (Paris, 1947), pp. 1 5 3 - 1 5 5 ; Casimir Stryienski, The Eighteenth Century (New York, 1916), pp. 3 3 0 335; Philippe Sagnac, La Formation de la societe franfaise moderne, s vols. (Paris,

1945' '94®)> Π, 101> 148-155·

T H E A U T H O R A N D HIS P U B L I C

37

decades, especially, the amount of neo-Latin verse rivaled the amount in French. Romances of chivalry and adventure were very popular in the first half of the sixteenth century. In this period there were eighty adaptations of medieval tales, some of them running into many editions. T h e most successful was Amadis de Gaule, translated from the Spanish about the middle of the century. From 1509 to 1610 there were one hundred and fifty-seven sentimental romances. Most of the sixteenth century shows only one or two volumes in each year, but in 1597 six appeared, and in 1599 ten. T h e y were written for salon audiences, and the characters were all aristocratic. 24 T h e authors were not professional writers; often they did not reveal their names and they insisted that they wrote merely as a pastime. After the taste for this sort of literature spread to the general public, the output increased through the seventeenth century. T h e number from decade to decade is shown in the following count of the titles listed in Professor Williams's bibliography: 25 1600-1609 1610-1619 1620-1629 1630-1639 1640—1649

112 72 157 101 81

1650-1659 1660-1669 1670-1679 1680-1689 1690-1699

61 125 164 159 188

By this time authorship was no longer an esoteric matter, of interest only to profound scholars in their closets or to witty aristocrats in their drawing rooms. T h e audience for literary work was greatly increased by the development of the theater and the consequent demand for printed plays. A l l forms of writing shared the rush of prosperity — art, travel books, education, and orations. T h e oration, indeed — a form now almost completely neglected — shows on our list the significant totals of thirteen in the sixteenth 24 Lefranc, pp. 98-103; Gustave Reynier, Le Roman sentimentale avant I'Astree (Paris, 1908), pp. 359-387, 263-268; Auguste Bailly, La Vie litteraire sous la renaissance (Paris, 1952), pp. 193-216. 25 R a l p h C. Williams, Bibliography of the Seventeenth Century Novel in France (New York, 1931), pp. 109-261. For review and criticism of this book the reader should refer to an article by Franklin P. Rolfe appearing in P M L A , vol. 49, December, 1934, pp. 1071-1086.

38

A U T H O R S IN T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

century, thirty-one in the seventeenth, and thirty-eight in the eighteenth. T h e Academies meanwhile had been further developing the strong traditions of scientific writing. In the sixteenth century no scientist was a specialist in a single field, much less in only a section of a field, but the beginnings of concentration are evident in the work of Pare, Palissy, and Alciat. Early in the seventeenth century, however, the development of mathematics made advances possible in physics and mechanics and astronomy. How different the outlook of the time was from ours is to be seen in the great number of works in astrology that were published from 1520 to 165ο.2® These books, almost all of which were in Latin, discussed prophecy, dreams, divination, alchemy, magic, and sorcery. T h e astronomers were also astrologers, and it is a melancholy fact that J. B. Marin, a professor at the College Royal who died in 1656, practiced astrology and predicted future events. Demonology was a science to which many books were devoted; Mornet found 103 items of this sort in the catalogue of the library of Sandras, an avocat in the Parlement, 17 of these titles having been published between 1706 and 1752. Sorcerers were no longer burned as they had been even after 1660, but everyone read and talked about them and feared them. T h e real progress toward modern scientific conceptions began with the work of R e n i Descartes in the middle of the seventeenth century. T h e authorities quickly began to distrust his philosophy and its implications and by decree of 4 August 1671 forbade the teaching of it at Paris. Nevertheless by 1690 all enlightened people were Cartesians and therefore eager readers of Malebranche, Simon, and Bayle. Now commenced a half century of struggle between the system of Descartes and that of Locke and Newton, a struggle that resulted in victory for the latter. Buffon and Reaumur, D'Alembert and Maupertuis and Fontenelle were the great scientific writers of the eighteenth century. T h e "philosophes," who were popularizers of science rather than metaphysicians, diffused the new point of view and the new knowledge among general audiences. A brief five years saw the publication of Condillac's Essai sur l'origine des connaissances humaines (1746), Vau26

Sagnac, I I , 331; I, 19.

T H E A U T H O R A N D HIS P U B L I C

39

venargues' Introduction a la connaissance de l'esprit humaine (1746), Montesquieu's Esprit des lois (1748), Buffon's Theorie de la terre and the first volume of his Histoire naturelle (1749), the first volume of the Encyclopedie (1751), and Voltaire's Le Steele de Louis XIV (1751). Theology and scholastic metaphysics were now swept aside; our analysis shows a drop from 478 to 226 titles in theology, and for the first time it is second on the list. Poetry and drama drop off by about one-half, though works in belleslettres show a slight increase. Editions of the classics and philological studies in general drop by two-thirds. Large increases are noticeable in history, medicine, natural science, and political science. Mornet found that in twenty-three of his libraries the works in natural history were more than one-fifth of each total. 3. Formats Shifts in the subject matter of books and in literary forms reflect variations in taste and intellectual interests; no one at present writes Latin poetry, and our prognostications are not published in the form of astrological treatises. Similarly there have been decided shifts of preference in regard to the shape, size, and general appearance of books, what the trade calls the format. In this point both author and publisher are vitally concerned. Every author has a more or less definite idea of what he considers the appropriate or attractive or salable appearance of his work. T h e publisher, on the other hand, must decide whether the format envisaged by the author is likely to appeal to the public and whether the cost of manufacture in that format will come within his allocation of capital outlay for the title. Purchasers have always been accustomed to associate certain vague but nevertheless recognized dimensions with the subject matter of a volume and with the price asked for it. Modern procedures of papermaking and printing have given us a great deal of freedom in producing books with a predetermined page size. In the ancien regime, however, the printer was more rigidly confined by the size of the sheet of paper he used. Paper was made in a large number of sizes designated by the general terms colombier, raisin, couronne, and so on; but in the absence of any national standards, the dimensions of these sizes or brands differed widely from one period to another and from one paper

40

A U T H O R S IN T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

mill to the next. It is therefore impossible to attach definite and uniform measurements to the terms conventionally used in describing various formats. T h e early booksellers got over the difficulty by merely using the term large, medium, or small. T h e first use of more exact terms is found in a catalogue issued by Aldus of Venice in 1541. His terms quickly became established and persist to our own day. T h e largest size, with certain rare exceptions such as atlases, is known as a folio. It originally resulted from making a single fold in a sheet of paper, thus producing four pages, two printed at one time in the first impression on the press and then two printed on the reverse side of the sheet. In the fifteenth century the paper most generally used measured from 45-61 cm by 31-44 cm and the folio page might therefore be anywhere from 44 by 30.5 cm to 30 by 22.5 cm; the average in the sixteenth century was from 32 to 36 cm high and from 21 to 23 cm wide. T h e next smaller size, the quarto, resulted from folding the paper twice, thus giving eight pages; the average measurements were from 21 to 23 cm high by from 16 to 18 cm wide. T h e octavo, with three folds or sixteen pages, averaged 16-18 cm by 10-11.5 cm; the sextodecimo — four folds, thirty-two pages — was 10-11.5 by 8-9 cm; the duodecimo, which involved a more complicated arrangement of the type on the press and some difficulty in folding, did not come into general use till the second half of the sixteenth century and it then averaged 12.5-13.7 by 6.5-7.2 cm. SIX HUNDRED AUTHORS Formats Sixteenth Titles Folio

century per cent in century 13.14

of

books

Seventeenth Titles

5.00

32-35 27.64

307 440

544

28.64

23

1.21

736 22

52-5°

524

lamo

773 66

4·63

i6mo and smaller

115

7-83

Octavo

Titles

century per cent in century

19-38

193 615

193 321

Eighteenth

79

21.90

Quarto

century

per cent in century 10.16

27-77 46.46 1 -39

During the eighteenth century French printers used larger sheets in their work, and the sizes of the various formats are therefore increased. T h e dimensions of the ordinary books at the end of

T H E A U T H O R AND HIS P U B L I C

41

our period are: folio, 40 by 26 cm; quarto, 26 by 20 cm; octavo, 20 by 13 cm; i2mo, 17 by 10 cm; i6mo, 13 by 10 cm; i8mo, 12.7 by 8 cm.27 Since the whole purpose of the first printers was to counterfeit the medieval manuscripts, the folio was the format they most generally used. As a matter of tradition it long remained the standard for theological, historical, and legal works. The percentages in our analysis for the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are about constant and then there is a decided drop in the eighteenth. The books of Josse Badius Ascensius are generally folios or quartos, less than 70 out of 708 being octavos. The earliest books of Simon de Colines follow this pattern, the folios giving way to quartos, and the octavos and sextodecimos coming later.28 Except for these two printers preference seems to have begun in favor of the octavo and to have settled pretty much in that direction. This may be accounted for by the greater ease in setting and in reading presented by the octavo. Furthermore, the imposition, register, and folding were comparatively simple. Of the forty titles published by Jean Barbou of Lyon between 1536 and 1543 there are thirty-one octavos, and seven sextodecimos, but only one quarto and one folio. T h e books of Hugues Barbou of Limoges between 1573 and 1599 show one folio, one quarto, seventeen octavos, six duodecimos, and two sextodecimos.29 The sextodecimo, it will be noted, is merely a double octavo and as such presented no greater pressroom problems. It was accordingly a satisfactory answer to the demand for small books. T h e figures in our analysis suggest that it was most popular in the sixteenth century, but along with the slightly smaller i8mo it was much used toward the end of the eighteenth century. The duodecimo could not have been an easy format for the early printers and binders to handle. Mortet found French examples as early as 1531 but considers that it was rare up to 1575. During the seventeenth century it was popularized by the Elzevirs and eventually became the usual size for sentimental romances. Reynier points out that it was just suited to the needs of a public 27 28 28

Charles Mortet, Le Format des livres (Paris, 1925), passim. Renouard, Josse Badius Ascensius, p. 64; Simon de Colines, pp. 452-453. Ducourtieux, pp. 105, 147.

42

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

that had not developed skill in sustained reading and yet it was sufficient for authors who doubtless would have found difficulty in filling a larger canvas.30 T o complete the picture and indicate still· another aspect of the relation between the author and his publisher we must take into account the element of the length of the book. Of the 193 titles issued in folio on our list for the sixteenth century, fourteen were in two volumes, seven in three, and two in four. Of the 193 for the seventeenth century twenty-three were in two volumes, eight in three, and five in four or more. Of the seventy-nine for the eighteenth century, eight were in two volumes, eight in three, and thirteen in four or more. A slight reflection will indicate the enormous number of ems of composition, from the printer's point of view, that is indicated by these data. The other formats show a marked tendency to increase in the number of volumes for a title. In the seventeenth century there were thirteen quartos in two volumes, six in three, and nine in four or more; the corresponding figures for the eighteenth century are forty-two, fourteen, and seventeen. The octavos in the seventeenth century show twenty-eight in two volumes, seven in three, and thirteen in four or more; these totals increased in the eighteenth century to forty-six, eleven, and twenty-four. T h e slim duodecimos began to gather bulk during the seventeenth century by a process of uniting the brief novels into rather larger collections. The Ariane appeared in 1632 in two volumes, Polexandre (1629-1632-1637) in five, Cassandre (1642-1650) in ten, and Cleopatre (1647-1658) in twelve. As between the seventeenth- and the eighteenth-century duodecimos in our analysis, the figures increase from thirty-two to a hundred and thirty-two for twovolume works, from ten to forty for those in three volumes, and from eleven to seventy-eight for those in four or more. Here again we have concrete evidence of the great changes in the book market during the ancien regime. At first the demand was for the weighty, multivolumed folio or quarto or octavo suited only to the limited needs of scholarship; eventually it was centered on a handy book for reading by the general public. At 1,0

Reynier, pp. 349-358.

AUTHOR, PUBLISHER, AND PRINTER

43

first the typical author was an austere, black-robed savant aloofly pacing the circumscribed confines of the University quarter; in the end he was an active member of society writing books on matters of immediate interest and insisting that his work be issued in a fashion designed for the convenience of a large and eager public.

CHAPTER

AUTHOR,

III

PUBLISHER,

AND

PRINTER

1. Author and publisher B e n j a m i n Franklin tells us in his autobiography that on arriving in Philadelphia he called upon Aquila Rose, whom he found standing at the case in his printing shop and composing a long poem in type. Here was no manuscript between author and printer and publisher. Rose was using type as most authors use pen and ink, and he intended to sell copies of the poem himself as soon as he finished the presswork. T h e situation was exactly the same as that in most European printing shops two hundred and more years earlier. Even today the pattern may be recognized beneath the complications of business practice; for several important publishing houses, such as Doubleday, Morrow, and Rinehart — to mention only American firms — originated with the writings of a member of the family. All this is in the medieval tradition, the practice of the monastic scriptorium, with type replacing the quill and with the press replacing the laborious copying of the scribes. How strong that tradition was throughout the ancien regime in France is evident from the names that might be cited of men who were authors as well as printers and publishers. Among the more prominent were Josse Badius Ascensius, Nicolas and Pierre Bonfons, Jean de la Caille, Charles Guillaume le Clerc, Andr£ Cramoisy, £tienne Dolet, the Estiennes, Martin Dominique Fertel, Jean Baptiste Osmont, Charles Joseph Panckoucke, Geoffroi Tory, and Antoine Vitr£.

44

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

In Paris for many decades authors, printers, and publishers lived and worked closely together in the narrow limits of the university quarter. Like his predecessors the author carried on some other profession; the writing of books was a by-product of his daily routine and he neither got nor expected to get any special remuneration for this part of his activity. 1 T h e tradition persists in the academic and scientific publishing of our own day; the scholar does not write his solid and enduring treatises for profit but for the dissemination of truth. Even when the reading public grew large and business became self-conscious, the formalities of the transfer of a manuscript remained extremely simple. T h e author merely took his work to a publisher and sold it outright for a sum generally paid on the spot. Occasionally in the eighteenth century a famous author might arrange for an equal division of the profits, but a poor author could not wait to see how he would fare at some time in the future. Diderot gives us a statement of the procedure in many cases: " T h e author called upon the publisher and outlined his work; they agreed upon the price, the format, and other conditions. Conditions and price were stipulated in a document under private seal by which the author conveyed his work, in perpetuity and without return, to the publisher and his representatives." 2 T i l l near the close of our period the publishers were able to resist any change in this system of payment. T h e y pointed out the risks they ran in the general course of business, the possibility or even certainty of competition from pirated editions if a book were successful, and the necessity for getting back all or nearly all of their investment by the sale of the first edition. On the other hand they failed to stress the fact that they had a complete monopoly of the book trade, that unless an author were a printer member of the guild, he was not allowed to print or sell his own works. T h e law of 16 June 1618 was emphatic on this matter, forbidding authors even to advertise their own books; and numerous later laws and judgments confirmed the prohibition. 3 Maurice Pellisson, Les Hommes de lettres au XVIII' siecle (Paris, 1911), p. 76. p. 96. 3 Isambert, Jourdan, Decrusy, Recueil general des anciennes lois franfaises, 29 vols. (Paris, 1821-1833), XVI, 119; Claude Saugrain, Code de la librairie et de l'imprimerie (Paris, 1744), titre 2, art. 1. 1

a Pellisson,

AUTHOR, PUBLISHER, AND PRINTER

45

T h e consequence was that the publishers tended to treat the authors with disdain. 4 T h e Benedictines, for example, who had started their great history of French literature, could hardly get an answer to their letters from their publisher; and the replies, when they did come, were anything but courteous. Voltaire, who could be exceedingly generous to his publishers and to whom the whole trade owed a tremendous amount of gratitude, tried to secure a complimentary set of the Encyclopedic, to which he had contributed; but his request was treated with downright impoliteness. Diderot was one of the few authors who dared to meet insolence with a pride of his own. When Panckoucke approached him in a condescending fashion regarding the proposed new Encyclopedic methodique, Diderot told him to go to the devil and take the work along with him. T h e treatment accorded to writers of less importance can easily be imagined. There were, of course, happy exceptions to the rule. T h e publisher Antoine Urbain Coustelier co-operated on terms of close friendship with one of his authors, Dom Calmet, in a lively correspondence over several years. In 1717 he offered to look up references for Calmet. A little later he gave Calmet various rare books, on which he made bibliographical comments. In 1719 he gave advice on the writing of Calmet's Bibliotheque ecclesiastique and went on to outline several publishing ideas he had in mind. In 1721 he sent a sample copy of the first volume of Coustant's Lettres des papes. T h e intimacy between the two men reveals an ideal situation. 5 2. Author and printer All copy submitted to the printer was written by hand in ink. T h e author procured his materials from a stationer's shop, which resembled those of our own day in many particulars. In 1596 there were twelve large shops in Paris for the sale of pens, and in 1608 there were four shops near the University that carried writing paper, notebooks, ink, pencils, pens, wax, and so on. Pens were quills of the goose, swan, or raven; early in the eighteenth cen•Pellisson, pp. 126-130. 6 Henri Stein, "Antoine-Urbain Coustelier, imprimeur-libraire ä Paris," Bulletin de la society de l'histoire de Paris, 1892, pp. 180-189.

46

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

tury Andre Dalesme invented metal pen points but these did not supplant the older quills. W e have numerous receipts for making both black and colored ink; the most popular kind was known as de la petite vertu. It was sold by the pint, the chopin (nearly a pint), or the gallon, in a container made of boiled leather. Lead pencils were much used. Bread was the regular form of eraser, but rubber became more general in the reign of Louis X V I . Wax, imported mainly from Spain, Holland, and the Baltic, was in general use from the beginning of the seventeenth century for the sealing of letters. T h e form, quality, and size of paper varied according to the writer's purpose. Parchment was, of course, too expensive for ordinary use, and it was gradually restricted to governmental documents.® Although penmanship was universally taught in the elementary schools, the handwriting of scholars was notoriously poor and was the cause of much trouble to the printers. Compositors developed remarkable skill in deciphering manuscript, especially if all the copy were written by one person. Nevertheless there was constant difficulty with erasures, interlineations, marginal interpolations, and corrections that did not fit in with the original. In 1539 a law was passed that required authors to furnish neat and correct copy, and this was renewed in 1571 and 1572.7 There is a curious variation in the preservation of original manuscripts of books. Of seventeenth-century authors, for instance, none exist for Moliere, and few for Corneille, Descartes, La Fontaine, and Racine. O n the other hand there are many for Pascal and Bossuet, Boileau, Fenelon, and La Rochefoucauld. One would naturally expect to find many more. 8 T h e ordinary hand in the early sixteenth century was an involved version of pointed or gothic script, the lettre bdtarde. Its legibility was still further decreased by the use of abbreviations inherited from the medieval scribes. With the Renaissance came the ' Dictionnaire des lettres franfaises, ed. Georges Grente, II: Le Seizieme siecle (Paris, 1951). p. 476; John Grand-Carteret, Papeterie et papetiers de l'ancien temps (Paris, 1913), pp. 48-52, 84-90; Charles Kunstler, La Vie quotidienne sous Louis XVI (Paris, 1950), p. 309. 7 G . A . Crapelet, Etudes pratiques et litteraires sur la typographie (Paris, 1837) pp. 264, 181, 2 6 m . 8Dictionnaire des lettres franfaises, ed. Georges Grente, III: Le Dix-septieme siicle (Paris, 1954), p. 66a.

AUTHOR, PUBLISHER, AND PRINTER

47

adoption of the Carolingian minuscule, the "fine Italian hand" revived and popularized in Italy by Lodovico degli Arrighi, Tagliente, and Celebrino. This was the cursive used in the papal chancellery and taken by Aldus as a model for his italic type. In the course of the century the French almost completely abandoned the gothic style. Chancery was the hand taught by the scriveners' guild and by the famous calligraphers Pierre Ramon in the sixteenth century, Antoine Rossignol and Nicolas Jarry in the seventeenth, and Paillasson in the eighteenth. 9 Henri Estienne, like most other authors of his time, used the contemporary gothic for marginal notes in the books he read and for manuscript in French; he reserved his handsome and readable chancery hand for Latin manuscripts and for Latin words that appear in his vernacular copy. Both the Scaligers wrote beautiful hands; Joseph's was so regular that Patisson could print the De emendatione temporum page for page. Varillas and Barthelemy were also noted for the clearness of their copy. 10 Many authors employed an amanuensis to prepare their work for the printer. T w o examples will indicate the widely divergent results that might ensue from the practice. 11 Madame Genlis sometimes had her manuscript copied by school children as exercises in penmanship; the letters were neatly formed but often as many as four pages consisted of one phrase, with no marks of punctuation, capitals for almost every word, misspellings, and incorrect hyphenation. On the other hand, Baron d'Holbach, although he wrote a very legible hand, would never allow his own manuscript to go to a printer. As a copyist he hired the brother of Jacques Andre Naigeon. T h i s brother, who was a government official at Sedan, spent six months each year at the baron's house in Paris, editing and transcribing his work. In this way the printer got excellent copy and the baron's anonymity was guarded. Hastily written copy is not, however, the only explanation of • Grente, Seizieme siecle, pp. 476-480; Charles Beaulieux, Histoire de l'orthographe frangaise, 2 vols. (Paris, 1927), I, 254; Alfred Franklin, Dictionnaire historique des arts, metiers et professions exerccs dans Paris depuis le XIII' siecle (Paris, 1906), p. 284; Grand-Carteret, pp. 318, 321-324. 10 Louis Climent, Henri Estienne et son oeuvre frangaise (Paris 189g), p. 476; Crapelet, p. 260. u Crapelet, p. 265; Ferdinand Hoefer, ed., Nouvelle biographie generale, 46 vols. (Paris, 1855-1870), X X X V I I , col. 134, s. v. Naigeon.

48

A U T H O R S IN T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

the numerous errors in early printed books. Both printer and author were hampered by the fact that the language itself was in a state of transition. 12 French orthography, punctuation, and grammar did not interest the early humanists, for they were chiefly concerned with Latin. It was only about 1530 when a reform of Latin spelling and pronounciation began that there was much attention to correctness of French. T h e n the situation was serious, for the best compositors had been kept for Latin work, and the others, who were generally foreigners, were ignorant reproducers of a language they did not fully understand. T h e first treatise on French orthography, by Machecrier, did not appear until 1529. Increasing use of roman type, aided by the great popularity of the faces cut by Geoffroi Tory, drew further attention to the need for correctness. After the publication in 1540 of Robert Estienne's French-Latin dictionary, which had a strong influence, there was less diversity in spelling. His system was superior to that of his contemporaries; and since he was at one and the same time author, publisher, printer, and proofreader, he was able to present that system to the greatest advantage. For a long time this was the only dictionary of the French language, and all later issues as well as the abridgments and the textbook editions, preserved the spellings of the original. In addition, Estienne's French grammar, published in 1557, was of much help. In this whole matter the authors and printers of the ancien regime worked on a different basis from that which is usual today. Our authors, theoretically at least, give the printer absolutely correct copy, which the linotype or monotype operator is obliged to follow without deviation or question and according to a typographical pattern laid out by a "designer." U p to the comparatively recent beginning of machine setting, however, the author's manuscript was as a matter of course filled with incorrect spellings and faulty punctuation, and the compositor was expected to make corrections, divide paragraphs, and secure consistency of treatment according to "the style of the house." Our ideal workman is an extension of his machine; the older craftsman was an independent coadjutor of the author, almost an editor. If this was true until well after the beginning of the twentieth century, it was even 12

Bcaulieux, I, 210-218, 235, 344-347; Grente, Dix-septieme

siecle,

pp. 771 ff.

AUTHOR,

PUBLISHER, AND PRINTER

49

more typical of the methods of work in the sixteenth and seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 3.

Proofreading

In the monasteries books had been corrected after they were finished, and this tradition, together with the limited scale of the work in the early printing shops, made it difficult for the first printers to appreciate fully the possibilities for obtaining correctness before the final presswork. As soon as the amount of work increased, separation of functions became necessary and the reading of proof was much more important. Since the early shops had only small supplies of type, no more than a few pages could be set at a time. Proofs of these were immediately read by the master or his foreman and printed off so that the type might be distributed for further work. T h e many records we have of early proofreaders indicate that they were really editors rather than specialized correctors. 13 T h e y collated manuscripts of the classics; wrote notes, commentaries, and prefaces; translated modern as well as ancient texts; and only incidentally superintended the correction of the work for which they were responsible. 1 4 T h e y were scholars, usually the superior of their employer in learning. For more than a century and a half we find such men living in the homes of printers as honored friends; no less than ten at a time could be f o u n d as paid guests of R o b e r t Estienne in Paris. A t an early date the master took over relations with customers while his chief assistant managed the details of shop work as a foreman, usually a working foreman w h o did the proofreading as part of his duties. By this time correctness had become a matter of real importance. Henri Estienne said that proofreading is to typography what the soul is to the body of a man: it gives it being and life; it drives away obscurity and extends clearness; it wages stubborn war on errors but it is too rarely crowned with success. 15 Article 17 of the law of 31 A u g u s t 1539 said that if the master printers of Latin books were not sufficiently educated to " C r a p e l e t , pp. 146-159. " L. E. Brossard, Le Correcteur " C r a p e l e t , p. 220.

typographe

(Tours,

1924), pp.

7-18.

50

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

make corrections, they must hire suitable readers, and these shall be obliged to correct well and carefully, to hand in their corrections at the customary hours, and to do their duty in every particular. T h i s provision was repeated in the laws of August 1686 and 10 April 1725. Several words were used to designate the editor or reader. T h e prelecteur seems to have been really an editor, a literary editor as well as copy editor and proofreader. T h e collationeur provided annotations and some reading. T h e distinction between the two was rather fine but nevertheless it existed. A t the same time, however, the term correcteur was often used with no connotation of superiority or inferiority to the others either in esteem or in remuneration. In the sixteenth century this occupation provided the equivalent of an apprenticeship for mature and scholarly men who later became master printers. Geoffroi T o r y and Simon de Colines thus worked for the Estiennes. Jean Chappuis, Federic Morel, Josse Badius, Simon Millanges, and Christopher Plantin began their careers in this way. These men and their fellow workers, many of whom were authors in their own right and all of them scholars of high rank, were responsible for the roster of correctly printed books so proudly listed by Chevillier. 16 Josse Badius' edition of Jean Major (1516) had only five errors; his edition of Politian (1539) was practically the same as the manuscript used as copy. There were only two errors in Oronce Fine's edition of Euclid published by Colines in 1536, and only five in Fine's Sphaera Mundi (1542), a folio of 224 pages with tables. In Robert Estienne's folio edition of Eusebius in Greek (1544) the only error was one iota subscript. His sextodecimo edition of the Greek New Testament (1549) had no errors in the Greek text but, surprisingly, one in the Latin preface of a page and a half. Estienne is said to have exhibited final proofs of this book in public places and to have offered a reward for the detection of mistakes. Joseph Scaliger says of his father's De subtilitate, printed by Vascosan in 1557, that it had no errors. Sebastien Gryphius of Lyon was so proud of the correctness of his two-volume 16 Andr£ Chevillier, L'Origine 205, 119-153.

de l'imprimerie

de Paris (Paris, 1694), pp. 193-

A U T H O R , P U B L I S H E R , AND P R I N T E R

51

folio Bible in Latin (1550) that he printed the few errata on the second page, the most prominent place he could find. £tienne Dolet's commentaries on the Latin language (1536), another work in two folio volumes, showed only eight errors. In addition to the professional reading done in the shop it was always customary for the author to look over his own proofs. As in England, he might live with the printer or publisher while the work was in the press; 17 or like Fichet, whose lectures on rhetoric was the fourth book issued in Paris, and like Jean Clictou, whose sermons were printed in 1534, he might visit the printing shop every day.18 If he himself could not exercise such close supervision, he would sometimes warn the reader, as Joachim du Beilay did in the Epistle to the Reader prefixed to his poetical works (1561). In 1637 Dr. Chartier of the Sorbonne wished to publish an edition of Hippocrates in Greek and Latin but since he could not find any proofreader in Paris capable of handling it, he was forced to supplement his own reading by calling on several learned friends for help. 19 About this time the increase of facilities in the shops made it no longer necessary for the author to visit the workrooms personally for reading his proofs. It is therefore rather curious to find the law of 1731 saying that the author might proofread his own books, as if this were an unusual concession.20 So far from being unusual, it was the general practice; the publisher of Moreau's Discours sur l'histoire de France even went so far as to send him proofs while he was imprisoned in Saint Florentin in 1776. 21 Manuals of style designed primarily for the use of proofreaders were slow in appearing. The earliest was written by Jerome Hornschuch and published in Leipzig in 1608.22 This was followed by Moxon's Mechanick Exercises (London, 1683) and a work by Zeltner which appeared in Nürnberg in 1716, with a second edi17

Percy Simpson, Proof-reading in the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries, Oxford Books on Bibliography (London, 1935), pp. 1-45. 18 Crapelet, p. 277η; Ronald B. McKerrow, An Introduction to Bibliography (Oxford, 1927), p. 205. le Crapelet. p. 239η, 189-192. '"Saugrain, pp. 2 1 6 - 2 1 7 . 21 Jacob Nicolas Moreau, Mes Souvenirs, ed. Camille Hermelin, 2 vols. (Paris, 1898-1901), II, 264. ** Crapelet, pp. 160-164.

52

A U T H O R S IN T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

23

tion in 1720. Fertel's La Science pratique de l'imprimerie (Saint Omer, 1723) devotes considerable space to a discussion of accented letters, spelling, use of capitals, and punctuation; but this manual was for the instruction of apprentices rather than for proofreaders. Bertrand-Quinquet's Traite de l'imprimerie (Paris, 1799) has a section on orthography, punctuation, abbreviations, and so on, together with a list of nine proofreaders' marks. Momoro's manual (Paris, 1796) has similar articles and a longer list of marks with examples of their use. Eighteenth-century practice as outlined in the Encyclopedic was very much like our own.24 When the pages were made up, the compositor asked the pressman to pull proofs and at the same time gave him the copy to be sent along to the foreman with the proofs. After the foreman had dried the proofs and cut them apart, he sent for a copyholder, who was ordinarily an apprentice, to read the copy aloud while he followed it word by word and marked corrections in the margin of the proofs. If he had time, he glanced over it again hastily. The compositor then corrected the type and had a second proof pulled. This was sent either to the proofreader or to the author. The former is cautioned to place his marks of correction as near as possible to the lines where the errors occur. Incidentally we hear the perennial complaint that nothing is so rare as a good reader; he must be an expert in the language of the book he reads, he must know what good sense suggests in doubtful cases but he must also distrust his own judgment, and he must understand spelling, punctuation, and grammar. If the proof went to the author, there was danger of his using it as rough copy and making such heavy changes that a third or even a fourth proof would be necessary. Crapelet, writing in 1837, mentions galley proofs as though they were something rather new.25 The custom in the ancien regime, at any rate, was to set in pages and therefore to furnish only page proofs. Crapelet also says that long before galley proofs were thought of, printers sometimes set a book in a format and 23 Douglas C. McMurtrie, The Correctors of the Press in the Early Days of Printing (Greenwich, Conn., 1922), pp. 6-9. M Encyclopedie, VIII, 612, s. v. Imprimerie; V, 839, s. v. fipreuve; IV, 271, s. v. Correcteur d'imprimerie. 25 Crapelet, pp. 284-286.

A U T H O R , PUBLISHER, AND PRINTER

53

face different from what was to be used in the published edition. Occasionally twelve or fifteen sets of such proofs were pulled and distributed to the author's friends for reading and comment. When the final proofs of this preliminary setting were corrected and approved, they were used as copy for the real edition. Such a practice, however, was too expensive and time-consuming to be general. After reader, author, and compositor have done their work, some errors always remain undetected until it is too late to change the type. Sometimes this situation is merely regrettable and does not interfere with the value of a book. T h e abbe Raynal's Histoire philosophique et politique du commerce des Europeens dans les deux Indes (7 vols., Paris, 1774) had innumerable and shocking errors but still the first edition sold out, there were more than forty pirated editions in Europe, and a second, corrected edition was published. 26 If, however, immediate correction was desirable, the author or printer might make the alterations by pen in the copies themselves; this happened with Fichet's lectures on rhetoric and a large number of other early books.27 Erasmus approved of this custom and he also recommended marginal notes for longer corrections and additions. In other cases small printed slips were pasted over the appropriate word or words. It was quickly seen that these methods disfigured a book. T w o substitutes thus came into use. First was the insertion of a cancel, either a single leaf or a four-page fold, an excellent and unobtrusive way to cover up a number of errors or a serious misstatement.28 T h e second was the inclusion of an errata page at the end of the volume. Practically all books of the ancien regime, even those with cancels, have such pages. T h e number of errors noted is small in some but in others extends to more than a page. Chevillier's earliest example from the library of the Sorbonne was Merula's Juvenal, a folio printed at Venice by Gabriel Pierre in 1478; here there are two pages of errata. T h e second, enlarged edition of Jean Ravisius Textor's Livre des epithetes, a folio printed in 1524 by Pierre Vidove, has more than a page. Textor included an Epistle to the Reader in which he describes the objections a printer raises M Jean Francois de La Harpe, Correspondance 1804), I, 17. 27 Brossard, p. 37; Chevillier, pp. 154-169. 28 McKerrow, pp. 222-230.

litteraire,

4 vols., 2d ed. (Paris,

54

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

when an author wants a correction; at first a gift of money or wine will help but in the end nothing will lighten the task of persuading him. Some printers omitted the errata list altogether or else dropped many items, in this way giving a false impression of correctness. Complaints about proofreading errors were endless. Some authors blamed the printer as the final responsible man in the manufacturing cycle; others blamed the proofreader. 29 As early as 1514, and again in 1525, Erasmus lamented the printers' ignorance and carelessness. In 1520 Jean de Savigny gave warning that all errors in his books were the fault of his printers; he said that he himself had corrected it — forgetting that scarcely any author can approach this task with the complete objectivity required for success. Henri Estienne declared that some printers were too stingy to hire expert correctors and took on only men so ignorant that their alterations were absolutely without sense. Chartier, the editor of Hippocrates, urged that every edition that contained a certain number of errors should be suppressed but he also urged that the wages of correctors should be increased in order to attract better men and to make them more interested in their work. Another acute suggestion of his, one that is now standard practice, was to have each set of proofs read by a different person. None of these solutions was adopted in the ancien regime. T h e government went on passing laws that set standards of education for printers and their employees, the authors continued their hopeless warfare against printers and publishers — and the public bought books in increasing quantities.

CHAPTER

IV

CENSORSHIP l. The nature of censorship Censorship, which becomes from time to time a burning question to twentieth-century authors and publishers, was a lively issue throughout the ancien regime as well, but the emphasis fell » Chevillier, pp. 182-193.

CENSORSHIP

55

upon a different section of the broad area of writing. Freedom of speech is nowadays largely concerned with statements of opinion in magazines and newspapers, which were a negligible part of earlier publishing. In the case of books we are generally more disturbed about indecency and, in spite of the situation at this moment, rather exceptionally about subversive doctrine. Almost the opposite is true of the ancien regime. Pornographic limits were then much more extensive and there was far greater sensitiveness on matters of theology, philosophy, and politics. Security for the social order was the main concern. Freedom of thought and expression are eighteenth-century concepts that had no existence in the intellectual outlook of earlier times. T o fifteenth- and sixteenth-century France censorship was a matter of course, for it merely carried on medieval tradition. In 1275 Philip the Bold had placed the booksellers and copyists of Paris under the control of the University, which then began officially to examine all books to see that they had been correctly copied and to put a fair price on them. 1 Laws passed in 1323, 1342, and 1403 stressed correctness of text. 2 As Rashdall says, " N o book might be sold or let out on hire (whether for reading or copying) till the correctness of the copy had been examined and the price or rate of hire fixed by a joint-board composed of four Masters and four Principal Booksellers annually nominated by the University." 3 T o an age preoccupied with theology, correctness was the great essential in editions of the Latin Bible, works of the Church Fathers, missals, and other ecclesiastical publications. In turn, the early humanists applied the same standards to printed editions of the classics, translations from current foreign languages as well as from Latin and Greek, and works in law and history. Only content, and not literary style or intrinsic value, was examined. 4 Little attention was paid to volumes of poetry, ' T h e o d o r Birt, Das antike Buchwesen (Berlin, 1882), p. 125; M. Galland, L'Edition; des rapports juridiques entre les auteurs et les editeurs (Paris, 1909), p. 9; Gabriel Peignot, Essai historique sur la liberte d'ecrire chez les anciens et au moyen äge (Paris, 1832), pp. 14-22. 2 Andre Chevillier, L'Origine de l'imprimerie de Paris (Paris, 1694), p. 395. "Hastings Rashdall, Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1895), I, 415-417; Jean Baptiste Louis Crevier, Histoire de l'universite de Paris depuis son origine jusqu'en I'annee 1600, 7 vols. (Paris, 1761), II, 284-288. 'Maurice Pellisson, Les Hommes de lettres au XVIII' siecle (Paris, 1911), p. 9.

56

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

literary criticism, and the sciences because these did not seem important and, as a matter of fact, they circulated only in the limited circles of the nobility. T h e doctors of the T h e o l o g i c a l Faculty of the University of Paris were the group at first most deeply interested in censorship; b u t as the commercial possibilities of the printed book became apparent, printers and publishers began to chafe at the inconveniences of University supervision. 5 T h e y naturally turned to the civil authorities, and especially the Parlement, for relief from the delays caused by long arguments among the doctors on minute points of opinion. A l t h o u g h the two bodies worked in harmony as a rule, the Parlement was always ready to come to the relief of a publisher worried by the tying-up of his capital. T h e question thus early arose as to whether the University or the Parlement had prior and superior jurisdiction in these matters. In any case, however, books were inspected only after they were ready for the public. T h e printers, not the authors, were held responsible for correctness and orthodoxy. By 1518 Luther's books began to circulate in France. O n 13 June 1521, after the Faculty of T h e o l o g y had censured the new heresy and condemned several Lutheran books, the k i n g issued a law f o r b i d d i n g the printers to print, sell, or distribute any books not previously examined and approved by the Faculty.® O n Saturday 3 A u g u s t 1521 the Parlement executed this law by ordering all owners of L u t h e r a n books to deposit them with the C o u r t within a week. 7 T h e year 1533 marks the high point of the reformers' influence at the royal court, b u t in their zeal they became too outspoken. Reaction led to the hasty decree of 13 January 1535 forbidding all printing whatsoever u p o n pain of hanging and also ordering the closing of all book shops. T h e foolishness of this law was recognized at once and a month later the whole printing business was placed in charge of a commission of the "Edouard Maugis, Histoire du Parlement de Paris, 3 vols. (Paris, 1913-1916), II, 310-351. 6 Cesar £gasse DuBoulay, Historia Vniversitatis Parisiensis. 6 vols. (Paris, 16651673), VI, 128. 7 Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris sous le regne de Frangois I (1515-1536), ed. Ludovic Lalanne (Paris, 1854), pp. 104, 169, 234, 276; Jean Michel Constant Leber, De l'etat reel de la presse et des pamphlets depuis Frangois 1 jusqu'ä Louis XIV (Paris, 1834), p. 9.

CENSORSHIP

57

Parlement to make a careful investigation and determine what books should be approved as necessary. 8 A t this moment censorship was invoked over two subjects that had not had much attention hitherto. 9 In the first instance (1536), the Dean and the Faculty of Medicine of the University brought suit against Jean T h i b a u l t , a self-styled physician-inordinary to the King, because of his books on medicine and astrology. T h e Parlement ordered him to submit to an oral examination regarding his technical knowledge and his success as a practitioner and suspended the sale of his books until they should be investigated by the Faculty. A general law was also passed forbidding anyone to write or to publish any medical books without approval by three members of the Medical Faculty. T h e second case (1538) was that of Michael Servetus, who had written several books on astrology, divination, and political prophecy, under his assumed name of Villanovanus. T h e s e were condemned by the Faculty of T h e o l o g y , and the Parlement forbade the printing or selling of any more such books unless they were approved by the Faculty of Medicine as well as by the theologians. In 1544 the University confirmed the action in these two cases by a regulation forbidding all printers to issue any book unless the Rector and the Deans of the higher Faculties had been informed about it and two masters from the appropriate Faculty had examined it. 10 Nevertheless until the ordonnance of Moulins was issued in February 1566 heresy continued to be the main concern of the authorities. In 1543 the Faculty of T h e o l o g y published its first Index of condemned books, a list of sixty-five items, all of them theological. 1 1 Reflecting the activities of the Council of T r e n t , the great edict of Chateaubriand was issued 27 June 1551 as an attempt to co-ordinate all the measures for the defense of the faith; it is, in Lemonnier's words, "a declaration of the rights and duties of the state in religious matters, according to the doctrine of the ' E r n e s t Lavisse, Histoire de France, V, 1, Henri Lemonnier, Les Guerres d'ltalie (Paris, 1903), p. 379. ° Maugis. II, 326-330; H. Roland Bainton, Hunted Heretic (Boston, 1953), pp. 5, 109 ff.; Isambert, Jourdan, Decrusy, Recueil general des anciennes lots jrangaises, 29 vols. (Paris, 1821-1833), X I I , 499-502; Crevier, V , 307 fF., 373 fE. 10 Peignot, p. 57. " L a v i s s e et Lemonnier, V , 1, 385-386; Peignot, pp. 55-56.

58

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

time." Those sections which pertain to the book trade make specific mention only of theological works. T h e y forbid the importation of books "from Geneva" and other places separated from the Church; the printing, selling, or having in one's possession any books on the University's Index; the translation of any part of the Bible or of the Church Fathers; the printing or selling of "books, commentaries, scholia, annotations, tables, indexes, epitomes, or summaries concerning Holy Scripture and the Christian religion that have been written within the past forty years in any language." A l l such books must be examined by the Faculty of Theology and, if not approved, must be surrendered. There are, in addition, most elaborate precautions against fraud, illegal importation, and illicit selling. T h e Church and its doctrines seem to have been, at least theoretically, protected in every way available to the government. 12 T h e civil wars lasting from 1562 to 1598 brought an extension and tightening of censorship. As early as September 1563 all persons were forbidden in general terms to print or publish any books or other writings, in verse or prose, without permission from the King. 13 T h e ordonnance of Moulins (1566) is much more specific. It makes the first definite mention of books outside the fields of religion and medicine. It forbids the writing, printing, or selling of defamatory books, that is, books aimed against the honor and good name of individuals; and there are the important stipulations that no one is to print any book without a permit and a privilege sealed by the Great Seal and that copies of the permit and privilege must appear in the book along with the printer's name and address.14 Lest this clause should seem to affect the prerogatives of the Faculty of Theology, the latter's traditional position regarding religious books was restated in 1569 and 1570. 15 T h e Parlement, to facilitate their work, authorized the Faculty to send their deputies, accompanied by a police officer, into the book shops in search of forbidden material. 16 Isambert, XIII, 193-197. " A r t i c l e 21 of the edict of Nantes (1598) permits the publication of Protestant books but only in those towns where exercise of the reformed religion was allowed; Chevillier, p. 385. "Isambert, XIV, 210. 16 Chevillier, p. 385; Isambert, XIV, 230. 16 Crevier, VI, 259-260. 12

CENSORSHIP

59 17

From these laws and from the edict of Gaillon (1571) it is evident that the civil authorities were beginning to recognize the inability of the Faculty to cope with the flood of political writing in addition to books on religion. Execution of the law was now placed directly in the hands of the "sworn" printers and booksellers, who were to hale offenders before a civil or criminal judge — not before the University assembly. All this marks a profound shift. 18 Traditional checks were reinforced by the State itself working through the Chancellor's office and through technical trade channels. The law further stipulates that authors as well as printers and booksellers shall be prosecuted and punished. Practically without exception during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the censorship laws were aimed against heresy, sedition, and personal libel exclusively. In other words, the laws protected the Church, the monarchy, and the individual's reputation. T h e publication of almanacs and prognostications, unless approved by a bishop, was again forbidden in 1560, but this was probably a recognition of the civil dangers from wild-eyed sectaries rather than of the psychological harm to the individual from apocalyptic nonsense. Although the law of 27 June 1551 says that the Faculty of Theology must certify that a book is good, lawful, and without vice, it is evident that "vice" meant heresy or sedition rather than obscenity. The first suggestion of sensitiveness to immorality or indecency is in the law of January 1629. 19 The laws of 1723 and 1728 specifically mention "purity of morals" and "the morals of the public," but long before this an improved social outlook led the more respectable sections of the reading public to consider Rabelais and many of his contemporaries coarse.20 Nevertheless, in spite of increasing refinement of manners, the government was never so much concerned about looseness of morals as it was about freedom of thought. The situation parallels that in England, where "the authorities were chiefly, and vigilantly, on the watch for subversive political " Isambert, X I V , 237. 18 Edouard T r o m p , £tude sur I'organisation et l'histoire de la communaute des libraires et imprimeurs de Paris (1618-1791) (Paris, 1922), pp. 18-20. 19 Isambert, X V I , 238. 20 Paul Lapeire, L'Outrage aux bonnes moeurs par le livre, l'ecrit, et l'imprimerie (Lille, 1931), pp. 39-59.

6o

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

and religious utterances . . . but censorship rarely operated in the field of morals, and in the treatment of sex writers may be said to have enjoyed pretty full freedom." 21 2. The censoring

authorities

There is little to indicate that the booksellers and printers felt any deep responsibility for the maintenance of the standards set up by the laws. They had none of the ethical vision which leads the reputable publishing houses of our time to exert a fundamental censorship by refusing to issue manuscripts of a seditious, libelous, scandalous, or immoral nature. Indeed the publishers were quick to recognize and exploit the fact that suppression was a powerful form of advertising that usually resulted in greater sales and higher prices. Authors like Voltaire aided and abetted them in securing the condemnation of books with just this object in view. Nor did the Church, as an institution, play much part in this matter. Bishops were satisfied with their own complete freedom for the printing of missals, breviaries, catechisms, and similar religious books for use in their own dioceses, as well as control over the textbooks for the lower schools. Religious orders and congregations had similar privileges. T h e high officials in Rome were not allowed to interfere with publishing in France, but the inclusion of a book on the Roman Index and the expressed attitude of the hierarchy in any definite case doubtless influenced the French authorities to a considerable extent. 22 As we have just seen, the main censoring body at first was the Faculty of Theology of the University of Paris, which based its rights upon a tradition going back into the mists of the Middle Ages. During the seventeenth century, however, when the prestige of the University declined, the enfeebled Faculty confessed it had to limit its attention to the books that seemed likely to do most harm to the public as a whole. T h e Parlements, and especially the chief one, that of Paris, attempted with equal lack of success to maintain supervision. T h e Parlement sometimes agreed with the Faculty of Theology, often ^Douglas Bush, "Seventeenth Century Authorship," The 1948), p. 144. 25 Leon Sabatie, La Censure (Paris, 1908), pp. 67-76.

Mint,

no. a

(London,

CENSORSHIP

61

disagreed; sometimes called upon the Faculty for help, sometimes insisted upon its own prior authority. Both Henry I I and Louis X I I I forbade it to interfere in the granting of permits, and yet as late as 1690 it attempted to assert its rights. As a matter of fact, the only publications over which it had undisputed control were those pertaining to official legal matters, such as memoirs involved in pending court cases.23 T h e police had a minor but not negligible part in the censorship. From the beginning of the seventeenth century they were authorized to issue permits for small books and pamphlets, which were defined as those not exceeding the length of two sheets printed in Cicero (pica or 12-point type). But the police were venal and, with unlimited opportunities for dishonesty, carried on a large and profitable trade in forbidden books and pamphlets.24 T h e i r morale, it must be confessed, was not at all strengthened by the fact that they were largely dependent upon spies and informers who were rewarded by receiving half the fine imposed in each case. Establishment of a board of lay censors directly responsible to the civil government was the result of groping effort. T h e sixteenth-century law was vague in regard to the machinery for obtaining a permit to publish. T h e maitres des requetes examined books in law and history. Theology and religion remained under the control of the Faculty of Theology, which communicated its decision to the Chancellor, he in turn issuing the permit. Books in most other categories were evidently not examined at all. What inspection there was, was careless; the authors and publishers, according to Chevillier, 2 5 often forged notes of approval and the Chancellery itself neglected its duty. T h e States-General of 1 6 1 4 took note of the situation and so did the Assembly of Notables of 1617· 2 6 Matters reached a crisis in 1623 when the Faculty of Theology was torn apart by a quarrel concerning the authority of the Pope Pierre Frar^ois Muyart de Vouglans, Institutes au droit criminel (Paris, 1768), pp. 493-494· 24 Albert Bachman, Censorship in France from, ιηι$ to 1750: Voltaire's Opposition (New York, 1934), p. go. 25 Chevillier, pp. 396-404. 28 Charles Jourdain, Histoire de l'universite de Paris au XVII' et XVIII' siecle, 2 vols. (Paris, 1888), I, 154-156. 23

62

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

and that of the Church Councils. According to the Encyclopedic,27 Andre Duval, the leader of one of the factions, feared he would be overwhelmed by the tremendous amount of writing from his opponents. He therefore secured from the King (22 March 1623) letters patent granting himself and three of his sympathizers the exclusive right to read and approve manuscripts, with a stipend of 2000 livres to be divided among the four. Jourdain and Chevillier assume that this right applied only to books concerning religion, devotion, piety, and morals. T h e Faculty of course objected vigorously not only because its traditional rights were threatened but because it considered the granting of a stipend undignified. In December 1623 it issued new regulations in an attempt to evade the recent law. Nevertheless the King confirmed the latter in August 1624 with only a slight consession to the remonstrants. No overtures could placate the injured pride of the Faculty, however, and the uproar was so great that Duval and his friends resigned in 1626. T h e most interesting provisions of the law of 1624 were those for the payment of the censors and for the perpetuation of the board: In order to confer upon said examiners some honor and profit, as well as in consideration of their labors and pains in matters so important to our service and to the public, we desire that the four Doctors named by us and their successors to these offices shall enjoy the same honors, privileges, immunities, franchises, exemptions, and prerogatives as our ordinary almoners and our other domestics and commensals just as if they were specified on the Civil List. T o these four censors we have allocated for each year, beginning with the first of January last, two thousand livres in wages and pensions, to be distributed among them as follows: to each of the two oldest, six hundred livres; and to each of the other two, four hundred livres. The payment of this sum of two thousand livres we have by these presents assigned and constituted on the most available ordinary funds of our General Paris Receipts. We wish that it shall be paid them from quarter to quarter by the collectors of this tax, each one in the year of his incumbency and that to this intent our faithful and beloved Presidents and Treasurers General of France in the said generality shall hereafter include this sum in the budget which they make annually, to be paid and acquitted as an ordinary charge just like the salaries of the professors and readers 27

Encyclopedic, II, s.v. Censeurs de livres.

CENSORSHIP

63

in theology established in the University of Paris by the late King our father and like the salary of the third professor and reader in theology established by us and other like wages, fiefs, alms, and necessary expenses which are usually included in said budgets, without any retrenchment or diminution for any cause or pretext whatever. The payments shall be passed and granted . . . by virtue of simple receipts of the said censors and examiners by our beloved and faithful councilors, the keepers of our accounts.28 In case of vacancy through death or resignation, the juniors shall step up and the resulting fourth place is to be filled by an election conducted by the Doctors of the Sorbonne and two Doctors of Theology from the College de Navarre. T h e Chancellor is to issue letters of confirmation to the elected candidate. By this provision as well as by control of the salary, the Crown managed to identify the board of censors with the government rather than with the University. In July 1624 another decree had been issued forbidding the unauthorized publication of books and pamphlets concerning political matters and affairs of state.29 Permission was to come from the Chancellor, who was probably considered competent to deal with such subjects through his regular staff of lawyers. In spite of these regulations of 1624, it evident that many categories of books were still not definitely included in the censorship net. Furthermore, the laws were too indefinite to withstand much pressure. Even though the University resumed its practice after the resignation of Duval, it was impotent to deal with the undiminished number of theological disputes. All this was merely one element in the chaos of the civil war from which the whole state was still suffering, a condition which improved only as Richelieu grew in power (1624-1642). At length in January 1629 the Code Michaud, "the only important legislative work of the reign of Louis X I I I , " undertook to settle the national difficulties. T h e fifty-second of its four hundred and fifty-three Articles deals with the administration of the censorship, but its prescriptions proved unsatisfactory.30 Not much further was done, however, until in 1653 Chancellor 28

Chevillier, p. 399. Isambert, X V I , 146. " S e e below. Section 4. 28

64

A U T H O R S I N T H E ANCIEN

REGIME

Seguier took bolder action; he definitely deprived the Faculty of Theology of their rights in this matter, appointed three or four of their number as royal censors of theological books only, and made them responsible to himself. 31 This board and its successors formed the basis for censorship practice until the Revolution. T h e arrangement was confirmed in general by the code of 1723 and strengthened in detail by the law of 1728. Perplexities still confronted the government, nevertheless, partly because the publishing business continued to develop enormously. In contrast to Maugis' calculation 32 of about six hundred books passed upon, that is, authorized or condemned, by the Parlement during the sixteenth century, Bachman 33 gives a list of over a thousand titles condemned between 1700 and 1750, a total that could be doubled if there were an orderly register for this period. Rocquain 34 estimates that some eight hundred titles were suppressed or ordered burned between 1 7 1 5 and 1789; but this figure includes only those condemned by the Conseil d'£tat, the Parlement, the Chätelet, and the Grand Conseil, not those condemned by the Church authorities and by the civil courts of the provinces. By 1740 a reorganization of the censor's office was imperative. The board had expanded over the years to seventy-six members. They received no salary but, as it worked out, the position assured the holder's social standing, opened the doors to membership in various Academies, and led to a pension of four hundred livres after twenty years of service.35 They were divided according to subjects in which they read, no one being allowed to go outside his own field. From 1742 to 1790 their names were listed in the Almanack Royal as regular government appointees. The following table, made up from the Almanach for approximately fiveyear intervals, shows the steady increase in the totals and the fluctuations within the subject divisions. 81

Sabatie, p. 57; Paul Mellottee, Histoire

•9°5)- P· 54·

economique

de l'imprimerie

(Paris,

avant la Revolution

(Paris,

" Maugis, II, 310. "" Bachman, p. 128.

u

Felix Theodor Rocquain, L'Esprit

1878), pp. 489-535· 35 Jean Paul Belin, Le Commerce (Paris, 1913), pp. 1 7 - 2 1 .

rdvolutionnaire

des livres prohibes

ä Paris de /75ο ά

i/Sg

CENSORSHIP

65

NUMBERS OF R O Y A L CENSORS (based on Almanach Royal)

-c •ο. * β fu

•α .ο

a

ο •c κ 1742 1750 1756 1761 1766 1770 1775

1780 1785 1790

10 7 10 »3 12 »5 »7 »5 »5 »3

£ ο £ υ

10 11 »4 14 18 »7 »7 19 32 34

10 »3 16 18 20 20 »9 29 36 3°

§ 2 2 3 3 4 4 4 4

8 7 10 10 8 8 6 8 8 9

5 5 35 37 52 60 55 60 54 63 80 78

60 C

to ? ir a l'histoire libraires de Paris, 1468-1600 (Paris, 1895), Ρ· 18

des

278

THE

WORKMEN

incidental amount of social and religious care. In an interesting contract dated from Bordeaux 3 June 1722 the master promises that if the apprentice falls sick during the term, he will provide the ordinary food for not more than one week and advance the charges for medicine, physician, and apothecary, for which the father shall repay him. 22 6. Term of service During the sixteenth century there was no standard length of service; apprentice and master merely made a verbal agreement on the matter. T h e edict of Gaillon was vague, prescribing only "a sufficient time." T h e memoir of the journeymen against the edict recommended that the term be fixed "according to ancient custom" at four years for pressmen and five years for compositors. 23 T h e arret of 10 September 1572 settled upon three years, and this was confirmed by the Parlement 28 February 1609. In 1615 the time was lengthened to four years, and in the code of 1618 to four for printers and five for booksellers. T h e law of 1686 (Article 21) stipulated at least four complete and consecutive years for either branch. A law of 1695 for Lyon says that the traditional period in that city was five years for printers and four for booksellers. T h e code of 1723 finally set the term at four years. This time coincided with the general average for a large number of crafts, though it was exceeded by the hosiers' ten years, the hatters' nine years, and the bakers' nine years. T h e guild's registers of contracts, now preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, comprise three volumes, the first covering the years 1601-1663, the second 1663-1759, and the third 1759-1789. 24 From 1601 to 1623 there are 234 entries, of which 44 per cent stipulate a term of five years. From 1624 to 1651, with a total of 459 items, there are 295 or 64 per cent for five years. From 1652 to 1691 there are 195 items, with 103 or 53 per cent for five years. A l l except two of the contracts between 1759 and 1765 are for the statutory four years. Radiguer finds that variations depend 22 Ernest Labadie, Notices biographiques sur les tmprimeurs et libraires bordelais des XVI, XVII, et XVIII siecles (Bordeaux, 1900), pp. x x x i i i - x x x i v . 23 Radiguer, p. 18. 24 Radiguer, p. 26; Henri Omont, "Inventaire sommaire des archives de la chambre syndicate," Bulletin de la societe de l'histoire de Paris, X I I I (1886), 159.

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upon whether the master provided food and lodging, whether or not he paid wages, and whether the parents paid the master a fee. Since an apprenticeship represented a considerable investment of money as well as of time and effort, every precaution was taken to ensure fulfillment of the time clause of the contract. At the early date of 14 November 1488 the bookseller Jean Boudeaulx had his apprentice Jean Veau thrown into jail for a few days for refusing to carry out his contract, which had a little over a year to run. In 1601 the son of the publisher Charles Petit and his master Claude Barbier were each fined twenty sols for breaking a contract which had another year due. A similar case came before the Chätelet in August 1609, when the guild complained that the binder F r a ^ o i s Gregoire had given his apprentice Nicolas Flament a discharge certificate after serving only two and a half years; the court ordered Flament to finish the term and to pay the costs of the suit. 25 These and other precedents were picked up in the laws of 1618, 1686, and 1723, the penalty for infraction being set at a fine of a thousand livres and service of double the amount of time remitted. Breaking a contract might not, of course, be due to mutual agreement but to the action of the apprentice himself. There is nothing, however, except the appropriate clauses in the laws of 1686 and 1723 to indicate that running away from a master was an offense that came up often in the printing business.26 It is only natural to suppose that there were instances of it over the course of the years. The penalty was serving double the time of absence for the first offense and irrevocable exclusion from the trade for the second. Masters were obliged to notify the guild officers of an unexplained absence so that it might be entered on the registers and on the contract. 7. Number of apprentices As we have already seen, the journeymen printers were constantly aware of the fact that a large supply of apprentices was a disad25 Philippe Renouard, Documents sur les imprimeurs parisiens, libraires . . . ayant exerce ά Paris de 1450 a 1600 (Paris, 1901), pp. 24, 219; Saugrain, p. 135; Fontanon, IV, 482. ^Isambert, X X , 12; X X I , 223, 240; Saugrain, pp. 141, 142, 276.

28ο

THE WORKMEN

vantage to their own position. 27 T h e publishers, on the other hand, were also aware that a large reservoir of labor would result in lower manufacturing costs. For most of the sixteenth century masters were allowed to take as many apprentices as they wished, but on 10 September 1572 a regulation was issued that there should be no more than two, both on the press or one at the case and one on the press, unless by special agreement between masters and men. 28 This arrangement was repeated 26 May 1615, and at the same time master booksellers and binders were limited to one apprentice. T h e statutes of 1618 stipulated that a master printer with two presses could have only one, a master with more than two presses could have a maximum of three, and a master bookseller only one. In 1649 neither master printer nor master bookseller was allowed to have more than one. 29 T h e effects upon the printing business were evident at once. By 1654 there were so few journeymen printers that the available ones were insolent and insufferable. T h e master printers therefore got permission to receive during the next ten years any apprentices who had a minimum knowledge of reading and writing. Another crisis arose in 1724 just after the employment of alloues had been legalized by Article 30 of the code of 1723. T h e guild now voted that they would admit no more new apprentices either for printing or bookselling for a period of six years.30 This agreement was renewed for another six years on 17 July 1730, and for ten years on 25 February 1741. This last vote was confirmed by an arret of the Council of State on 6 June 1741, and the urgency of the action is evidenced by the fact that the law was immediately printed and distributed to all masters and not merely proclaimed by the usual criers. There was still another renewal on 21 June 1751-31

T h e results of all this action are plain from a count of the items in the guild registers. From 1601 to 1654 an average of 13 apprentices were entered annually. From 1657 to 1667 the figure rose to Radiguer, pp. 29-33. Hauser, pp. 34-36; £tienne Martin Saint-Lion, Histoire des corporations de metiers, 4th ed. (Paris, 1941), pp. 377-380; Morin, "Les Apprentis," p. 273; Fontanon, IV, 476. 29 Saugrain, p. 131. 30 Saugrain, pp. 137-139. 31 Morin, "Les Apprentis," p. 8. 27

28

THE

APPRENTICES

281

27. T h e growing use of alloues caused a drop to 6 a year from 1667 to 1701. T h i s was succeeded by a normal period from 1701 to 1724, with 14 as an average. From 1724 to 1741 it dropped to 2.27; but the register of alloues, which began in 1723, shows an average of 11 for these workers. 32 8. Social

conditions

T r a d i t i o n has assigned the apprentice a position far inferior to that indicated by realistic observation. Whatever may be true of other industries, the beginner in the book trade could not have justified sentimentality on any score. In general he was a young man in his twenties or even thirties who had studied for years and was often a University graduate, broadly educated according to the standards of the time though perhaps not beyond a y o u t h f u l sense of fun. His investment gave him a strong incentive to industry and attention to business. In many cases he was the son of a wealthy merchant, of a councillor of state, of a clerk of court; or his sponsor might well be an important ecclesiastic. 33 If he were an extremely poor boy or a f o u n d l i n g from the Hospital, there were inspectors to see that he was well treated and that he did his work well. Apparently he kept in close touch with his family and friends, whether he lived with his master or not; indeed there must have been many close ties of friendship between the two families. A n d after all, the apprentices of one period developed into the respected masters of the next as a result of both training and inheritance. Nevertheless there was considerable jealousy between apprentice and journeyman. T h e latter was quick to complain to the authorities about married apprentices, or those who had not signed a formal contract and registered with the guild, or those who could not read and write Latin or Greek, or those who failed to meet every detail of the legal requirements. In fact, their complaints became so annoying to the courts at T r o y e s that they were forbidden in 1689 to start any new lawsuits on the matter. 34 O n the other hand, the laws always linked apprentices with journeymen in forbidding acts of insubordination, thus suggesting 32 33 31

Radiguer, p. 43. Radiguer, pp. 27-28. Morin, "Les Apprentis," pp. 9-10.

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THE WORKMEN

at least undue influence i£ not community of sentiment. There were laws, too, against banquets and drinking when an apprentice began or ended his service. Doubtless there were many occasions of minor importance when the employees felt more congenial toward their own group than toward their employers. T h e blackest picture of the apprentice's way of life has been preserved for us in an anonymous poem for which a permit to print was issued 2 September 1710. T h e writer, addressing an intimate friend, promises that he will not exaggerate but will tell the literal truth in this bit of autobiography. 35 When he became old enough to think of choosing a career, he says, he sought the advice of several friends, one of whom urged him to try printing. T h e advantages of the trade were presented so convincingly that he decided upon it at once and hurried off to start his induction. T h e Rector of the University, who became very friendly at the sight of a ducat, handed over to him a certificate for Latin and Greek without too much inquiry. He then paid his respects to the syndic and wardens of the guild, swore to observe all the rules and regulations, and was formally admitted to the craft. Thereupon he ran to the shop where he had already arranged to serve his time. In the courtyard he found five or six ruffians who looked as shaggy as bears. One, with wooden shoes on his feet, was rolling a mangy hide around until he was breathless. Another, who was making up a batch of ink, had a face that for blackness would shame the blackest of the Three Wise Men. T h e boy's natural feeling of revulsion was not softened by the foreman's harsh, gruff question, "Are you the fellow that's coming to be apprentice?" "Yes, sir." "Well, you look strong enough to tackle any hard job." So he was ordered to shift a load of paper from the yard, up a hundred steps, and through a narrow door into a closet above the shop. When the work was scarcely half finished, the foreman yelled to him to come down and light the candles, a task that required some instruction. T h e n he was sent to the cellar for a basket of charcoal and told to light it under the washtub. For this he had to use the bellows and blow with his mouth, until at last he was 35 " L a Misere des apprentis imprimeurs" [1710], fidouard Fournier, ed., Varietes historiques et litteraires (Paris, 1856), V, 225-238.

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283

smothered with ashes. Thoroughly exhausted, he began to curse his choice of a craft. At eight o'clock he was told he could go to supper but on reaching his boarding house he found that the meal would not be served till midnight. So he fell sound asleep for a while in a corner of the kitchen. When his food was finally ready, he was so much disgusted with his companions that he did not linger at the table. Hurrying off to find his resting place for the night, he went to the corner of the yard where there was a dark, damp den on the ground floor, exposed to every wind. Although there were no fleas or bugs, there were squadrons of snails covering the walls with slime. T w o boards with a thin mattress formed the bed. He had scarcely fallen asleep when the bell rang and he had to open the door for the journeymen who were just getting home. In the darkness it was hard to find the lock and of course the path would be deep in snow during the winter. T h e men now called to him to make a fire, but at this he was so awkward that he filled the house with smoke and everyone rushed outdoors. Next he was sent to get some water; the well was deep, he was tired, and the bucket always fell back when it neared the top. With the new day five or six of the men sent him out for wine and cheese and other food for their breakfast — no easy errand, for each had a fixed preference and would not accept a substitute even though the poor boy had to search for their orders in a dozen shops. T h e official chores now began. First he had to run all over Paris, no matter what the weather, to deliver proofs to authors who never rewarded him with a tip. T h e n he had to go to the type founder's, to the paper merchant's, to the parchment maker's, to other shops for a pitcher or a broom or a pail or some oil; and sometimes, to make up the price of these purchases, he had to go into his own pocket for a penny. Sundays were no better, for the journeymen came back to the shop after a brief mass and made him help on the press. Before this he had to sweep and wash out the shop. Once a fortnight he had to clean up the yard and the next day pick over the sweepings for pieces of type, the good going to the case and the broken to the melting pot. And he had the messy and difficult job of making a batch of paste.

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284

There were countless other minor but no less wearisome details. He got confused by the printers' incomprehensible jargon; in the winter he had to stuff all the cracks where a draft might enter; in the summer the lye water must be kept in the cellar so that it would not smell up the shop; there was paper to cut and pied type to distribute. But in spite of all the drawbacks, concludes the author, he would not think of going into any other business! So we too may consider his complaints as the wounds of a friend and not take them too seriously. Nevertheless we remember that the laws of 1539 and 1541 forbid the masters and journeymen to beat or threaten the apprentices,36 and that some eighteenth century contracts specify that the boy will be treated gently and humanely. And if the darkest aspect of the situation has a good deal of truth, then perhaps we shall not find too much fault with the apprentice Nicolas Dominique Moreau and his retaliatory conduct. On 13 May 1740 the wife of his master, Jean de La Mesle, complained to the police that for the three years he had been in the house he had constantly sworn at her and her sick husband; he refused to take orders from anyone and insisted on doing what he pleased; he brought boys and girls into the shop who broke everything in sight; he even used his fists and a knife to his mates. She feared for the safety of them all. This unfortunate situation was probably duplicated now and again, but it would be wide of the mark to consider it typical. The great majority of masters and apprentices lived up to the standards of conduct laid down by Audiger in his handbook of household management (Paris, 1692).37 Although this may represent an ideal, it certainly reflected the most approved practice of the time in most trades, and it shows a nice awareness of the reciprocal rights and duties of master and apprentice. When a merchant takes an apprentice, says Audiger, he should first acquaint him with the stock on hand both in the shop and in the warehouse, show him the mark and number of the firm, and teach him the prices of all items. Then he must explain the sources of supply, the manufacturers and wholesalers both in Paris and in 86 87

Morin, "Les Apprentis," p. 272; Morin, "Histoire," pp. 371-372. Audiger, La Maison regUe

(Paris, 1692), pp. 1 5 1 - 1 6 4 .

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285

the provinces. Next the boy must learn how to account for all the merchandise, fold up goods and put them back in place, watch out (in unobtrusive and polite fashion) for thieves, keep his wits about him and call for the master or his wife when there is a crowd of customers. T h e boy must also know weights and measures so that neither master nor customer is cheated. He must be kept up to the mark and learn to treat buyers politely and honestly, without brusqueness when they become difficult and exacting. Audiger is absolutely fair when he looks at the business from the apprentice's point of view. His duty is to open the shop in the morning, close it at night, sweep it clean, put up the awning and the display in the morning and take them down in the evening, keep the sidewalk clean in front of the door, do his errands promptly, get well acquainted with the mark of the house and the prices so that if the master or clerks are absent he may serve the customers intelligently. He must know or learn how to write and calculate so that he will not be embarrassed by making a mistake. He must win the esteem of the master and his wife, look out for their interests at all times, win the friendship of the clerks so that they will teach him all the little points of the business. He must be faithful, civil, honest, and warn the master of any wrong that is being done him. He must be on the watch for thieves at times when master and clerks are busy selling. In short, he must seriously apply himself to every aspect of the business he wishes to learn. On the other hand, he must not waste time by doing servile tasks such as washing dishes, walking and amusing the children, cleaning shoes, and the like. He did not become an apprentice for that kind of menial service and no honest master would wish him to do it; that sort of thing disgusts apprentices and leads to their getting drunk and hating the job. T h e same just and dignified attitude is recommended for masters and apprentices in a workshop. T h e master of any craft should in the first place know how to assign work to his men and supervise it so that they will not have intervals of idleness or do defective work. He must choose good workmen, pay them well, live up to the terms of his agreement regarding food and lodging, see that they do not drink or become dissipated, and dismiss any heavy drinkers for the good of the other men. He must see that his ap-

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prentice does a good job in every particular and is not called upon for work that is not an element of the craft. As in the case of the merchant's apprentice, however, there are many incidental jobs to be done. T h e boy must wash and sweep the shop and the street in front of the door; collect the journeymen's tools and put them in order; supply the journeymen with anything they need for their work, get food and drink for them, serve them promptly, and win their regard — for often it is they rather than the master who teach the boy his trade and so their goodwill can help him get on faster. Apprentices must always be the first to get up and the last to go to bed, never be idle or disobedient. In no case, however, is it necessary for an apprentice to do menial work. If he has given the master a fee, he should not submit to any requirement outside the craft itself, such as washing dishes and amusing the children, unless such service is specified in the contract or in the statutes of the craft. On the other hand, if he has not paid the master a fee, he has evened up the account by taking service for a greater length of time, and there is still no need for him to become a domestic servant on the side. Actual practice in some trades may have often fallen below Audiger's standards, and human frailty may have roughened the surface of personal relations all too frequently; but every consideration leads one to accept it as a rather faithful image of life not only in most trades but especially in the better printing offices and bookshops of Paris during the ancien regime.

Tart Five

AUXILIARY

TRADES

Most of the steps we have considered in the manufacture and distribution of a book were in the immediate control of the book guild. Paper and binding, however, were supplied by independent craftsmen, and illustrations were the work of a self-sufficient group of artists. These three elements were of course just as essential as typography for the completed book, but they were also used to meet other demands. We need investigate only their contribution to the book industry and only with enough detail to provide the background which the printers and publishers had to be aware of in their dealings with suppliers outside their own jurisdiction.

CHAPTER

XIV

PAPERMAKING F i v e requisites are listed by early writers as essential for making paper: water, rags, material for sizing, alum, and charcoal. 1 The last two, which were needed only in relatively small quantities, might be obtained and used anywhere. The quality of the water was, however, so important that it limited the location of mills to certain definite regions. In the first place, it should have a certain saponaceous and limey quality not found in all rivers. Then the possibility of drought in summer and freezing in winter dictated the choice of streams with a considerable current so that the wheel setting the machinery in motion would not be subject to long seasonal interruptions. Finally, the danger of contamination ruled out areas near a town or other mills. The industry was therefore 1 T h e earliest French description of papermaking is a L a t i n poem by Father Imberdis, a native of Ambert. Published in 1693, only one copy of the first edition is known, but a facsimile with a translation by Augustin Blanchet was issued in Paris in 1899. A more detailed account is " A r t de faire le papier," contributed by Joseph J i r ö m e L e Frangais de L a l a n d e to the Descriptions des arts et metiers ( 1 7 6 1 - 1 7 8 8 ) ; see A r t h u r H . Cole and George B . Watts, The Handicrafts of France (Boston, 195a). T o these descriptions of the craft should be added the article in volume X I of the Encyclopedic (1765) and that in volume V of the Encyclopedic methodique: arts et metiers (1788).

ago

AUXILIARY TRADES

decentralized; the typical mill was a large, barnlike building in a lonely countryside, surrounded only by the houses and gardens of the workmen. 2 T h e industrial and commercial problems were thus very different from those in all the other crafts connected with the book trade. T h e basic material was old rags, which were collected from a wide territory by peddlers and mill agents. After a rather long process of sorting, watering, and fermenting, the rags were pounded to a foamy pulp in vats; in the Dupuy mills at La Grandrive 150 pounds of rags reduced to 84 pounds of pulp. 3 With a remarkably fast and skillful series of motions a workman dipped a mold into a vat containing the pulp, spread a thin layer evenly over the wire at the bottom of the frame, and then passed it to a second man who turned the contents onto a sheet of felt and covered it with another felt. In this way he built up a quire of twenty-five sheets, which were squeezed in a press, separated, and hung up to dry in the mill loft. T h e y were next sized one by one in a vat of glue, dried again, smoothed and polished with a stone, inspected and counted, and wrapped in packages of five hundred sheets. T h e whole business was impressive: it was noisy, the buildings shook with the pounding of the beaters and the turning of the water wheel, and some of the rooms steamed with humid heat. Since every step depended on quickness of hand and accuracy of eye, it is amazing that the product was of such high and uniform quality. There were as many as fifty-five or sixty varieties of paper, each in more or less settled use for a definite purpose — wrapping, printing, writing, and so on. Printers favored the brands known as carre simple (20 by 15 inches, weighing 16 to 18 pounds per ream of 500 sheets), cavalier (19 1/2 by 16 inches, weighing 15 to 16 pounds), and lombard (21 by 18 inches, weighing 22 to 24 pounds). 4 During the seventeenth century there were several hundred paper mills scattered through France. 5 T h e most important for the book trade were in the southeast and south, at Ambert, near 2 C. M. Briquet, "Associations et graves des ouvriers papetiers en France aux XVII" et XVIII" sifecle," Revue internationale de sociologie, V (1897), 161-163. ' L o u i s Apcher, "Les Dupuy de La Grandrive," Memoires de l'Academie des sciences, belles-lettres, et arts de Clermont-Ferrand, X X X V I I (1937), 50-57. ' P a u l Ducourtieux, Les Barbou (Limoges, 1896), p. 166; Lalande, pp. 105-106; Encyclopedie, XI, 859-860. 5 Henri Alibaux, Les Premiers papeteries frangaises (Paris, 1926), p. 40.

PAPERMAKING

291

Lyon, Angouleme, Annonay, Thiers, and thereabouts.® Troyes and Essones had supplied the earliest printers of Paris b u t were not able to meet later competition from mills in more favored situations. 7 From the time paper was introduced into France from Lombardy in the early fourteenth century the makers and dealers were considered employees of the University of Paris, just as their predecessors, the parchment makers, had always been. T h e i r status was confirmed in 1488, when four dealers in Paris and seven manufacturers in Troyes, Essones, and Corbeil were listed among the academic officers.8 T h e Faculty, however, found these businessmen no more easy to control than were the printers, and so after various disputes 9 the Parlement in 1538 set up its own inspecting committee consisting of a bookseller, a printer, and a scribe, with a fourth member added in 1551. Simon de Colines and Poncet Lepreux served on this board of experts until 1550. T h e arrangement was renewed and strengthened at various times until late in the century the University ceased to have any rights in the trade. 10 For many reasons governmental control over paper was far weaker than in most other crafts. First, there was no clear analysis of the diversified nature of the business. T h e term papetier was loosely used to designate the makers of all kinds of paper no matter what " B r i q u e t , pp. 163-165; Marcel Berthon, Les Associations professionelles et ouvrieres en Auvergne au XVIII' siecle (Poitiers, 1935), p. 42; Maurice T i f f o n , L'Industrie du papier ά Angouleme (Bordeaux, 1909), pp. 11-13, Francisque Michel, Histoire du commerce et de la navigation ä Bordeaux, 2 vols. (Bordeaux, 1867-1870), II, 245-248· 7 Henri Jean Martin, "L'fidition parisienne au X V I I " si£cle," Annales: economies, societes, civilisations, 7" annee, no. 3 (juillet-septembre, 1952), 311-313; Elizabeth Armstrong, Robert Estienne: Royal Printer (Cambridge, Eng., 1954), p. 57; Jean Baptiste Louis Crevier, Histoire de l'Universite de Paris, 7 vols. (Paris, 1761), III, 390; Henri Jean Martin, "Livre et de la librairie (Histoire du)," Dictionnaire des lettres franfaises: le XVII' siecle, ed. Georges Grente (Paris, 1954), pp. 625-626; Eug£ne Campredon, Le Papier (Paris, 1901), pp. 3-7; H. Bourde de la Rogerie, "Notes sur les papeteries a u x environs de Morlaix," Bulletin historique et philologique du comite des travaux historiques et scientifiques, 1911, pp. 312-363. 8 Ren£ de Lespinasse, Les Metiers et corporations de la ville de Paris, 3 vols. (Paris, 1886-1897), III, 671. "Crevier, V, 89, 156-158, 261, 327-329. 10 Lespinasse, III, 672-675; Crevier, VI, 116-117.

892

AUXILIARY TRADES

the ultimate purpose might be, whether the printing of fine editions or the wrapping of spices. T h e term also covered not only the retail dealers in letter paper, ink, pens, and what we now call "office supplies," 11 but the middlemen in the large cities who acted as agents for the manufacturers, selling wholesale to printers and publishers as well as to retailers. More fundamental was the nature of the manufacturing process itself. Each master had to concentrate attention on his own group of temperamental workmen, far from his markets and the ultimate consumers of his product. Mass legislation could never cover all the local variations of distinct regions. Here and there, as at Thiers and at Ambert, some grouping might be found in a brotherhood, an association of masters and journeymen, but it was only for religious and charitable purposes. O n the whole the masters were never united, and the craft was free. Almost the only trace of guild influence was recognition of the grades of master, journeyman, and apprentice. 12 About 1570 the masters in Auvergne seem to have adopted a formal guild organization, which was legally recognized by an arret of 30 April 1584; but no documents on the subject can be discovered. T h e edicts of 1581 and 1587 commanding all craftsmen to form guilds evoked no sign of obedience among the paper men. In 1582 Henry III issued a law for Thiers fixing the weight of the ream for various brands and the dimensions of the sheet, the number of sheets in a quire and of quires in a ream, and also setting up some inspectors; but after a few months these requirements lapsed. 13 General regulations were issued in April 1599 specifying the qualifications for masters, journeymen, and apprentices, and defining briefly the duties of the two wardens who were to be elected each year. But the document contains no definite instructions regarding the implementation of the rules or for the functioning of a corporate organization. When in the 1630's Richelieu revived the government's interest in the various crafts, he established an inspector or surveyor in " A l f r e d Franklin, Dictionnaire historique des arts, metiers, et professions exerces dans Paris depuis le XIII' stiele (Paris, 1906), p. 53g. 12 Henri Gazel, Les Anciens ouvriers papetiers d'Auvergne (Clermont-Ferrand, 1910), pp. 20-25, 173-182. " G a z e l , pp. 28-31.

PAPERMAKING

293

14

each one, including papermaking. The latter was still further drawn within the general pattern by statutes issued in December 1659, but there is nothing distinctive about the rules; with a mere change of designation they would have applied to any craft. In 1670, however, the masters of Auvergne were so foolish as to attract Colbert's attention by increasing the price of paper ordered for the King, and the result was a new law (21 July 1671) for the craft applicable to mills throughout the country. This law went into minute detail on many steps of manufacture and on the relations between masters and journeymen. Still more burdensome was the tax law promulgated in June 1680, with exact instructions to masters, tax clerks, carriers, and consignees regarding compliance. Emphasis is still, however, on the individual mill and its master, not, as in the case of printing, upon the existence of an organization to act as the representative for a town or a district. 15 The code of 1723 of course says nothing about the management of the paper business. It merely repeats the earlier requirements that printers must use good paper and that only fully accredited members of the guild may sell old parchment and waste paper. Competition becomes evident again in the law of 14 April 1725 which forbids cardboard makers and dealers to sell any paper by the ream, quire, or sheet.16 The law of 30 December 1727, passed in an effort to halt a great decline in the craft, renews earlier specifications regarding details of manufacture, sorting sheets, collecting rags, and general conditions of work. It also establishes a group of inspectors for the region of Ambert, where there had been none before. 17 In the face of continuing deterioration the government finally on 27 January 1739 issued a far more drastic and detailed law which came to be considered as the official code for papermaking. There are sixty-one articles covering every step of manufacture, setting up a guild organization, and laying down rules of management. A vigorous protest arose at once because it was technically 14 Henri Sie, Histoire economique de la France, 2 vols. (Paris, 1939-1942), I, 260; Briquet, p. 171. 15 Isambert, Jourdan, Decrusy, Recueil general des anciennes lots jrangaises, 29 vols. (Paris, 1821-1833), X I X , 244-246. " Lespinasse, III, 677. "Briquet, p. 169; Gazel, p. 31.

294

AUXILIARY TRADES

impossible to carry out many of the requirements. 18 A revision issued 28 September 1741 offered some relief. 19 But even then the code was a dead letter. That it was written by bureaucrats unaware of practical difficulties was enough to condemn it at once.20 T h e costs of setting up a paper mill and the risks of the business were so great that only thoroughly competent men were attracted to the venture, and they did not propose to be dictated to by officials from Paris or any other town. Nor did they propose to allow their rivals, acting for the nonce as accredited inspectors, to cast an appraising eye upon the confidential aspects of their establishment. After 1750 at latest the formality of receiving masters was abandoned; the apprentice became a journeyman when his master thought he had had sufficient instruction, and the journeyman became a master when he had enough capital to buy a mill. The guild, such as it was, petered out and the craft was free again. Until the Revolution two wardens were elected in most districts each year, but their chief duty was to accompany the regional inspector of manufactures on his visits. Few paper mills were owned by the master in charge of actual operations. Generally the property belonged to a nobleman living at Court, to an ecclesiastical foundation, or to a religious congregation. It was rented to a tenant or contractor (Jermier) — who also was an absentee in most cases — for a fixed period and for a predetermined sum payable either in money or in kind or in both; one mill in Angoumois was rented during the seventeenth century for 240 livres a year plus four reams of paper. The contractor was often a great Flemish or Dutch or even an English merchant and might be a master craftsman himself who had gathered enough money for the speculation, though in the majority of cases he selected a master for technical processes.21 The contractor's own part usually was to advance capital to the master 18

Lalande, pp. 89-97; Emile Isnard, "Les Papeteries de Provence au XVIII" si£cle," Memoires et documents pour servir ä l'histoire du commerce et de l'industrie en France, ed. Julien Hayem, 4° s6rie (Paris, igi6), pp. 49-50. "Lalande, pp. 99-102. 20 Alexandre Nicolai, Histoire des moulins a papier du sud-ouest de la France, 1300-1800, 2 vols. (Bordeaux, 1935), I, 21; Gazel, pp. 32-35. 21 TifFon, pp. 35-40; Campredon, pp. 7-14; Albert Garronat, L'industrie du papier ä Annonay (Lyon, 1926), pp. 173-176.

PAPERMAKING

295

to keep the enterprise going, attend to the distribution of the product, order shipments according to his customers' needs, pay the rent to the owner, and look out for all the other outside details. H e generally advanced from three to four thousand livres per vat, and the master was obliged to return such sums without interest when he retired. T h e contractor's net annual profit might run as high as three thousand livres per vat. B u t though his income might be much greater than that of the owner of the property, he was considered of lower rank socially. T h e master was a man who had worked up through the grades of apprentice and journeyman, in some instances had presented a chef-d'oeuvre to prove his skill, and as the son or even grandson of a papermaker was thoroughly familiar with the traditions of the craft. 22 H e lived on the job. H e himself was likely to take care of the delicate operation of sizing, and he spent much time in inspecting the work of his men at each step, especially the final sorting of the sheets. H e was u p at night to regulate the fermentation and beating. 23 H e dealt with the collectors w h o brought in the rags, and with the carters w h o transported the paper over the dangerous roads to the warehouse of the contractor. T h e n he had to manage the men — and also the women employees. His basic interest was to cut down costs of labor and overhead. T h e master was free, it is true, from many of the troubles faced by managers in other crafts. T h e code of 1739 exempted him from the troublesome job of collecting the taille (income tax) and from lodging soldiers and the militia. H e did not have to worry about markets and fluctuations in price. A t the beginning of the year he arranged with the contractor for supplying the whole output at a fixed price and in fixed sizes. H e was — in spite of labor troubles — the head of a familial industry, with all the personal responsibilities and satisfactions that come from handling a group of dependents in an isolated region. W h i l e his wife and her women prepared the daily food for the community, he and his men spent the long dry days of summer together in the fields or in the orchards surrounding the mill. A l l ate at the same table, all worked at the same tasks. 22

Nicolai, I, 55-59.

^ A p c h e r , p. 28.

296

AUXILIARY TRADES

Financially the master's position was at least as good as that of his immediate superior, the contractor. In the middle of the eighteenth century his profit was about 3000 livres a year, and by 1789 this sum had risen to 3751 francs.24 At the same time there was a long-term appreciation in the value of his investment. A case in point is that of the Johannot firm. On 24 April 1634 the brothers Barthelemy and Matthieu Johannot of Ambert bought a grain mill, to be converted to papermaking, in the village of Fays just outside the walls of Annonay; the price was 1600 livres. On 26 June they bought additional fields and water rights for 400 livres. A century later the value of the installation and equipment was at least from 18,000 to 20,000 livres. Although the central government never succeeded in imposing full guild organization on the industry, it made numerous efforts to control the mastership. In 1659 it decreed that no one should act as master unless he had been formally received by the police of his district and had his name entered on a register. The chief requirements were previous training as apprentice for four years and as journeyman for two, and presentation of proof of adherence to the Catholic faith; 25 these data were specified again in 1739. On the day of his reception he was obliged to contribute eleven livres to the regional brotherhood of St. Jean Porte Latine for social purposes. T h e mastership fee varied from time to time: twelve livres ten sols in 1571 and 1584; fifty livres to the "guild" and fifty to the wardens in 1659; one hundred and fifty livres and the "ordinary" fees in 1694. A widow was allowed to continue her husband's business, and a widow or daughter could release an apprentice from his service by marrying him. Once a month a master had to comply with certain civic duties. He had to present to the nearest tax office a declaration covering the general situation in his mill, the weight of rags he had on hand, and the quantity, weight, and quality of paper he had made in the previous month. Each batch of paper had to be taken to the tax office one month after sizing, there to be marked and wrapped and recorded by the clerks in their registers.26 24 25 M

Tiffon, pp. 38-40. Lespinasse, III, 676-677. Isambert, X I X , 244-246.

PAPERMAKING

297

Division of labor prevailed in the paper mill. The master's wife, with one or two women helpers, was responsible for the preparation of food. Directly under the master was a foreman who was in charge of all manufacturing details — the two or three women who sorted the rags into heaps, the four journeymen and one or two apprentices at each vat, and the three or four women who hung the sheets on the driers before and after sizing, smoothed and sorted them, and finally wrapped each ream. A mill with two vats might thus employ twenty or twenty-two people. 27 In 1780 the Angoumois district, with twenty-five mills and thirty-three vats, had six hundred workers.28 On the other hand three of the one-vat mills in Languedoc in 1786 had six workers each; another had thirteen, not counting apprentices.29 Each establishment of course needed a varying number of men to collect rags through the countryside. During the seventeenth century the average number of workers at any one time was two thousand at Ambert, five hundred at Thiers, and three hundred at Chamalieres, with a total of three thousand for the whole of Auvergne. 30 In 1717, however, the number declined to scarcely fifteen hundred. The population of all the district fluctuated a great deal in accordance with the prosperity or decline of the trade. There was a very great decrease after the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685, for many of the workers were Protestants and therefore found happier surroundings in Holland and Switzerland. The loss of such skilled craftsmen was a severe blow to the industry. The journeymen were always nomads, wandering from mill to mill and from town to town. 31 In order to check the validity of numerous reports regarding the instability of labor, Gazel examined the lists of married workers in the sixteen or seventeen mills of Thiers for 1751 and 1754 and again for 1763 and 1765; he found that in 1754 only ten journeymen had not left the master 27 Gazel, pp. 47-54; Campdredon, pp. 9-14. ^ T i f f o n , p. 22. 29 Henri Stein, "Les Papeteries de Castres a la fin du X V I I I e siecle," Bibliographe moderne, X X I (1922-1923), 5 - 7 . 30 These figures may seem to contradict the previous statement that the mills were isolated, but it must be remembered that in the ancien regime communication between villages was extremely difficult because of poor roads. 31 Nicolai, I, 81.

298

AUXILIARY TRADES

for whom they worked in 1751, and in 1765 only nine were still in the service of the master of 1763.32 Until 1671 the masters had no legal way to cope with such a situation. T h e law of that year forbade journeymen and apprentices to leave a master before the end of six months' service and then only after giving six weeks' notice. Masters, on the other hand, were forbidden to discharge a man without six weeks' notice or to hire a man who could not show a discharge card from his previous master. If a discontented worker tried sabotage in order to force his release, he was condemned to the same penalty he would have incurred if he had left before completing his six months' term, that is, a fine of one hundred livres. T h e requirement of six weeks' notice was repeated in the laws of 1732 and 1739. T h e law of 1739 also threatened with a heavy penalty any master guilty of trying to induce another's workmen to make a change; this practice seems to have been as common here as it was among the printers. Throughout the eighteenth century, too, the government kept a careful but not wholly successful check on representatives of foreign mill owners in order to prevent emigration, especially to Spain and Italy. Outstanding among the disruptive forces in the labor situation was the prevalence of drunkenness. This was evidently excessive, by any standards. W i n e was cheap and abundant, and the men lost no pretext for stopping work to take a drink. 33 When a man was received as journeyman, he had to pay a fee, which consisted of a feast lasting two or three days for all the journeymen in the district. Whenever he went on to a higher position in the mill, another feast was in order. 34 When he abandoned his job, for no matter what cause, he went to the next mill and demanded his rente, that is, several drinks of wine. If he was not drunk already, he went to the next mill and so on down the river, consuming as much as he could before asking for work. 35 T h e men insisted Gazel, pp. 109-110. Henri See, L'Evolution commerciale et industrielle de la France sous I'ancien rdgime (Paris, 1925), p. 339; Gazel, pp. 187-228; Berthon, pp. 95-97; Briquet, pp. 173174. S4 Garonnat, pp. 176-186; Berthon, pp. 102-106; Germain Martin, Lois, edits, arrets, et reglements sur les associations ouvrieres au XVIII' siecle (Paris, 1900), pp. 87-88; T i f f o n , p. 44. 86 Sie, Evolution, p. 176. 82

33

PAPERMAKING

299

on having every afternoon free, on the pretext that they had to attend the religious services of the Brotherhood; but such gatherings were always followed by drinking bouts. If a man could not hold his liquor, he had to pay a fine to buy more for the others. Funerals and weddings were natural occasions for unlimited drinking. There were numerous attempts at reform. In 1733 Trudaine tried to cut down the number of Brotherhood meetings by suppressing the office of Chief in the groups; and when a strike was called in protest, he fined the richest of the men a hundred livres. When the Montgolfiers — a family of keen businessmen — were called to the Dauphine in 1765 to reorganize the ruined mills at Rives, they pointed out two main troubles: first, the poor quality of the workers, and, next, excessive drinking. They recommended that much less wine be served and that it be watered one-third. 36 Workmen seem to have been fairly well paid though they were continually agitating for higher wages, especially if they discovered any increase in a neighboring district. Through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and indeed until about 1751, the pay included food, room, laundry, and sometimes two sets of clothing. 37 Three meals a day were provided. A t Annonay in the middle of the eighteenth century dinner was a bowl of soup, a piece of butcher's meat, and bacon or salt pork. For tea there were soup, vegetables (a mixture of peas, beans, truffles, and the like), and a bit of Gruyere cheese. Soup was served for supper and breakfast. Wine went with each meal, and when the men worked overtime they had a snack of a pot of wine and some bread. T h e annual quantities of food for four men amounted to forty charges of wine, fifty septiers of wheat, four pigs, seven or eight hundredweight of butcher's meat, four minots of salt, three hundredweight of nut oil (for seasoning), five or six thousand eggs, one hundredweight of dried codfish or hake, and a large quantity of red truffles.38 According to a document of 1759 from Auvergne, the three meals of the five journeymen and two apprentices working for a certain 3 e Gazel, pp. 154-157; Germain Martin, "Les Papeteries," pp. 140-142; Germain Martin, La Grande Industrie sous Louis XV (Paris, 1900), pp. 326-329. "7 See, Histoire, I, 283. 38 Germain Martin, La Grande Industrie, pp. 284- 286.

3oo

AUXILIARY TRADES

master who had one vat cost an average of fifteen sols for each man, a total per diem cost of five livres five sols; the annual total, counting 296 work days, came to 1554 livres. The cost of food for a woman was six sols a day, or an annual total of 355 livres for the four employed at the vat. This master thus spent 1909 livres a year for food. If a mill had four vats, as many of them had, the annual expense for food, especially in times of famine, was a heavy burden. 39 In 1751 the masters and workmen of Angouleme agreed to give up the supplying of food and to use the following money scale: workers at the vat, twenty-one to twenty-four livres a month; apprentices, fifteen livres; inspectors, twelve livres; sizers, twentyfour livres; women sorting rags, ten sols per bundle. T h e rag collector, who needed two or three horses, got wages of from ninety to a hundred livres a month plus ten sols a day.40 In 1772 the workmen at Thiers received twenty-seven to thirty-three livres a month, or three hundred and twenty-four to three hundred and ninety-six livres a year. This had risen in 1778 to thirty to thirtysix livres a month or three hundred and sixty to four hundred and thirty-two livres a year. In 1789 women got twenty livres a month. It was thus possible for a married couple at Thiers to earn in 1789 more than six hundred livres a year. 41 Wages at Annonay and Vidalon were much higher, and in addition the men at each vat were given four sols four deniers at the end of each day. In 1786 the wages at Castres were somewhat less. In most places there was payment for extra hours of work. Besides the fifty-two Sundays there were nearly forty other holidays in the year. The men demanded and received wages for all these nonworking days. There were, of course, many other causes that might lead to cessation of work — drought in summer, ice in winter, flood, war, increases in the cost of rags, increases in taxes, fluctuations in the demand for printing. But in comparison with other industries there was little enforced idleness.12 The average length of the working day was twelve hours. The 39

Gazel, pp. 76-84. Nicolai, I, 72; Tiffon, pp. 48-49. Gazel, pp. 88-90. 42 Berthon, p. 98; Gazel, pp. 91-99.

40 41

PAPERMAKING

301

men had the habit of beginning at midnight in order to finish about noon and thus have the afternoon for spending in a tavern. This was a distinct hardship for masters and foremen, for most of their duties had to be performed during the day and they could not attend to business both night and day. There was, too, a great expense for candles, and because of the poor lighting the quality of the paper suffered and thieving was easy. T h e law of 1727 forbade workmen to begin before three in the morning, and the code of 1739 stipulated that half of the day's work must be done before noon and half after. All attempts to change the customary hours were, however, unsuccessful. Women worked, as a rule, from five in the morning to four or five in the afternoon, with an hour out in the middle of the day.43 T h e quasi-religious brotherhoods seem to have been much stronger among the paper workers than among the printers. In the seventeenth century, after the masters withdrew from them, they became devoted solely to the consolidation and maintenance of labor rights and craft customs. At first perhaps only local, they formed a national network by the middle of the eighteenth century. T h e y did not, however, bear any resemblance to the compagnonnages in many other crafts. Each group worked locally to prevent outsiders from coming into the mills of the region, opposed increases in the number of apprentices, defended the right to collect fees on all sorts of pretexts, refused to work on other than the traditional schedule, and in general fought for better wages, food, and living conditions. 44 T o enforce their demands they levied heavy fines on both masters and fellow members and backed up such action by instilling fear. Failure to comply with a judgment might put a timid master out of business entirely and would certainly prevent a recalcitrant worker from getting employment in any other mill in the country. T h e readiest weapon against the master was the strike. W e have accounts of very many of these from the late seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries. In most cases the point at issue was a minor, almost a familial one, and work would not stop for more " Berthon, pp. 102-106; Briquet, p. 169; Gazel, pp. 69-76. Sie, Evolution, p. 347.

44

AUXILIARY TRADES

302

than a day or two. Whenever a master took a firm stand, he was likely to win. A t any rate, old Pierre Montgolfier, who ruled with an iron hand, had no labor troubles for over sixty years. Apprenticeship in the paper industry shows little variation from that in printing and most other trades, though it was perhaps less formal. Few written contracts are to be found in the archives. Starting often as young as ten years of age, though the legal minimum was twelve, a boy was supposed to serve from six to eight years, but from two to three was the actual custom. As soon as he showed the necessary skill, he became a journeyman and received regular wages without waiting for the termination of the contract. Sons of masters, who did not need practical skill so much as managerial ability, were obliged to serve an apprenticeship but only to remain with a father or widowed mother to the age of sixteen. When the apprentice began his term, he paid a fee of thirty livres and in addition gave a present of twenty-eight pints of wine each month to the journeyman who acted as his immediate teacher. After 1751 this was changed to a gift of forty sols a month. 45 As the power of the journeymen increased, they insisted upon certain limitations for apprentices. No one was admitted unless he belonged to a papermaking family or was the son of a master or of a journeyman. Although the law of 1739 refused to confirm this "custom," it continued in practice. In 1776 the intendant Desmarets, who was eager to improve the paper trade in every way, proposed a reform that would have had a far-reaching effect upon the status of apprentices in all crafts. Writing to a correspondent in Bordeaux, he suggested the establishment of a model mill, complete with the most recent and perfect machines, which should become a national center of instruction. Various provinces would contribute to the expenses. Several months later the plan was still under discussion, for he wrote to Necker in 1778 suggesting that it would be better to meet the costs by contributions from the towns that sent pupils rather than by contributions from the provinces. 46 If only Desmarets had been able to carry out the scheme, he would have been distinguished 45

Gazel, pp. 55-68; Tiffon, pp. 43-44. Nicolai, I, 45-47.

PAPERMAKING

303

as the founder of one of the pioneer vocational schools of the world. During most of the ancien regime, and especially in the eighteenth century, the paper industry suffered from scarcity of raw materials as much as from the undependability of labor. In spite of every effort to protect the claims of each district,47 rags were shipped from one to another and to foreign countries. Over the years there was naturally a tremendous increase in the cost. In the middle of the sixteenth century old rags were worth from fifty to sixty sols per charge (three hundred pounds). In 173g the price was nineteen livres per charge·, in 1779, from twenty-five to thirty livres; in 1789, about twenty-five livres.48 T h e daily production rate of a mill varied of course according to the brands demanded by customers' orders. It was possible to turn out only one ream a day of grand-aigle measuring 36 1 /2 inches by 28 3/4 inches and weighing 130 pounds to the ream. On the other hand a vat could produce four reams of grand raisin, while of still smaller sizes five, seven, or nine reams were possible. In Angoumois each vat was supposed to turn out twenty porses a day, the porse varying from seven to nine quires with a total weight of about a hundred pounds. In other centers the rate was higher but the paper not so good. In 1780 Angoumois produced an annual average of 700,000 kilograms, valued at 700,000 francs.49 T h e famous mills at Annonay, owned partly by the Montgolfiers and partly by the Johannots, did a very large export as well as domestic business. Pierre Montgolfier's total annual sales were more than eight thousand quintals (1,763,698 American pounds or 882 tons). T h e Johannots manufactured only about a fifth of this amount. 50 As a rule the Dupuy mills at La Grandrive turned out from one to eight reams a day from each of the four vats, according to weight, size, and quality. From 1747 to 1754 they averaged 118 tons a year, worth 92,680 livres. From 1760 to 1764, a war period, " Germain Martin, La Grande Industrie, pp. 243, 27. 48 Tiffon, p. 28. "Lalande, p. 104; Tiffon, pp. 29, 22. 60 Germain Martin, "Les Papeteries," pp. 138-140; Garonnat, pp. 123-125.

AUXILIARY TRADES

3«4

the average fell to 80 tons, worth 59,800 livres. The average went up with the restoration of peace and reached 96 tons, worth 74,000 livres, from 1765 to 178ο. 51 A somewhat comparable curve may be traced in the value of the product in Auvergne in the middle third of the eighteenth century: 52 1738 1740 !745 W 1758 1770

811,600 livres 645,100 " 601,250 " 554.300 " 687,150 " 1,000,000 "

So long as papermaking was more or less under University control, it enjoyed the customary academic freedom from taxation. Henry II repeated the exemption in 1552, but Charles I X canceled it in 1564. Freedom was restored by letters patent of 14 August 1565, which were confirmed by Henry IV in 1595· 33 In the next hundred years the struggle went back and forth — taxes were levied in 1633, suppressed in 1648, re-established for a brief period in 1652, and finally revived in 1680. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the great variety of imposts made an exorbitant total.84 Long before then the price to the ultimate consumer was double the price at the mill door, partly because of transportation charges but more because of taxes. Reporting to Colbert in 1670, Antoine Vitre said that consumers in Paris could no longer use paper from Angouleme, that is, the finest qualities. He asserted that this decline in the home market demand had greatly cut down the activity of the mills. After Colbert the government tried to favor the industry by granting the workers special privileges such as exemption from the billeting of soldiers and from service in the militia (laws of 1725 and 1739). But this did not touch the fundamental difficulty; war and taxes shut off both internal and external markets, and the 51 52 53 61

Apcher, pp. 50-57, 94. Briquet, pp. 1 7 6 - 1 7 7 . Lespinasse, III, 675; Crevier, VI, 163. Gazel, pp. 15-20.

PAPERMAKING

305

emigration of thousands of Protestants drained off the most expert workers into England and Holland. In 1750, for instance, one master at Ambert faced an increase from 198 to 896 livres in taxes. A levy on rags and glue, delays caused by arbitrary rules of inspection, river tolls, customs duties, insistence upon the employment of official porters — such were only a few of the annoying barriers to trade. In 1759 and again in 1767 the Montgolfiers and the Johannots retained Jacques Montgolfier, their wholesaling representative in Paris, to bring their interests personally to the attention of the government. Since he had little success, Pierre Montgolfier finally proposed in 1782 that all duties and tolls should be abolished and replaced by a tax at the source, that is, on each active vat in each mill. The authorities were much interested, but his recommendations were not carried out until the time of the Revolution (law of 17 March 1791). It is hard to overemphasize the natural obstacles to trade presented by difficulties of transportation in the ancien regime. The printers of Lyon, it is true, were especially favored by having many mills in near proximity to the city, and the early printers of Paris were supplied from the neighborhood of Troyes, a comparatively short distance away. But in most cases shipments overland had to go in rude carts along muddy or dusty trails. Since all paper mills were situated in wild mountainous regions, the carter's troubles were multitudinous from the very start of his trip. His day's journey was lonely unless a band of robbers pounced upon him in the midst of the wilderness. He often had to camp out at night. In case of accident to horses or wagon, not to mention himself, he had no help. Transportation risks and costs were of course lower if shipment could be made at least partly by water. The Dupuys of La Grandrive shipped by boat to Orleans and then forwarded by cart to Paris. Bordeaux and La Rochelle developed a considerable activity as points of shipment by sea to dealers in northern countries.55 The Dutch are said to have paid less for French paper, as a matter of fact, than the Paris printers did. 58 H. J . Martin, "Livre," pp. 625-626; H. J . Martin, "L'£dition," pp. 3 1 1 - 3 1 3 ; Apcher, pp. 29-31.

306

AUXILIARY

TRADES

In the eighteenth century paper had, for all the various reasons we have considered, become so highly competitive an article that the government made an attempt to prevent any cornering of the market by an arret of 12 December 1730 which forbade the individual tenant to make any contract for the sale of all the product of a mill to a single customer. T h e sale of any one brand or combination of brands to a buyer could not exceed one quarter of the total output. T h e r e was nothing in the code of 1739 or any later law to revoke this limitation. 5 6 A s we have already said, the contractor or tenant of the mill was responsible for sales. H e was often a Flemish or D u t c h merchant who began as agent for English or other foreign customers or who bought on his own account. M a n y of these merchants finally settled d o w n in the district and became tenants ready to advance capital to masters. In the sixteenth century the tenant shipped to the four sworn dealers w h o were officials of the University, and the printers could b u y only f r o m these officials. T h i s situation changed with the ending of academic control. T h e r e a f t e r the printers in L y o n and other provincial cities continued in general to supply their needs by the old method of direct purchase from mills at no great distance f r o m their establishments. In Paris also some printers sent direct orders to nearby mills, b u t most of the Paris sales after 1600 were made through agents or correspondents. T h e Montgolfiers had sales agents and depots in 1739 at Paris, Orleans, Roanne, Saint Rambert, Lyon, and Serrieres, keeping a stock of 3120 reams at these places. Matthew Johannot and his sons maintained warehouses in the same towns and kept a supply of 6350 reams on hand. In the middle of the eighteenth century the Paris agent of the D u p u y mills included among his customers the Anissons at the Imprimerie Royale, the Estiennes, the Baillys, Jombert, the Academie des Sciences, Petit, and others. Large paper transactions could not be handled on a cash basis and therefore the tenants and agents engaged more or less in a real credit business. Payment for rags and sizing material, for wages, and for general overhead could not wait upon the slowness of the publishers in paying their printers. O n l y the discounting of notes and letters of exchange through a bank could take care of the diffi03

Lalande, p. 97n.

PAPERMAKING

307

culty. After 1673 the endorsing of commercial paper became common. Thomas Dupuy, for instance, who seldom used cash or direct exchange of merchandise, consigned paper to his agents in Paris or Lyon and at the same time sent them a note to cover. 57 Perhaps the most intricate and extended accounts we have are those of the Barbou family, who engaged in every operation connected with the book trade. T h e parent house was at Limoges and there was a flourishing branch in Paris. In the early eighteenth century Jean Barbou of Limoges contracted with a number of paper masters for all their output, and among these was the mill on the Vienne River owned by his sister-in-law. In 1711 there were total shipments of 1180 reams valued at 3133 livres; in 1712, a total of 1750 reams, worth 5445 livres; in 1 7 1 4 a total of 3146 reams, worth 12,084 livres. T h e sister-in-law evidently sent out her own shipments but she passed on to Jean the various bills on her customers in Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Angers, and he filled her orders for equipment and merchandise. T h e Limoges house and the Paris branch office settled accounts at frequent intervals. 58 After 1740 the amount of business in paper between the two diminished a great deal, probably as a result of the law of 1730. When we consider the importance of the foreign trade in paper over the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, it seems strange that the government should have pursued a policy of rigorous technical controls and heavy taxation which resulted only in ruin. About 1650 France supplied more than ten thousand reams a year to Spain, more than 200,000 reams to England, and more than 400,000 reams to Holland, Scandinavia, and Russia. By 1670, however, the total exports had dropped to 300,000 reams,59 and by the end of the century they were still lower. It was not until the second half of the eighteenth century that easing of restrictions brought relief and the return of a large measure of prosperity. T h e price of paper by the ream fluctuated a good deal during the ancien regime, with a general tendency to increase. Robert (I) Estienne bought all his supply from the Pietrequin family of Troyes, then the center of the trade; in 1515 he paid fifteen sols •"Apcher, p. 32. M Ducourtieux, pp. 177-179, 166. 69 H. J. Martin, p. 312, ni.

308

AUXILIARY TRADES

per ream, but in 1524 and in 1550 the price had gone up to twenty sols.60 When Jehan Le Charron, the bookseller and paper merchant of Paris, died in 1557, an inventory of his stock showed a valuation of 1004 livres for several sorts of paper.61 The figure would indicate a very large supply. The inventory of a Bordeaux merchant, dated 15 April 1665, is small in comparison and probably represents only a stationer's stock for retail trade; but the prices of twenty-seven sols, sixteen sols, and twenty-five sols for varying sizes are worth noting.62 Between 1650 and 1670 the scale for printing papers increased more than one third. In 1670 the fine paper from Angouleme cost three livres five sols per ream, the freight to Paris was thirty sols, and there was a tax of sixteen sols. At the same time a substitute cost from twenty to seventy-five sols, with a tax of twelve sols. Thomas Dupuy in 1700 sold Anisson and Rigaud about twentyone tons of fine brands (raisin, ecu, carre) valued at 15,620 livres.63 The Barbou family generally used the carre, which measured 38 by 50 cm and weighed sixteen or eighteen pounds per ream. The price varied from 54 sols to 4 livres in the early eighteenth century with an average of 31.7 sols. In the Barbou accounts paper is sometimes designated by the name of the book in which it was to be used; for example, "the Virgul" was used in Catron's edition of Virgil. This cost 4 livres a ream. Again, the name "the St. Chrysostome" was similarly used; it cost from 4 livres 15 sols 6 deniers to 6 livres 10 sols. Prices increased from 1700 onward; the brand known as moyen cost 3 livres 10 sols in 1723-1726, and grand raisin was 6 livres 10 sols.64 After 1740 the Barbou family was less successful and their place as the leading paper dealers of the country was taken by the Dupuy family of La Grandrive. In 1740 Jean Joseph Dupuy sold to Anisson, the Director of the Imprimerie Royale, seventy-three bales, a total of more than thirty-nine tons, or 3896 reams. They were of fine or medium grades, and were valued at 32,140 livres. In 1744 Armstrong, p. 57. J e r o m e Pichon et Georges Vicaire, Documents pour servir ä l'histoire des libraires de Paris, 1486-1600 (Paris, 1895), PP· 2 43~ 2 4462 Michel, II, 485. 83 Apcher, p. 3 1 . M Ducourtieux, pp. 166, 175-176. 60 m

PAPERMAKING

309

the widow Estienne in Paris ordered from him three thousand reams of couronne longue in a special size for the collected edition of Massillon. 65 Thomas (II) Dupuy, grandson of the founder of the mills, was even more successful. From 1747 to 1780 his mills sent out more than 3300 tons valued at 2,765,000 livres; that is, annually about 100 tons, worth some 83,500 livres — twice as much as his father and a very high total for the time. But the price per ream of colombier fin weighing 100 pounds had gone from 45 livres in 1 7 1 9 to 55 livres in 1755 and to 100 francs in 1798; and a ream of aigle fin weighing 150 pounds rose from 71 livres 5 sols in 1755 to 76 livres 10 sols in 1757 and to 145 francs in 1798.®" Lalande gives a most interesting balance sheet for a mill in 1 7 6 1 . T h e first item on the expense side is 600 cwt. of rags, the quantity needed to keep operations going for a year without interruption. This would yield 400 cwt. of pulp, which would make three thousand reams of grand format. At an average of 8 livres per cwt. this would amount to 4800 livres for the rags. Sizing would cost 2 1 0 livres; alum, 40 livres; cloth, 150 livres; wages for workers at the vat (cash and food), 1356 livres; wages for the women who sorted the rags, 463 livres; wood and charcoal, 150 livres; maintenance of the mill, grease, and soap, 100 livres; a total of 7269 livres of expenses. He considered that there would be three hundred working days in the year, on each of which ten reams would be made, each weighing twelve to fourteen pounds. T w o cwt. of pulp would make 1 4 1 9 reams of first-quality paper weighing fourteen pounds each, worth 5 livres a ream; total, 7 1 4 5 livres. Another 133 cwt. would yield 1 1 1 1 reams of second quality, weighing twelve pounds and worth 4 livres a ream; total, 4444 livres. T h e remaining 67 cwt. would give 1 1 1 1 reams of small size weighing six pounds each, worth 30 sols a ream; total, 1666 livres. T h e total revenue would come to 13,255 livres; profit, about 6000 livres. A l l this is based on the supposition that there is no waste, but experience shows, he says, that even in a good mill more than a tenth of the paper turns out to be defective. Nevertheless there is enough profit to interest manufacturers. 67 65

Apcher, p. 69. Apcher, pp. 94, 89-91 67 Lalande, pp. 83-85. M

310

AUXILIARY TRADES CHAPTER

BOOK

XV

ILLUSTRATION

D u r i n g the ancien regime engravings were, as they still are, a matter of lively interest to many consumers other than the printers and publishers of books. T h e makers of playing cards, of wallpaper, and of decorated papers for a wide range of uses, depended upon the designers and engravers. T h e trade in loose prints as separate works of art was very large, and the historic collections of them are among the treasures of the world. It is no wonder that the aesthetic point of view has predominated in most considerations of the subject. Quite aside from the masterpieces of illustration, an overwhelming delight is to be found even in the smallest decorated initials, in the garlands and bouquets used as headbands and tailpieces, and in the infinitely varied frames for portraits. Our inquiry, however, has little to do with this appeal to the eye. We must keep our attention on the fact that engravings were used to increase the sales value of a book and were therefore an item of expense in the publisher's calculations. Book buyers demanded illustrations and decorations, and somebody had to pay the costs. Although there were always very close relations between engravers and book printers, the two groups were entirely distinct. Loose prints were generally sold directly by the engraver from the shop connected with his studio 1 or else by booksellers as a side line. In the second half of the sixteenth century the print dealers separated from the book dealers and formed an independent branch of commerce that quickly became well organized. Print sellers henceforth gained publicity for their wares through personal channels, exhibitions, and subscription offers,2 while small dealers, colporters, and haberdashers took care of the fringe market as they did in the case of books. Illustration was nothing new when the printed book arrived. 1 T . H. Thomas, French Portrait Engraving of the XVII and XVIII Centuries (London, 1919), p. 6. ! Hans Fürstenberg, Das französische Buch im achtzehnten Jahrhundert und in der Empirezeit (Weimar, 1929), pp. 130, 133.

BOOK ILLUSTRATION

311

Practically all medieval manuscript books are brilliant with colored initials, miniatures illustrating the text, and intricate patterns of vine and flower work decorating the margins. T h e same sort of hand-decoration was added to the earliest printed books, so that the Gutenberg Bible, for instance, is as gorgeous a piece of work as any earlier (manuscript) volume. Within a very short time, however, the engraver supplanted the illuminator. Nevertheless the traditional division of labor continued. In the first place the publisher or printer-publisher had to decide whether a book were to be illustrated and, if so, just how much should be done. He must have found it necessary to consult the author; in fact it is often hard to make out whether author or publisher was the more actively concerned in this matter. Probably there was some preliminary agreement between the two and a good deal of conference with friendly advisers.3 Next came the selection of an artist or an artist-engraver; in many ways he corresponded in his department to the author of the text, for he had not only to conceive the design but to cooperate with various workmen in reproducing it. In the eighteenth century almost all the great painters except Watteau did some book illustrating. 4 After the middle of the seventeenth century most of them belonged to the Royal Academy of Painters and Sculptors and worked more or less under its regulations. 5 By this time they had a professional status and were no longer the simple craftsmen they had once been considered.® Engravers too had become professional workers and were also members of the Royal Academy and not in a class with the makers of seals, signet rings and other jewelry, book clasps, and the like. 7 And finally the publisher had to deal with the printers of engravings, who were united in a regular guild but were sharply differentiated from the letterpress printers. 8 3 Lion Rosenthal, La Gravüre (Paris, 1909), pp. 160-163; Jeanne Duportal, itude sur les livres ä figures edites en France de 1601 ä 1660 (Paris, 1914), pp. 46-47. ' L o u i s R£au, La Gravüre en France au XVIII' siecle: la gravure d'illustration (Paris, 1928), p. 91. 5 Rene de Lespinasse, Les Metiers et corporations de la ville de Paris, 3 vols. (Paris, 1886-1897), Π, 187-191. 6 Duportal, p. 109. 7 Rosenthal, p. 193; Lespinasse, 11,404. 8 Duportal, pp. 10, 76 ng.

312

AUXILIARY TRADES

During the ancien regime only two kinds of engraving were in use for illustrating: first, the woodcut; second, the copperplate (tailledouce). T h e former prevailed until about 1600, and then by a complete change of fashion there were none but copperplates until Papillon made rather unsuccessful attempts in the middle of the eighteenth century to go back to the earlier style. Wood engravings were made on a piece of smoothed pearwood about one inch thick, cut lengthwise out of the tree. Later it was found that boxwood cut across the grain gave a harder surface on which it was not so easy to make a slip of the knife. T h e artist drew his design directly on the wood in reverse or else on a piece of paper which was pasted face downward on the wood. With a small sharp knife and various other tools he then cut away all the areas that were to appear white in the final print. This left a surface of raised lines exactly like the surface of a piece of type.9 Occasionally, in fact, the engraving was done on a piece of metal instead of on wood. T h e block could thus be set in the midst of type and be printed on the ordinary press at the same time as the rest of the paper. Most of the sixteenth-century woodcuts in books are anonymous so that it is difficult to attribute them to any definite artist. Some of the greatest men, however, did not hesitate to help with important books either by supplying an exact sketch or by supervising the work of the craftsman who did the actual cutting of the block. 10 Sometimes the artist can be identified by the mention of his name in a preface or in some contemporary document, but this is never possible in the case of cheap editions and such ephemera as almanacs. 11 Generally there seem to have been intimate and friendly relations between artist and engraver that resulted in a happy collaboration. Because of the typographical nature of the woodcut, every printer gradually amassed a quantity of them in his stock and was in a position to lend other printers his decorated initials, headβ Henri Bouchot, " L a Preparation et la publication d'un livre illustri au X V I e si£cle, 1573-1588," Bibliotheque de l'&cole des chartes, L I I I (1892), 617-619; Duportal, pp. 78-80. 10 Charles Mortet, " L e Livre ä gravures du X V I 6 siede," Le Livre frangais (Paris, 1924), p. 50. 1 1 Robert Brun, Le Livre illustre en France au XVI' siecle (Paris, 1930), pp. 5-12; Thomas, pp. 6-9.

BOOK ILLUSTRATION

313

bands, tailpieces, and even his illustrations. T h a t one picture was made to do duty in a variety of possibly incongruous texts did not disturb either publisher or reader. W h e n Papillon tried to revive the taste for woodcuts, he urged their exchange value as a distinct advantage over copperplates and boasted that some of his blocks had given from sixty to eighty thousand, in one case half a million, impressions. 12 His statement is probably an exaggeration but at any rate there can be no doubt of the general utility and the cheapness of this form of ornamentation. 1 3 T h i s adaptability, however, was something that could have an appeal only to an age that had little feeling for the more delicate qualities of artistic production. T h e same may be said of the relative simplicity and coarseness of the woodcut itself as an aesthetic medium. 1 4 T h e subjects of the illustrations, too, and the books they were used in gradually failed to interest readers who had more or less shed the medieval tradition and were becoming conscious of themselves and the world around them. For in the livres a figures, which flourished in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the artist represented only characters he had never seen — saints, men and women from the Bible, heroes of chivalry. T h e transformation to the modern point of view was suddenly completed in 1600, after which date engraving on wood almost totally disappeared from books in the regular trade. Before leaving the subject of books illustrated by woodcuts we should consider a revealing document of the late sixteenth century preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale. 1 5 In 1573 Louis de Gonzague, due de Nevers, and his wife, Henriette de Cleves, set up a foundation to provide a dowry each year in perpetuity for sixty poor girls from their manor. T o advertise the benefaction they decided to publish a book explaining it. T h i s book was still unfinished in 1577 and the agent to w h o m they had entrusted the details wrote the duke a long letter about the delays he was having to face at the very end of the job. H e had laid in a supply of parchFürstenberg, pp. 156-157. Duportal, pp. 81-84. 14 Hans W . Singer and William Strang, Etching, Engraving, and the Other Methods of Printing Pictures (London, 1897), p. 13, suggest that the fifteenth-century eye did not see so many details as we do, and that this, rather than any imperfection of the hand, accounts for the character of early woodcuts. ^ B o u c h o t , pp. 612-623. 12 13

314

AUXILIARY TRADES

ment and paper all ready for immediate printing and also enough cardboard and sheepskin for binding a hundred copies. He advised, however, that the special copies for the duke's own use should be bound in red or black calfskin. A decision on this point should be reached at once because the presswork would take only a week. A second cause of trouble was that neither the notary Boreau nor his partner was willing to sign any copies without direct orders from the duke. Again, it would seem advisable to discard the sheets already printed and do them over again on better paper, but they could be used up in a less sumptuous edition for gifts to certain charitable and devout people who might thus be induced to add to the foundation. T h e greatest trouble came from an English artist who had been engaged to supply a portrait of the duke and a drawing of his coat-of-arms as illustrations. T h e painter for some reason or other did not care much for the commission and had hidden himself away for several days. When he did get to work, the result was even worse than the unacceptable portraits done by two previous artists. Nevertheless the agent had the block engraved and was sending a proof to his employer along with a revised and correct version of the arms, which had already been engraved in Italy. T h e agent thought that if the duke were to make a personal trip to his estate, the Englishman could improve matters himself by drawing the portrait from life on a piece of boxwood inserted in the block. At the same time the duchess's portrait could be drawn and engraved entirely on boxwood. "This holy work," he goes on, "which shall last forever if God wills, deserves to have everything connected with it as exact as possible, and among other details your two portraits, for, as you know, Sir, there is scarcely anything that so much touches the hearts of simple people as the likenesses of their princes and lords which, being recognized by those now alive, hand down the memory of them to posterity." He thereupon proposes that the duke order a second and larger engraving of his own portrait and add those of various illustrious persons of the day, to all of which he, the agent, would add brief biographies on facing pages, the whole to form a memorial that would be superior to the medals of the ancients. Whether he was successful or not in his suggestions for this second publication, his letter does give a remarkable account of an

BOOK ILLUSTRATION

315

editor's difficulties and indicates how highly the men of the time regarded woodcut illustrations. Although a few books toward the end of the sixteenth century were illustrated with copperplates, this style may be said to have flourished only in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. From 1600 to about 1660 the most popular form was the etching. In this, a polished plate of copper is covered with a thin film of varnish or "ground" on which the engraver draws with a needle, cutting down to the plate but not scratching it. T h e back, and edges are then covered with varnish and the plate is immersed in an acid bath which eats lines into the copper. T h e lines intended for light printing are then stopped with varnish and those intended for darker printing are exposed to further action by the acid. In this way varying degrees of light and shade are built up. Finally all the varnish is removed and the plate is cleaned and made ready for the impression. In the case of line engraving (taille douce), which became more popular after 1660, the engraver uses a burin, a triangular tool with sharpened end, and works with it directly on the copper, varying the depth of the lines according to the shading desired. T o print either kind of copperplate it is necessary to have a rather heavy ink. This is flooded over the surface until all the incised lines are filled. T h e plate is then wiped clean, leaving the ink only in the engraved lines. T h e plate, covered with a sheet of paper, is next put on a press with a large roller which draws the ink from the lines and deposits it on the paper. T h e process is just the opposite of that of letterpress or typographical printing. 16 T h e great vogue of copperplate engravings called for the finest artists and designers and almost an army of craftsmen. One man would design and sketch the subject, another engrave it, another design and engrave the frame, and perhaps another do the lettering. 17 Engraving became a profession that attracted many boys with artistic tastes. T h e parents of such a youngster would apprentice him at the age of thirteen or fourteen to an artist or to a master engraver just as though he were to learn a craft. A contract 18 17

Singer and Strang, pp. 29-30. Rosenthal, pp. 228-232.

AUXILIARY TRADES

316

would be signed before a notary by the master on the one side and the boy and his parents on the other. In the provinces the apprentice might pay a fee of 250 livres, but in Paris the sum was much larger, the students of a great artist paying as much as 1200 or 1600 livres a year. The course consisted in preparing plates, helping with backgrounds and costumes, and general assistance. At the end of the term of service the apprentice spent his next years as a regular assistant of the master, and his pay included lodging, food, and cash.18 After artist and engraver spent their greatest skill in making a plate, all their efforts might be ruined by a careless or ignorant printer. Much of the brilliance of a line cut depended upon expertness in inking and in running off the impression. Since the delicate lines began to show signs of wear rather quickly, fine editions for the luxury market were limited to not more than from two to four hundred copies. T h e average for other editions was not more than a thousand. If still more seemed advisable, the engraver had to supply duplicate plates. Whatever the number, the artist was given the first fifty prints for his own use. T h e high cost of engravings at first restricted the use of them to title pages and frontispieces. For a long time headpieces and other incidental ornaments continued to be cut on wood, or on metal in the woodcut method. By the second half of the seventeenth century the frontispiece usually took the form of the author's portrait, thus establishing a tradition that continues to our own day. 19 Since the whole business of supplying illustrations was partly a profession and partly a craft, the workers always exercised a jealous care to assert and maintain social position. T h e artists, as we have said, were members of the Royal Academy of Painters and Sculptors, and in the second half of the eighteenth century the engravers also were finally admitted to the same body, the entrance test being the presentation of a chef-d'oeuvre, which was often the engraved portraits of two Academy members. T h e coppersmiths who furnished the blank plates were of course members of a craft 18

Frar^ois Courboin, L'Estampe jrangaise (Paris, 1914), pp. 2 1 - 2 2 . Henri Jean Martin, "Livre et de la librairie (Histoire du)," Dictionnaire lettres frangaises: le XVII' siecle, id. Georges Grente (Paris, 1954), p. 628. 19

des

BOOK I L L U S T R A T I O N

317

guild, 20 and the printers of engravings were organized in 1692.21 T h e industry as a whole, that is, all the workers except the artists, were united in the Brotherhood of St. Jean Porte Latine and celebrated his festival on the eighteenth of October. T h e choice of St. Jean as patron was a recognition of the saint's escape from a vat of boiling oil, which was considered a symbol of the boiling of flaxseed oil, one of the dangerous operations in the preparation of engravers' ink. 22 In distinction from the livres ä figures — the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century volumes illustrated by woodcuts — the engraved books of the next two centuries are known as livres a vignettes. In these the illustrators found their subjects in contemporary life, and for pure decoration they used a variety of garlands, wreaths, and other flowerwork. In other words, they abandoned the stiff simplicity of the medieval book and worked toward the free and lively effects of painting itself. These later illustrators did not, however, confine their work to editions of belles-lettres. T h e y were equally active in producing documentary engravings which became an essential addition to books on travel, archaeology, costume, architecture and architectural ornament, furniture, miltary science, various crafts, medals, natural science, jewelry, and so on. T h e volumes of plates illustrating the Encyclopedie are a sufficient example of the superb skill devoted to this kind of work. 23 As for volumes of more literary interest, it is noticeable that most of the illustrated books of the seventeenth century are second editions, the first having been issued without illustrations. Evidently authors and publishers waited to see how successful the book would be and then calculated the possibility of further sales with the help of engravings. In the next period there was not so much hesitancy, for the fashion of the time insisted upon a wealth of ornamentation and illustration as a condition of success.24 20 Alfred Franklin, Dictionnaire historique des arts, metiers, et professions exerces dans Paris depuis le XIII' siecle (Paris, 1906), p. 371. 21 Lespinasse, III, 700. 22 Courboin, p. 5. 23 Courboin, pp. 134-142; Fürstenberg, pp. 67-68, 126 ff. 21 Jeanne Duportal, Contribution au catalogue general des livres ä figures du XVII' siecle, 1601-1633 (Paris, 1914), pp. vii-ix.

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Such demand involved the publisher in added expense because now he had to deal not only with the artist and engraver but also with two separate printers, one for the text and one for the engravings. No master could legally own and operate presses adapted for both kinds of work. T h e letterpress printer did his part first and sent the sheets to the other shop for finishing. At the latter were put in the engraved ornaments and decorated letters, and the full-page illustrations were supplied on separate sheets. These were later pasted in ("tipped in") at designated places by the binder. Eventually the law extended the requirement of separate printing to include even woodcuts in spite of the fact that these could be better printed along with the text. Governmental interference with the production of engravings, whether in loose sheets or in books, was just as persistent as in every other activity. In 1551 the edict of Chateaubriand forbade everyone to paint or portray, or cause to be painted, or to sell, buy, have, hold, or keep any images, portraits, or figures contrary to the honor and reverence of the saints canonized by the Church. 25 In 1618 censorship was repeated in regard to the printing and selling of "dissolute" placards and plates, and this supervision was maintained in all subsequent laws.26 There was evidently, however, a very considerable supply of pornography at all times and plenty of buyers for such illicit engravings. When, for instance, the duke of Valentinois died 22 April 1 7 5 1 , his confessor persuaded him to have his servants burn, the day before, his collection of indecent prints valued at eighty thousand livres. 27 In a more innocuous category, exploitation of a source of revenue was probably at the basis of the law of 21 December 1667 which forbade printers and engravers to print plans and elevations of royal houses, statues, and ancient monuments unless such workers had been nominated by Colbert, the Superintendent of Royal Buildings. The only exception to government censorship was that 25 Isambert, Jourdan, Decrusy, Recueil Vols. (Paris, 1821-1833), X I I I , 189-208. x

giniral

des anciennes lois pangaises,

Claude Marin Saugrain, Code de la librairie et de l'imprimerie

1744). P· 337·

29

de Paris (Paris,

" F r e d e r i c Melchior, Baron de Grimm, Diderot, Raynal, Meister, etc., Correspondance litteraire, philosophique, et critique, id. Maurice Tourneux, 16 vols. (Paris, 1877-1882), II, 55.

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319

in 1714 the Royal Academy of Painters and Sculptors was granted the sole right to pass upon the suitability for publication of all engravings and other printed material emanating from its members.28 Up to the middle of the seventeenth century engraving escaped separate guild regulation probably because the making and printing of woodcuts was so intimate a part of the general printing business. T h e practice of copperplate engraving was still so slightly independent in 1648 that when Mazarin founded the Royal Academy in that year he confirmed the professional freedom of painters and sculptors but said nothing about engravers. The initial proposal looking toward an engravers' guild came when Frangois Mansart, himself an artist, asked for a privilege giving him control of all engraving with a division of the resulting profits between himself and the government. A mazarinade against him appeared in 1651 and this, together with a protest from the most influential engravers, ended the matter. A few years later one Sieur de Lavenage, who is otherwise unknown, brought forth a suggestion that the King should create and sell two hundred masterships for engravers, etchers, and printers and dealers in engravings, on the pattern of other crafts. This was a proposal for a real guild. Though it met the approval of a few engravers, it wounded the social pride of the majority. They protested to Chancellor Seguier in a petition that was probably written by the great artist-engraver Robert Nanteuil. Although the law of 4 February 1660 actually set up a guild, it was almost immediately repealed by the edict of St. Jean de Luz, 26 May 1660. This confirmed the traditional freedom of the art and asserted that engravers were to be considered artists, not craftsmen or merchants, and were not to be restricted by masterships or guild organization or any other control. Freedom was again confirmed in 1683 and in 1742. 29 The printers of engravings also remained free for a long time but at length in 1692 they had to yield to the irresistible tendency of the period. At this moment their informal organization with elected wardens was threatened, like all other crafts, by the creation of wardenships to be sold as public offices. After buying up these positions for the considerable sum of thirty thousand livres, 28

Saugrain, pp. 460, 462-464. Courboin, p. 59; Duportal, Etude, (Paris, 1924), pp. 15-32. 29

pp. iv, 12 ff.; Eugene Bouvy,

Nanteuil

32ο

AUXILIARY TRADES

they petitioned for a guild (17 February 1692). Statutes were issued in May 1694. The general tenor of these regulations is familiar. A candidate for the mastership must be a Catholic and must have served four years as apprentice and two years as journeyman. Anyone practicing the craft in May 1694 must join the guild within four months or be deprived of his mastership. Candidates were liable for an entrance fee of five hundred livres, or two hundred and fifty for sons of masters. One third of the fees were to be set aside in a guild treasury for overhead expenses. The syndics were to make four inspections each year and keep a register of contracts of apprenticeship. Masters might have only one shop, and this together with their houses must be located in the University quarter. They must keep a register of all jobs. Except for six printers "following the Court" and having shops in the Louvre, only regular masters might own a press. Syndics had the power to confiscate forbidden items. No one was to be elected a syndic until he had been a master for ten years. Journeymen might not do any work on their own account nor leave a master without finishing the work in hand. An apprentice who was absent must make up double the lost time. Sundays and feast days were to be holidays. Widows might carry on a husband's business. All should belong to the Brotherhood of St. Jean and pay a fee of thirty sols a year. 30 There was a reorganization in 1776, when the fee for the mastership was reduced to three hundred livres, and still another and final one in 1782. Both the government and the guild of letterpress printers kept a jealous eye on the printers of engravings, who had far too many chances to issue illegal material and to encroach upon the regular market. Every law for the printers' and publishers' guild therefore forbade the engravers' printers to own fonts of type or presses for typographical printing, and the officers of the older guild were empowered to make inspections to see that this rule was enforced. If the printer of an engraving wanted to place an explanation at the bottom of a print, he must have the work done by a regular shop, and such a caption must not exceed six lines nor be carried over onto the reverse side. Engraving printers must register with 30

Lespinasse, III, 7 1 6 - 7 1 7 ; Franklin, p. 397.

BOOK

ILLUSTRATION

321

the older guild, but such registration did not convey the right to sell books or pamphlets or to carry on a bookselling business. Furthermore all material imported by an engraving printer must go through the headquarters of the other guild for inspection. A l l these restrictions applied as well to dominotiers, imagers, and tapissiers, the printers of fancy papers, wall papers, and so on. 31 T h e laws of 17 March and 14 June 1791 abolished the engraving printers' guild along with all others. T h e law of 17 March provided for a licensing fee as a preliminary to the exercise of any profession, art, or craft, that for engraving printers being set at three hundred livres. A t this time there were forty-three such masters in Paris. 32 Indications of prices for illustrations begin only with the seventeenth century, when engraving and printing were in the hands of a distinct group outside the regular printing shops. W e know there were definite contracts between engraver and author or publisher but few have been found. 33 Our information is therefore derived from indirect sources such as inventories and privileges. About 1609 the publishers Langelier and Guillemot brought out three volumes illustrated jointly by the engravers Thomas de Leu, Leonard Gaultier, and Jaspar Isac. These books were a translation by Blaise de Vigenere of Images ou tableaux de plate peinture des deux Philostrates, La Vie d'Apollonius Thianee, and L'Histoire des Turcs de Chalcondyle. In view of the fact that Langelier and Guillemot had spent four thousand ecus for the engraved plates of these books, they were granted a privilege for twelve years.34 From an inventory of 1610 it appears that in the first of these books thirty-eight plates, valued at 324 livres, had been used. T h e same inventory values at 10 livres the thirteen woodcuts used in another book. 35 These figures indicate a wide difference in costs especially when one considers that the useful life of the woodcuts was practically unlimited. Among the papers of Chancellor Seguier in the Bibliotheque Saugrain, pp. 335-337. 459. Lespinasse, I, 188-193; Fürstenberg, p. 131. 33 Duportal, £tude, pp. 37-38. 34 Duportal, Etude, p. 21. 35 Martin, p. 628. 31

32

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Nationale there is a memorandum 3 6 without date but probably from about 1635, which gives a number of interesting details of an agreement between the engraver Abraham Bosse and the physician Guy de la Brosse for the illustration of the latter's book on the royal garden of medicinal plants. 37 Bosse had contracted to engrave a thousand drawings of plants each on a copperplate sixteen by twelve inches. T h e y were to be fairly simple, showing the outline of each plant with some crosshatching to indicate texture and shading. T h e price was to be twenty-five livres each. This was extremely low but, on the other hand, the order was unusually large and the amount of work on each plate was almost negligible for a skillful engraver. In addition to the plates of plants there were to be a title page of the same dimensions and with complete hatching and also two perspective plans of the gardens on much larger plates. Here we have three engravings in the elaborate style usual in books of the time. T h e price of the three was two thousand livres, this, at nearly seven hundred livres apiece, a much more representative figure for such work. When Bosse got at the job, he found that the engraving of some of the larger plants required more hatching than he had expected. La Brosse for his part found that he would like to increase the hatching in all the plates. This extra work was arranged for the additional sum of five livres for each of the thousand plates. There were also several plates which the author wanted altered and a few to be done over again. He promised to satisfy Bosse for all such contingent work beyond the definite terms of the agreement. Rather soon after the job began, La Brosse died, and Bosse had to consider just where he stood. He had begun and nearly completed two plans and the title page and had finished and delivered 120 of the more complicated plates for the text. A t thirty livres each the latter would come to thirty-six hundred livres. If, however, the original order had been for 120 plates and no more, the price — so Bosse asserted — would have been at least four thousand livres. With two thousand livres for the three special plates B . N „ ms. fran. 18967, fo. 86-87. ttude, p p . 37-38; A n d r e B l u m , Abraham au XVII' Steele (Paris, 1924), p p . 190-192. 36

aTDuportal,

Bosse et la society

frangaise

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323

the total bill stood at six thousand livres. But this was not all. He had spent about fifteen hundred livres in advance payments for the full number of blank plates and for preparations to handle the whole job expeditiously. T h e total was now seventy-five hundred livres. La Brosse had paid him only five thousand livres on account. Since La Brosse's death several creditors of his estate had threatened to have the plates seized, in whatever state they might be. T h e engraver was put to some expense in trying to ward off these attempts. In the meantime, the title page and twenty of the plant plates had deteriorated and would have to be repolished; actually only one hundred text plates and the two plans were in first-class condition. All this was of course so irritating to a man of Bosse's temperament that he wanted to be rid of the quarreling and uncertainty. He therefore declared himself willing to take his loss of twenty-five hundred livres and deliver the plates in his possession if the Chancellor would discharge him from all further responsibility. Bosse was more fortunate in 1654 when he supplied thirteen plates for an edition of Chapelain's La Pucelle. He got thirteen hundred livres for his work, an average of a hundred livres per plate. T h e designs, however, were furnished by the painter Claude Vignon, and it is possible that Bosse had to share his thirteen hundred livres with Vignon. 38 Prices in general seem to have varied according to the amount of work on a plate rather than on the artistic reputation of the engraver. At Bourges, in 1658, the little-known Edme Morel received thirty-six livres for furnishing certain coats-of-arms on a copperplate for an official volume. In contrast, the more famous Francois Collignon signed an agreement to engrave eight plates for one hundred livres, that is, twelve or thirteen livres each. But the great Nanteuil in 1670 turned down a dealer's offer of one hundred and fifty livres for doing a self-portrait and held out, unsuccessfully, for two hundred livres. Much later — in 1785 — the publisher Lamy paid the engraver Malbeste thirty-three hundred livres for a single plate. 39 38 Duportal, ilude, pp. 38-39. " A u g u s t e Jal, Dictionnaire critique 1872), pp. 172, 898.

de biographie

et d'histoire,

2d ed.

(Paris,

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T h e cost of illustrations must of course have been considered part of the total expense of manufacturing a book. Coignard, for instance, signed a contract with Thomas Corneille 2g March 1700 for the Dictionnaire universel geographique et historique, according to which Coignard would be reimbursed for all expenses of printing as well as for the portrait frontispiece, the vignettes, and the decorated initials before Corneille received any part of the proceeds.40 Besides cash payments for work there were the usual patronage sources of income for an engraver. T h e post of graveur de la maison du roi carried a pension of five hundred livres; that of graveur de dessins du cabinet du roi, six hundred livres; and that of graveur des menus plaisirs du roi, twelve hundred livres. Some engravers were given free quarters in the Louvre. Dedication of a plate to a rich man, like the dedication of a book, might bring a large gift. Or special services might be rewarded as when Cochin received forty thousand livres from the Comte de Provence for his engravings for an edition of Tasso in 1784. Because of the tremendous popularity of the illustrated book in the eighteenth century as well as the unbounded interest in collecting prints, the social and economic position of most engravers was an enviable one. They lived in great comfort and were considered as ornaments of the age. 41 And their reputation has not diminished in succeeding time. CHAPTER

XVI

BINDING B i n d i n g is by far the oldest of the crafts connected with the book industry. Long before the invention of paper or type the scribes of the ancient world were faced with the necessity for protecting their scrolls, and with the adoption of the codex there was a further need for keeping the pages in order and holding them together Jal, p. 428. Fürstenberg, p. 132. A complete bibliography of material on binding up to 1933 is to be found in Wolfgang Mejer and H. Herbst, Bibliographie der Buchbinderliteratur, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1925-1933). 10 41

BINDING

325

for convenient reading. The great manuscripts of the Middle Ages were enclosed between two wooden boards often left uncovered but generally wrapped with leather or velvet or satin with or without embroidery, and edged with iron, copper, gold, or silver and still further ornamented with bosses, ivory insets, and jewels. 1 Each binding was an individual product, a whole edition in itself, and so too were the far more numerous copies of university textbooks which were issued with merely simple parchment or leather covers. Even the introduction of printing, which resulted in a tremendous increase in the number of volumes to be bound, brought no essential change in the process of binding copy by copy. The tools were simple; the unit continued to be the single piece. In the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries a bindery was part of each printing office and comparable to the type foundry, the composing room, the pressroom, and, in many cases, the retail bookshop. The binder was an integral part of the whole book-producing establishment. If Roffet, Geoffroy Tory, Simon de Colines, Simon Vostre, and Jean de Tournes were the most important binders of the time, it was only because they were among the most important printers. By the seventeenth century the industry had moved outside the printing shop into special quarters of its own but it was still under the control of the printers and publishers. Complete freedom did not come until 1686. It took many decades before such master binders as Padeloup, Deröme, and Dubuisson could feel themselves on an equal footing with their contemporary master printers and dealers.2 Most shops were prepared to do three kinds of work — ordinary editions for a publisher, more elaborate bindings of prayer books for a diocese, and special individual orders for wealthy collectors. It is the latter who were responsible for the magnificent bindings designed by great artists and executed without consideration of cost. Our concern, however, is with the unpretentious article that circulated in the general trade. Usually it was a plain piece of work but there might be a stamping of borders and flowers done with a 1 Ernest T h o i n a n [pseud, f o r Antoine Ernest R o q u e t ] , Les Relieurs franfais I;OO-I8OO (Paris, 1893), p. 1 1 1 . 2 Marius-Michel, La Reliure fratifaise commerciale et industrielle depuis l'invention de l'imprimerie jusqu'ä nos jours (Paris, 1881), pp. 1 - 2 .

326

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cold iron or wheel, or else blind stamping by a large metal plate. Both these kinds of leatherworking were familiar to craftsmen and customers because of their use in the making of harness and armor. The whole process, indeed, was so subordinate in its nature that the master had little incentive to seek personal recognition for his work. Occasionally we find his name engraved on the metal plate, if he used one, or stamped in gilding on the inside of the cover, or, especially in the eighteenth century, on a little paper sticker pasted on the inner edge of the cover. 3 Most bindings, however, are anonymous. From the first three quarters of the sixteenth century Thoinan was able to recover no more than twenty-one names of craftsmen, and of these Geoffroy Tory is the only one whose work can be certainly recognized.4 Every effort was made to keep costs low in these early editions. The sewing was careful but the whole binding was stiff and rather coarse. Calfskins and sheepskins were generally used, not the finer leathers. After 1550 there was no embossing but only a simple border or a central panel on the front cover.5 T h e binder often ran out of boards and, since he had no stock cardboard, he built up his cover from pamphlets and scraps of unsold books as well as other waste paper from the printing shops. This practice explains not only the constant attention given to the disposal of waste paper but also the fate of the product of many unsuccessful publishing ventures. Incidentally, however, it has provided a good deal of valuable bibliographical data.6 In spite of their occupying an inferior position, the binders did not hesitate to insist upon their rights as members of the book trade and therefore employees of the University of Paris. In the late fifteenth century they joined their colleagues in protesting the imposition of certain taxes and thus helped to bring forth the important letters patent issued by Charles V I I I in March 1488. This law decided that the number of bookmen who as officers of the University were exempt from taxes, should be reduced to a fixed ' T h o i n a n , pp. 1 1 2 - 1 1 3 ; L i o n Gruel, Manuel historique et bibliographique de l'amateur de reliures, 2 vols. (Paris, 1887-1905), II, 139-144. •Thoinan, p. 124. 5 Thoinan, pp. 1 3 7 - 1 3 8 . " S m i l e Chatelain, "Les Secrets des reliures," Revue des bibliotheques, 16 annee (juillet-aoüt, 1906), pp. 2 6 1 - 2 9 1 ; Marius-Michel, pp. 3-28.

BINDING

327

quota and be chosen from the jures of the University. T w o binders were named along with two scribes, two illuminators, twenty-five booksellers, four parchment makers, four paper merchants in Paris, and seven paper manufacturers. These men were to have general supervision of the trade. We do not know the exact duties of the two binders but they undoubtedly had to inspect the binderies and report to the four "great" bookdealers immediately responsible to the Faculty. 7 This arrangement was confirmed 9 April 1 5 1 3 by Louis X I I when he excused the book trade from participating in the "gift" of thirty thousand livres he had requested from Paris and other cities. T h e favored position was again confirmed by the law of 20 February 1595, which specifically includes the binders in its provisions.8 There was no doubt, then, that throughout the sixteenth century the binders were an integral part of the book industry. T h e organization, as we have pointed out before, was a very loose one; printers and booksellers were at liberty to bind in their own shops the books they sold or made, and the binders reciprocally had the right to sell books. By the end of the century, however, this informal custom was disturbed by the rise of a new set of workers, the gilders, the men who applied gold leaf to the ornamentation of bindings. The two crafts were absolutely distinct, and there were few who were able to practice both.9 In earlier days gilding was free and independent, partly because there was only a small number of gilders and they had little to do beyond taking care of the few books ordered by princes, princesses, and collectors. Most of their business was in wall coverings, boxes, and other leatherwork. But toward the end of the century a vogue for bindings covered with gold ornament led a rather large number of men to turn their special skill in this direction. Although they knew nothing about sewing or casing a book, they insisted upon being recognized as master binders and being granted all the rights attached to that dignity. Among these was the right to sell books. T h e older members of the trade made no objection at first, but increasing com' T h o i n a n , pp. 14-15. 8 Antoine Fontanon, Les Edicts et ordonnances des rois de France depuis S. Loys ivsques ά present, 2d ed., 4 vols. (Paris, 1585), IV, 479. "Thoinan, pp. 126, 129-132.

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petition and difficulties of supervision soon brought protests and irritations. 10 When the book guild was set up in June 1618, the fundamental regulations did nothing to reconcile the conflicting interests of the varied elements of the trade. Binders and gilders continued to be grouped indiscriminately with printers and booksellers. 11 For the next thirty years, therefore, the rivals continued their struggles. On 20 May 1634 when the Parlement ordered that, except for sons and sons-in-law of masters, only three new masters should be received in the guild each year, one of them was to be a binder. Several journeymen were nevertheless received from time to time until at last Antoine Vitre, the dictator syndic from 1639 to 1644, insisted that such tolerance should end and the law of 1634 be observed. T h e confirming regulation which he managed to put through in 1642 was not, however, registered by the Parlement, and seven more years of quarreling elapsed before further serious attempts at settlement were made. During this time the binders made a futile complaint to the Parlement that they had never been represented by a syndic or even a warden. Another disturbing incident was that in 1647 nine journeymen gilders were received as masters upon giving proof of their ability, while six were turned down. These six joined a number of older guild members in opposing the proposed law of December 1649, which eventually failed of registration in the troubles of the Fronde and the war with Spain. T h e men were received, however, on 15 January 1654 after three years of further working experience and in view of the fact that the guild then needed the fees they contributed. 12 Renewed attempts to establish peace were equally unsuccessful. On 16 December 1666 and again on 6 October 1667 the government defined the conditions of mastership and forbade the reception of new masters or the opening of any bookshop until His Majesty should order otherwise. 13 But some guild members T h o i n a n , p. ζη. Isambert, Jourdan, Decrusy, Recueil general des anciennes vols. (Paris, 1821-1833), X V I , 1 1 7 - 1 2 5 ; T h o i n a n , pp. 23-26. 10 11

" T h o i n a n , p p . 29-32. " T h o i n a n , p p . 48-50.

lois

franfaises,

29

BINDING

329

insisted upon what they considered their vested rights. Jacques Talon, for instance, a binder since 1661, opened a new printing shop in 1670 — but he was obliged to close it almost at once. 14 On 11 April 1674 the Conseil d'fitat strengthened the law of 1667 and ordered the closing of all shops opened by binders since that time. 15 In June 1673, when the guild assembled for its annual elections, the binders harked back to their old complaint that they had not been represented in the office of warden although their duties as inspectors demanded such recognition. The electors, aware of the justice of this position, chose two booksellers who were also binders; and, though the journeymen accused them of animosity and snobbishness, they were sworn in by the lieutenant of police. 16 This incident brought another grievance into the open: the printers and booksellers declared that the binders did not really want to live at peace with the rest of the guild but were plotting to withdraw and set up one of their own. Although this last solution was probably the best possible one, it was not advanced for several years. Then in August 1683 the government made tentative proposals for new regulations regarding the printers and booksellers. Thirty-four binders, as members of the guild, objected. Because of some success, they continued their protests until at last on 8 May 1685 the Conseil d'fitat ordered them to stop bothering the syndic and wardens. A year later the government in a surprise move issued and had registered two new edicts, one for the printers dated 21 August 1686 and one for the binders dated 7 September 1686. 17 The separation of the two factions was now nearly complete. The preamble of the binders' code summarizes the long history of the quarrels and states that henceforth the guild of binders and gilders shall be distinct and separate from the guild of printers and booksellers and that present members of the old corporation must decide within a month which they shall belong to. On the other hand, there was to be no separation of the religious brother14 Edouard Tromp, £tude sur I'organisation et l'histoire de la communaute des libraires et imprimeurs de Paris (1618-1791) (Nimes, 1922), pp. 31-38; Paul Mellottie, Histoire economique de l'imprimerie (Paris, 1905), pp. 183-185. 15 Marcel Bar, L'Organisation et faction syndicates dans la typographic fran$aise (Paris, 1907), p. 10; Thoinan, pp. 53-56. " T h o i n a n , pp. 5 1 - 5 3 ; Mellottie, pp. 185-191. 17 Thoinan, pp. 56-59.

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hood, but the administration was to be transferred each year to the two retiring wardens of the older guild. Members of both guilds should continue to be ranked as officers of the University with all the traditional privileges. 18 T h e right to bind, gild, and ornament books was vested solely in the master binders and gilders, but printers and publishers might continue to fold, gather, sew, and cover in simple paper or parchment in their own shops. T h e provisions regarding apprentices were practically unaltered — a contract for three years, service of one year as journeyman, continuity of service. Ordinary candidates for the mastership must be of good reputation, at least twenty years old, know how to read and write, and be certified as capable by two masters. T h e y are to be received in order according to the dates of their apprenticeship contracts as found in the guild records and shall pay one hundred livres into the guild treasury. Sons of masters must pay thirty livres upon reception as masters, but there is no fee for those sons and journeymen who marry the daughter or widow of a master. Since no master binders or gilders have been received for a long time, no more than twelve journeymen who have completed an apprenticeship and three years of additional service may apply within the next three months and become masters upon payment of thirty livres, sons and sons-in-law upon payment of ten livres. Binders and gilders must live and work in the University quarter though not in a college or other privileged place. T h e fee for the wardens' inspection is five sols for each visit and there shall be two visits a year. T h e wardens in office, the former wardens, and twelve other masters shall annually elect two new wardens to serve in place of those who have served two years; to start the series, the King appointed the first four. T h e syndic and wardens of the printers' guild were given the right to inspect binders' shops as often as they wished. 19 Naturally there were protests and difficulties of adjustment. T h e University was aggrieved because it had not been consulted. Various binders who went on selling books found their stocks seized by the police. Others were slow in making their choice of a guild. Others assaulted the representatives of the printers who tried to 18

Marius-Michel, pp.

19

Gruel, I, 66-70; T h o i n a n , p p . 60-64.

115-129.

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make inspections. T h e four appointed wardens refused to give u p their positions; though one of them, Denis Nyon, died, he was succeeded by his brother Geoffroy without formal election. It was not until 31 May 1698 that the Chancellor corrected this situation; then he assembled twelve masters and the wardens and held an election of four new officers, two to serve two years and two for one year. A f t e r that, elections were regular except that there were none in 1717, 1723, 1728, 1729, and 1731. 20 Fully as serious was the failure to observe the clause of the edict of 1686 admitting only twelve new masters within the first three months after setting up the guild. O n 24 March 1698 forty-seven members went to the lieutenant of police and accused the wardens of having received more than thirty in the interval, most of them with insufficient qualifications. Fifteen of them defended themselves against this charge, which seems to have been dismissed with a warning against repetition. 21 T h e status of binders' sons was another long-continued source of dispute. U p o n establishment the new guild counted forty-five members, all of them former booksellers and not printers. 22 By 1698 there were many sons w h o claimed that since at the time of their birth their fathers were members of the old guild, they had a birthright claim to being received as masters in it without serving as apprentices or journeymen. T h e matter was brought before the K i n g for a ruling. H e submitted it to T u r g o t , the maitre des requetes, and d'Argenson, the lieutenant general of police, with instructions to hear representatives of both guilds. H e forbade the printers to receive in the meantime any binders' sons w h o had not fulfilled all the requirements demanded of candidates not sons of master printers and booksellers. 23 T h e housecleaning implied by all these various reforms of 1698 did little to establish peace. In 1700, for instance, the publishers complained that the price for gilding had been doubled and that the binders had adopted a cheaper and inferior method of sewing. In 1714 they accused the binders of b u y i n g leather outGruel, I, 101-105. T h o i n a n , pp. 64-70, 103-107. 22 Gruel, I, 130-131. 23 Claude Marin Saugrain, Code de la librairie pp. 183-187. 21

et de l'imprimerie

(Paris, 1744),

AUXILIARY TRADES

332

side the guild headquarters. The binders, in turn, felt that the publishers were crowding them out of the brotherhood. This last situation was all the more serious because it involved social and religious as well as economic considerations. It was finally settled only when the two groups separated on 18 September 1730 and divided the common property. The binders now went to the church of St. Hilaire and became members either of the brotherhood of St. Sacrament or the brotherhood of Notre Dame de Grace. They continued, however, to observe the two feasts of St. John on 6 May and 27 December. 24 While these organizational changes were going on, there was also a continual effort to lower the costs of binding and to speed up the rate of production, both aims being an indication of the growth of the market for books. Early in the seventeenth century commercial binders abandoned the use of plates for stamping covers and adopted the less expensive process of getting artistic effects with engraved wheels. Soon afterward they succeeded in establishing a popular taste for the Dutch style of sturdy but pliable vellum covers with practically no gold ornament. This fashion was later supported by the style favored by the binders of Jansenist books, a simple, plain leather with a minimum of gold stamping. Vellum, calf, and sheepskin continued to be the materials most employed since morocco was far too expensive for ordinary work. A new bit of decoration, however, was discovered in the time of Louis X I V , when marbled end papers began to be employed. 25 After more than half a century of trial and error, the binders and gilders decided that the rather simple statutes granted them in 1686 were no longer sufficient for the more complicated conditions of the mid-eighteenth century. The matter was debated in a series of guild meetings in January 1750. Finally on the seventeenth of the month a code of fifty-one articles was completed and the 175 masters signed a resolution appointing the four wardens a committee to submit the document to the King and to the Parlement.26 The King gave his consent on 7 March but ordered that 24

Thoinan, pp. 7 1 - 7 8 . ** Marius-Michel, pp. 29-42. 26 Marius-Michel, pp. 1 3 4 - 1 3 5 . 1 2 9 - 1 3 1 .

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before registration his letters patent and the proposed statutes should be approved by the guild according to the usual formula. On 25 June the notaries of the Chätelet therefore accompanied the wardens to their headquarters, where they found seventy-two masters assembled. T h e statutes were read aloud, and the guild voted unanimously that they should be registered.27 T h e Parlement took its action on 4 September. Many of the articles of the code of 1750 reflect the methods of handling trade problems that we have already found in the law of 1686 and the printer-publisher code of 1723. We shall therefore point out only a few of the more striking details.28 Publishers and printers continue to enjoy the right to cover pamphlets and small books in paper or vellum without stiffening, and papermakers are allowed to make and sell blank books. No one other than the son or widow of a master is to operate a bindery unless he has served an apprenticeship of five years. There is still the curious stipulation that no one shall be taken as apprentice unless he can read and write. After apprenticeship a man must serve three years as journeyman before applying for mastership. The syndic and wardens of the publishers' guild continue to have the duty of inspecting binderies — a provision that implements the usual precautions regarding censored and pirated books. T w o of the four wardens are to be elected annually on 8 May, but once in each biennium one of these is to be a gilder so that the board shall always consist of three binders and one gilder. There is no provision for a syndic nor for a representative council such as the publishers had; the wardens acted as a board of managers, and general guild business was carried on in full assembly of all the masters, the penalty for nonattendance being a three livres' fine. The brotherhood is to be administered by the two retiring wardens, and the accounts must not be mixed with those of the guild. Masters are no longer required to live within the University quarter, but the confines of permissible residence are carefully scheduled. Unlike the older organization, the binders' guild was abolished by Turgot's general law of 12 March 1776. Then when forty-four new craft guilds were set up on 23 August, the binders were joined 28

Marius-Michel, pp. 136-137. Marius-Michel, pp. 1 1 5 - 1 2 9 .

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to the paper sizers, papermakers, and cardboard makers. Old masters merely had to pay a fee of fifty livres for membership, but only twenty-one did so while a hundred and ten others together with twenty-two widows refused. Under the new arrangement many masters added the selling of paper and office supplies to their regular business. The final blow came of course with the vote of the Constituent Assembly on 17 March 1791 and the enacting of the Loi Le Chapelier on 16 June 1791. 2 9 As for the artistic side of the business, the eighteenth century was a period of general decadence in edition binding. T h e use of plates and lavish gilding returned to favor in the reign of Louis X V so that the work often reminds us of the seventeenth century, but toward the end of the period the tools showed wear and there were few new designs. Liturgical binders enriched their books with end papers of watered silk and embossed paper. From this time too dates the use of cardboard sides covered with marbled paper. 30 We have already traced the gradual closing of the printer-publisher guild by inheritance and intermarriage. T h e same development, perhaps to an accentuated degree, is found in the binders' guild. The craft throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was controlled by dynasties such as the Padeloup family rather than by individuals. With the mastership went large stocks of books, tools, and equipment of various sorts. The personal work of the actual craftsmen — the artists who designed the patterns, the engravers who made the copper punches, the gilders who impressed the ornaments on the leather—all this remains anonymous. 31 For many years the guild was a rather small one; but about the middle of the eighteenth century there were in Paris no less than three hundred masters and four hundred journeymen. 32 A law issued 10 January 1741 therefore forbade the taking of any new apprentices for the next ten years. The moratorium was extended for a further ten years on 27 March 1751. In 1745 the fees for the mastership were sharply increased to 28

Thoinan, pp. 97-100; Isambert, X V I , 43. Marius-Michel, pp. 43-64. Hans Fürstenberg, Das französische Buch in der Empirezeit (Weimar, 1929), pp. 168-169. 82 Gruel, I, 45. 30

51

im achtzehnten

Jahrhundert

und

BINDING

335

help the guild repay the sum of three thousand livres borrowed to redeem the proposed offices of inspectors and controllers. Sons of masters were now obliged to pay 120 livres instead of the 76 livres 10 sols that had been customary for some time; sons-in-law, 100 livres instead of 47 livres 10 sols; and journeymen, 300 livres instead of 137 livres 10 sols.33 T h e code of 1750 set still higher fees — 600 livres for journeymen, 200 for sons, and 150 for a son who married the daughter of a master. In addition to the fee and the usual proofs of qualification, the binder candidate had to submit a chef-d'oeuvre. This requirement seems to have developed during the early eighteenth century, for it is not mentioned in the laws of 1618 and 1686 but is definitely stated in 1750. It is one more evidence of the ceaseless effort to apply a brake on the industry. We hear little about the journeymen binders during the ancien regime. Despite the general laws against associations of workmen they had a brotherhood of their own to which each man contributed fourteen sols a week for sick comrades. Every year they assembled on the Sunday in May nearest St. John's Day and with their wives spent two days in feasting at an inn. 34 Early in October 1776 they all went on strike for a reduction of working hours from sixteen to fourteen per day. Neither the masters nor the authorities interfered because they hoped the disturbance would peter out when the men's funds were exhausted. On the night of 1 3 - 1 4 October, however, the police rounded up six of the ringleaders and put them in a dungeon. The next day the rank and file yielded unconditionally. 35 Limitation of the number of apprentices always appealed to the masters, not only in binding but in other crafts as well, as the best means of dealing with the surplus labor supply. In 1702, 1712, 1727, 1741, and 1751 this remedy was invoked but the restrictions were never observed carefully. The troubles of the apprentice were chronicled in a poem of 1747 probably written by Dufrene, whose account of apprentice *• Thoinan, pp. 79-80. 31 Thoinan, p. 89. 35 Julien Hayem, " L a Repression des graves au X V I I I " siicle," Memoires et documents pour servir ά l'histoire du commerce et de l'industrie (Paris, 1911), I, 133.

336

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printers we have already discussed.36 T h e parents of the boy in this case had lofty dreams for his future. Nothing was good enough for him, not even the ordinary schools. His mother therefore handled his formal education herself; but since she could not read well, the results were negligible. When he was ten, he was put onto the street in the hope that he would be attracted to some craft. His father, Martin Collant (Glue), was a binder, the victim of a series of ill fortunes that had gradually reduced him to poverty and despair. Nevertheless he managed to find the four hundred francs needed for indenturing the boy to a colleague in the same business, Mr. Headband of Mont St. Hilaire. After powdering his hair and washing his face, the boy went with his father to be introduced to the master. T h e latter was a strange-looking fellow. He was just over four feet tall, his girth was two and a half feet, his chest and stomach sloped in unbroken line, his neck was thick and black, his unshaven chin large and flat, his mouth like a black forge, his little eyes had red rims, his nose was like a clove of garlic, his hair chestnut brown. Mr. Headband received his pupil with a little lecture. "I am good and honest," said he. "Henceforth I am to be your master and your father. You may be sure that through your conduct you will receive my praise or my punishment. Here's what I want: first of all, obedience, respect for the mistress, and no sauciness or idleness. Be diligent, docile, affable, honest, not quarrelsome, submissive to the journeymen. Serve them without retorts, get up first to open the shop, lose no time playing in the street, come back to the house instead of amusing yourself. If you break this contract, do not hope for mercy. As for instruction, that shall be a point of honor between us." Although the contract should have been entered on the guild records, it was merely witnessed by the landlord of a neighboring tavern and sealed by a few bottles of wine. T h e boy was immediately sent on various errands for the mistress and the journeymen, but he returned empty-handed because no one would charge the purchases. Without any lunch he spent the next few hours in getting water from the fountain, buying 36

Reproduced in Bulletin

(1895), 101-107.

de la societe

de protection

des apprenlis,

XXVIII

BINDING

337

some wood, and peeling vegetables for dinner. The meal was ready at midnight and consumed in less than quarter of an hour. After supper the master with a wave of his hand indicated that his sleeping quarters would be an old garret above the shop with a ladder leading up to it. Without light or air and infested by mice and fleas, this room and its filthy heap of straw were far different from the couch and mattress and curtains he had had at home. No sooner did he doze off than he was forced to go down and open the door for a journeyman getting back from the tavern. The next day brought incessant commands: take down boxes, cut strings, dry these books, open the door, shut the door, help with the marbling, cut these corners, take these books to the gilder —and over and over the cry, "Now show a little speed!" One day when he had been sent to a bookseller with a heavy bundle, he came back as tired as a galley slave. The mistress only scoffed at him and egged her husband on to beat him. Finally a girl working in the shop took pity on him and gave him some good advice. At the end of his apprenticeship they were married and, as usual, faced the future with renewed hope for an easier and happier life. Like all other elements in the manufacture of books, the costs of binding show a steady increase during the ancien regime. A manuscript note on the flyleaf of a copy of Durand's Rationale dated 1612 says that it was bought in Paris for six sous parisis and that the binding cost two sous. This is evidently the original cover — simple parchment without stamping or gilding. The volume is a duodecimo of 1250 pages.37 On 2 December 1616 a merchant of Niort, Philip Georget, delivered to Jean Bichon, printer and bookseller of Saintes, ten folio works to be bound in fourteen volumes in red calfskin. The price was twenty-six livres, almost two livres a volume. This may have been rather high, but the books were large. 38 In 1650, when the prices of skins, cardboard, and gold had increased, twenty-eight Paris binders agreed on a scale of prices for 37

Bulletin du bibliophile, 1874, p. 533. Henri Cluzot, "Un marche de relieur sous Louis XIII," Bulletin 1905, p. is. 38

du

bibliophile,

33«

AUXILIARY TRADES

prayer books: folios, two livres, five sols; quartos, one livre, fifteen sols; octavos, one livre; duodecimos, twelve sols.39 In the seventeenth century the best skins came from Verneuil and Laigle; they were brought to guild headquarters in Paris and then allotted to the masters, who were forbidden to buy directly from the tanners. A t the end of the century calfskins sold for nine to ten livres a dozen; we do not know the size but they were probably small.40 T h e quality of gold leaf was always a bone of contention between gilders and suppliers. T h e Barbou firm sent considerable quantities from its Paris house to the branch in Limoges, the value of the shipments rising to 1453 livres for the years 1733-1735· 41 About 1750 the legal price for a full calf binding of a duodecimo was ten, eleven, or twelve sols. In 1736 calfskins had gone up to fifteen livres a dozen, in 1756 to thirty-five livres; in 1748 they came down to twenty-five livres. Accounts with the tanners were settled only by long-dated promissory notes, not by cash. In 1748 the tanners added eight dozen skins for each lot of sixteen gross plus one dozen seconds for each gross. This bonus was at once auctioned separately at headquarters instead of being divided over individual purchases, and the sum was spent for a dinner for the wardens.42 In 1751 the widow of Jean Barbou of Limoges had an inventory of her stock made as a preliminary to handing the business over to her son Martial. Among many interesting details are indications of binding prices. For plain parchment or sheepskin bindings the price per copy was one sol for 24mos; two sols for i8mos; three sols and three sols six deniers for duodecimos; five to ten sols for octavos; and ten to twelve sols for quartos. For a duodecimo, a gilded parchment or sheepskin binding was valued at four sols six deniers; if there were a gold border, the value was six sols six deniers. For a duodecimo in calfskin with gold edges the binding was one livre; in shagreen with gold edges, two livres six deniers. Fine morocco bindings with gold edges were done in Paris; the binding of the Breviary of Limoges, four volumes octavo, was " T h o i n a n , p. 32. 40 Thoinan, pp. 43-46. 41 Paul Ducourtieux, Les Barbou 42 Thoinan, pp. 81-88.

(Limoges, i8g6), p. 175.

BINDING

339

worth ten to twelve livres each; and the Missal of Limoges, a folio, was fourteen livres a copy.43 In contrast to these prices for ordinary trade bindings we have three accounts of special binding orders which indicate the prices for elaborate piecework. In 1775 Pierre Jean Bradel contracted with the Marquis de Paulmy for the following scale of prices for full leather binding: folios, five livres; quartos, two livres ten sols; octavos and duodecimos, one livre. For merely covering with paper the prices were: folios, two livres ten sols; quartos, one livre four sols; octavos and duodecimos, eight sols.44 In 1782 Angeurrand bound 354 volumes, mainly folios and quartos, for the King at the price of 1758 livres. In 1783 he bound 343 volumes for a total of 1890 livres; these were all done in morocco, a fact which partly explains the increase over the prices of a few years earlier. 45 18

Ducourtieux, pp. 187-188. Gruel, I, 62-63. " G r u e l , II, 24.

44

CONCLUSION

O u r discussion in the preceding pages has considered one of the most significant impacts of politics and economics upon the intellectual world of the ancien regime in France. Since that period was oriented toward absolutism in politics and mercantilism in economics, the solution of all the problems in the book trade was sought in a progressively firm royal control over the industry. Through all the pertinent legislation and other governmental activity of these three centuries we can trace the development of restrictions which, in a desperate effort to gain effectiveness, were loaded with threats of increasingly harsh penalties. During the sixteenth century, when reverence for theology and dread of heresy were dominant, the University seemed the natural protector of society from the subversive ideas rolling in over the frontiers from Germany. The University proceeded to its task with all the dignity and deliberateness it had inherited from the slowmoving Middle Ages; it could not give due weight to the fact that the printing press had introduced the new elements of speed and mass into the communication of ideas. Nor could it appreciate that there had arisen with the printing press a new kind of craftsman who was becoming adjusted to the accelerated tempo and also gaining industrial and political self-consciousness. T o implement the academic authority the government passed three fundamental laws during this century: the edict of VillersCotterets in 1541, the edict of Chateaubriand in 1551, and the edict of Gaillon in 1571. The central postulate of each is the controlling power of the University, acting through a representative group of twenty-four sworn bookdealers, over the output of the trade and over the status of the workmen. It is not difficult to see under the surface of each of these laws an ill-informed attempt to adapt the structure of the medieval book business to a new era. As for the content of books, the authorities could never keep abreast of the flood of unacceptable publication. So far as labor was concerned, they seem to have accomplished their purpose, for

344

CONCLUSION

the journeymen never again took the initiative in fomenting widespread trouble; there were always disputes between masters and workmen, it is true, but there was no repetition of the strikes that shook Paris and Lyon during the middle of the sixteenth century. So dynamic an industry as printing and publishing could not long remain quiet under the inept control of the University. In 1618 the government finally decided that this was not enough for the conditions that characterized even the comparative peace imposed by the accession of Henry IV to the throne. T h e next step was to organize the trade in the customary industrial form of a guild supervised by a committee of five members elected in the presence of the police officials. This solution recognized the economic self-sufficiency of the industry and at the same time linked it to the executive structure of the country. Although the traditional authority of the University continued to receive acknowledgment till the end of the ancien regime, it was a purely formal and hollow arrangement. Shortly after the establishment of the guild, the industry was still more closely lined up under the civil authorities by the appointment of a board of lay censors under the direction of the Chancellor and also by the strengthening of a previous requirement that every book must be furnished with a "privilege," a rudimentary form of copyright protection. Unrest now shifted to a new area. Throughout the seventeenth century it centered upon the struggle between the printers and the publishers as to which should dominate the guild and, in the second place, between the powerful publishers who soon cornered the most profitable pieces of literary property and the poorer dealers in Paris and in the provinces. In the course of time the first of these problems was settled in two ways: the number of printers was limited to thirty-six, and practically all master printers became master dealers also. Furthermore, the law of 1686 separated the binders from the guild and set them up in an organization of their own, thus eliminating a comparatively minor but no less irritating source of friction within the guild. For the protection of literary property, which involved questions of piracy and foreign trade, no adequate machinery was found until rather late in the nineteenth century, though the ancien regime did finally make considerable advances toward the theory of copyright law.

CONCLUSION

345

By the middle of the seventeenth century it was evident that the industry was no more able to control itself through the guild than the University had been able to control it through the group of sworn dealers. On the other hand, the government was becoming much stronger in every department as a result of the administration of Richelieu, Mazarin, and Colbert. T h e evidence of that increasing strength is shown by the incidental but firm development of the Chancellor's supervision through the Director of the Book T r a d e and the police development of a comprehensive bureaucracy under Joseph d'Hemery, unofficially known as the Inspector General of the Book Trade. Both the central government and the police were now in control, and the guild was more and more dependent upon them. These fundamental changes were reflected in the statutes issued in 1723, which cleared up various points of dispute and which proved satisfactory enough to withstand all criticism from within. As a matter of fact, the industry itself was not concerned with the initiation of the further changes promulgated by Turgot in 1777; these reflected the more liberal thinking of the time and were mainly concerned with improvement of the workmen's personal status and with an amelioration of the conditions for granting privileges. With the fall of Turgot, his reforms were disregarded. Without definitely restoring the code of 1723, the guild adhered rather closely to its established practice until the Revolution swept it aside. A summary of this sort indicates in a general way the development of control over an important industry as the central authority endeavored to squeeze it into the pattern of the national economy. Whether the system worked or not, the over-all plan was there, and the book trade was made to conform at least in external arrangements with the general industrial pattern. But the book trade is more than manufacturing and distributing inert articles of commerce, and the external development from a subsidiary administrative department of the University into a national industry is paralleled by an internal development that made it important for the government to reckon with it. T h a t internal development is nowhere more dramatically seen than in the contrast between Michael Servetus writing during the six-

346

CONCLUSION

teenth century on alchemy and demonology and Denis Diderot in the eighteenth century bringing out the thirty-five volumes of the broad-minded Encyclopedie. Tracing this vast change is, however, the task of the historian of ideas; it is sufficient here to point out that governmental efforts to control and obstruct the development of thought were quite ineffective. One is justified, however, in asking why the multitude of regulations were not more successful in bringing greater order and a larger measure of harmony into the book trade. T h e multiplicity of the laws may perhaps be explained by the fact that during the ancien regime France was struggling with the unprecedented administrative problem of setting up orderly government for more populous areas than anything known in the past, and the method of procedure was not large-scale planning but endless repetition in louder and louder tones. There was little respect for the law, and authority was something to dodge rather than something to co-operate with. Perhaps we ourselves have not progressed much farther along this path — or so our newspapers would suggest — and perhaps if we could look at conditions exactly as the man of the ancien regime did, then we would not find his world so confusing. After all, there are a good many indications of happy relationships between the members of the book trade community. Intermarriages were the rule; there were many occasions for festivities and sociability; and there were plenty of instances of business co-operation that was financially successful. When we do our best to visualize the man of the ancien regime, he turns out to be a rather understandable individual after all. Furthermore, even if control was unsuccessful, we must conclude that an extreme of repression was still less adapted to accomplish the end in view. Twice the government exerted all its power: first, in the suppression of the workers' complaints, and second, in the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Although two centuries were to elapse after the edict of Villers-Cotterets and the edict of GailIon, the stifled murmuring of the journeymen was finally dealt with in the edict of 1777 in a way that foreshadows a modern conception of treating the demands of labor. And the revocation of the edict of Nantes actually led only to the ruin of the paper industry and the loss of skilled printers and dealers without diminishing

CONCLUSION

347

the influence of subversive books, which were thereafter issued in neighboring countries and smuggled into France. Sooner or later it became evident that totalitarian methods are not profitable or effective. The opposite side of this question — what effect did the growth of culture have upon the book trade — is rather more difficult to answer. We can only point out, in the first place, that the kinds of books most in demand at the end of the eighteenth century were on entirely different subjects from those most successful in the fifteenth. Theology was high on the lists at all times, though with a change of emphasis from controversy over Lutheranism to controversy over Jansenism; but in the end readers' interest was centered mainly on history and natural sciences and economics. What we cannot trace, however, is an indication of whether the trade itself took any initiative in bringing about such changes in demand, any indication of what possibly revolutionary manuscripts were rejected and never saw the light. In the second place, we can point out that the growth of culture was demonstrated by a willingness to buy books rather than, or in addition to, houses, land, various forms of entertainment, and so on, and that this is shown by the fact that the size of editions increased from about two or three hundred copies to a customary fifteen hundred or more and also that reprintings and new editions became much more frequent. Apart from such inquiries on the relations between culture and economics there are a host of others, some of them of a more specific or managerial type. T o these there can be no answer without extensive search in the archives not only in France but in Holland and Switzerland and England. We would like to know more, for instance, about the capital structure of various firms, the financing of such large-scale enterprises as Moreri's Dictionary, the financial arrangements in great partnerships like the Grand'Navire, the methods of settlement between parent houses and branches, the payment for pirated and smuggled editions. The whole clandestine trade itself needs clarification that can come only with extensive search in the police records. There are many unanswerable questions regarding the workings of the Chancellor's office in the matter of permits and privileges. There are still

348

CONCLUSION

others concerned with technical management of the printing shop itself and the ultimate conduct of the publisher's editorial and business offices. Such problems indicate the need for full-length business biographies of outstanding publishers like Panckoucke and the Anisson family, works that would parallel Renouard's life of Federic Morel and Ducourtieux's history of the Barbou family and Mrs. Armstrong's study of Robert Estienne. A final query we may attempt to meet. W h y were certain books commercially successful — not merely the works that have taken a place among the masterpieces of French literature but the many others, now forgotten, that we hear about in the memoirs of d'Argenson and Bachaumont and other observers? Many books, especially in the eighteenth century, sold thousands of copies in spite of the fact that there was no advertising in the modern sense, no adequate book reviewing, nothing but posters and catalogues to herald their appearance to the general public. T o explain this situation we would point out that there was always a large, homogeneous, and alert group of readers who discussed books and recommended them to one another. T h e influence of the salons and the book clubs was decisive, and the public followed the lead of such informed groups. T h e ancien regime thus stumbled upon the best road to publishing success and all the experience of the trade since that time has merely proved the soundness of this fundamental discovery.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX

A

MONEY AND PURCHASING POWER It is desirable for a m o d e r n reader c o n f r o n t e d w i t h a mass of historical data expressed in terms of m o n e y to h a v e some a p p r o x i m a t e measures of comparison w i t h figures f a m i l i a r to himself. T o the l a y m a n it seems as t h o u g h it w o u l d b e rather simple for the economist to translate the d e n o m i n a t i o n s of the coins of o n e era i n t o their e q u i v a l e n t s at a n o t h e r time. Students of price history, h o w e v e r , p o i n t o u t m a n y obstacles in the w a y of an easy solution of p r o b l e m s of conversion a n d of fluctuations in v a l u e . I n the first place there are n o u n i f o r m a n d consistent series of prices c o m p a r a b l e w i t h o n e a n o t h e r b u t o n l y an immense r a n g e a n d q u a n t i t y of d o c u m e n t s a n d i n c i d e n t a l references, the i n t e r p r e t a t i o n of w h i c h w o u l d absorb the l i f e t i m e energies of a large g r o u p of investigators. I n the n e x t place the p u r c h a s i n g p o w e r of m o n e y was s u b j e c t to f r e q u e n t alterations in the a m o u n t of g o l d or silver m i n t e d in the coins of the realm. A g a i n , there w e r e significant alterations in the social values of m o n e y — i n l i v i n g conditions, in the d e m a n d for n e w products a n d the disappearance of d e m a n d f o r o l d e r goods, in the q u a l i t y of commodities, in mere fashion, a n d in countless other details. Standards of wages are particularly difficult to express exactly because i n m a n y trades " f o o d , wine, a n d p i t t a n c e " — w i t h o u t f u r t h e r specification as to q u a l i t y or q u a n t i t y — w e r e g i v e n i n a d d i t i o n to sums of m o n e y . A n y a t t e m p t to reconcile these multitudinous variations must b e u n d e r t a k e n with c a u t i o n a n d w i t h the k n o w l e d g e that a neat, simple, a n d m i n u t e l y accurate answer to the p r o b l e m s of p r i c e history is impossible. I n the ancien regime the s t a n d a r d coin was called a livre or f r a n c ; it was d i v i d e d i n t o twenty sols or sous, a n d each sol was s u b d i v i d e d into twelve deniers. T h e r e w e r e a f e w o t h e r coins that circulated f r o m time to time: the louis, u n d e r L o u i s X I V , was w o r t h at first twenty livres b u t in the reign of L o u i s X V w e n t u p to thirty livres a n d eventually to thirty-six livres; the louis d'argent, first c o i n e d by L o u i s X I I I a n d generally k n o w n as the ecu, was the e q u i v a l e n t of three livres or sixty sous b u t finally declined to five sous. T h e r e h a v e b e e n several attempts to p r o v i d e a means of expressing the v a l u e of these coins in terms c u r r e n t today. Some economists h a v e taken a b u s h e l of w h e a t or some such a g r i c u l t u r a l p r o d u c t as a s t a n d a r d a n d h a v e c o m p a r e d the n u m b e r of coins w h i c h at various times w o u l d be p a i d f o r that bushel. It must be said, h o w e v e r , that every c o m m o d i t y is n o w entirely d i f f e r e n t f r o m its so-called predecessor of, let us say, the sixteenth century a n d that there is therefore n o v a l i d comparison b e t w e e n the w h e a t of that time a n d the w h e a t g r o w n a n d m a r k e t e d at present. O t h e r s h a v e c o m p a r e d the g o l d or silver c o n t e n t of the livre at various times w i t h the p r o p o r t i o n of precious m e t a l in the 1956 franc. A l t h o u g h some v a l u a b l e series of conver-

352

APPENDIX A

sion coefficients have thus been worked out, it is evident that these coefficients reveal nothing more than the variations in the amount of metal used at the royal mint in one or another coin and also evident that widely different results would be obtained in accordance with the choice of gold or of silver for the comparison because the ratios between the two metals have changed so radically. Most approaches to our question lead only to a limitless field of inconclusive speculation. What we really want is some familiar standard by which we can roughly estimate the eagerness or the reluctance of a purchaser in a given period to buy a book instead of something else, the general level of daily comfort suggested by a certain amount of wages, or the financial success indicated by the possession of an estate of a certain value. For our purposes a suitable standard may probably be found in the income of the university professor. Over the centuries this class of workers has been subject to surprisingly few essential changes in professional methods and social status. Throughout the ancien regime, it is true, teachers in the University of Paris and in the Collfege de France complained of the cost of living and the smallness of the salaries; but they did so in much the same terms as those used by university professors of the twentieth century. In both periods, however, we find that the professor, as a rule, sticks to his job, lives under conditions that he finds congenial on the whole, adds to his salary various small fees and perquisites, enjoys a pension on retirement, and is not likely to leave either an accumulation of debts or a large estate upon his death. From the Middle Ages up to 1639 'he professor in the Faculty of Arts of the University of Paris (the teacher in any one of the many colleges) had no professional income other than the fees he collected from the students in his own classes. T h e man with most students therefore got most salary. If a man were very popular, he might have as many as 150 or 200 students. T h e fee paid by each student in each course was four or five gold icus, i.e., 12 or 15 livres. T h e basic salary of the professor might range, let us say, from 60 or 75 livres up to 3000 livres. A t the beginning of the seventeenth century many teachers made a charge for the use of benches, tables, curtains, candles, and so on; but the government limited these fees to five or six dcus for each student. In 1639 the University suddenly realized that it had a source of considerable revenue in its traditional monopoly of the courier services of the kingdom, services resembling the postal and express facilities of our time. T h e profits of the monopoly were henceforth used to pay professors' salaries in addition to the students' fees. Early payments varied from 71 to 112 livres for each man; in 1699 the share varied from 350 to 450 livres. During the seventeenth century, then, a professor with ten students might receive 150 livres a year from students' fees, another 150 livres from incidental charges, and 450 livres from the courier monopoly; this is a total of 750 livres. On the other hand, a popular professor with 200 students might receive 6450 livres in all. In 1720, when the courier monopoly had been entirely taken over by the government, a larger share of the profits was given to the University but with the stipulation that all instruction should thereafter be free. Henceforth there was a fixed base salary of 1000 livres for professors of philosophy and rhetoric (the highest class under the Faculty of Arts), 800 livres for teachers in the next two lower classes, and 600 livres for those in the fourth, fifth, and sixth classes.

D E T A I L S OF C I V I L G O V E R N M E N T

353

I n a d d i t i o n each professor shared in the residue of the courier profits l e f t after the g e n e r a l expenses of the U n i v e r s i t y w e r e d e d u c t e d ; in 1720 the indiv i d u a l share was 520 livres. L a t e r in the century there were additions to the courier f u n d ; b u t d u r i n g the w h o l e of this hundred-year p e r i o d the teachers of the Faculty of A r t s h a d to b e c o n t e n t w i t h a s t i p e n d that all in all a n d f o r the most f a m o u s m e n n e v e r e x c e e d e d 1750 livres. Salaries in the U n i v e r s i t y were always p a i d p r o m p t l y every q u a r t e r . C o n d i t i o n s in the Collfege de F r a n c e were n o t so g o o d because salaries w e r e p a i d directly b y the K i n g a n d therefore w e r e always in arrears. A t the beginn i n g in 1530 the s t i p e n d was 450 livres, w h i c h seems to h a v e b e e n e q u i v a l e n t to most of the salaries in the U n i v e r s i t y at the time. I n the reign of H e n r y I I I it w e n t u p to 600 livres, a n d t o w a r d the e n d of H e n r y IV's reign the oldest professors w e r e increased to goo livres. F r o m 1618 to 1660 there was n o change; the average m a n received 600 livres and, in a d d i t i o n , a s u p p l e m e n t v a r y i n g f r o m 80 to 600 livres a c c o r d i n g to his l e n g t h of service. I n the e i g h t e e n t h century total salaries were r e d u c e d to 600 livres. A f t e r various schemes of imp r o v e m e n t h a d b e e n proposed, the C o l l e g e was u n i t e d to the University in 1773 a n d salaries w e r e raised to 1000 livres. I n order to gain a f e e l i n g f o r the values of m o n e y over the decades of the ancien regime the r e a d e r w i l l c o m p a r e all these figures — a n d their implications — w i t h the salary scales of v a r i o u s A m e r i c a n universities of o u r o w n time. H e w i l l n o t arrive at a n y exact table of e q u i v a l e n t s b u t he w i l l g a i n an insight i n t o some of the difficulties of price history a n d of the fluctuations w i t h i n the b o o k trade.

APPENDIX Β

SOME D E T A I L S OF C I V I L

GOVERNMENT

A l t h o u g h F r a n c e was n e v e r q u i t e an absolute m o n a r c h y , the K i n g was r e g a r d e d as the s u p r e m e h e a d of every d e p a r t m e n t of g o v e r n m e n t . H e delegated his authority to various ministers a n d discussed all i m p o r t a n t decisions with the C o n s e i l d'fitat, the C o u n c i l of State. " T h e o r e t i c a l l y the C o u n c i l of State was the b r a i n of the vast organism of w h i c h the k i n g was the h e a r t . " 1 T h e r e w e r e six ministers, of w h o m the C h a n c e l l o r , at the h e a d of justice, signed a n d sealed all laws in the n a m e of the K i n g . T h e most significant check on royal despotism was the Parlements. T h e r e were f o u r t e e n of them in 1789 w i t h seats at Aix-en-Provence, B e s a ^ o n , Bord e a u x , D i j o n , D o u a i , G r e n o b l e , Metz, N a n c y , P a u , R e n n e s , R o u e n , T r e v o u x , T o u l o u s e , a n d Paris. T h e P a r l e m e n t of Paris, w h i c h exercised j u r i s d i c t i o n o v e r a m u c h greater e x t e n t of territory than a n y of the others, was always recognized as the leader. T h e f u n c t i o n s of the P a r l e m e n t s w e r e at first p u r e l y j u d i c i a r y ; they w e r e a p p e l l a t e or s u p r e m e courts of justice. As such they n a t u r a l l y f o u n d it con1 Walter L. Dorn, Competition for Empire 1740-1763 (New York, 1940), p. 30. Pages 23-35 this book give an excellent summary of the whole government during the ancien regime.

APPENDIX Β

354

v e n i e n t t o collect a n d register every l a w issued by the K i n g , a n d this d u t y dev e l o p e d i n t o the p o w e r to m a k e remonstrances i n certain cases or e v e n to refuse t o a p p r o v e a law by w i t h h o l d i n g registration. I n case of refusal the K i n g either s u b m i t t e d to the c o u r t o r he a p p e a r e d b e f o r e it in a c e r e m o n y k n o w n as a " b e d of j u s t i c e " a n d c o m m a n d e d acquiescence. I n a d d i t i o n to r e v i e w i n g the j u d g m e n t s of various l o w e r courts the P a r l e m e n t was charged w i t h the d u t y of e x e c u t i n g r o y a l legislation a n d thus over the course of time a c q u i r e d a large measure of p o l i t i c a l p o w e r . E a c h P a r l e m e n t m e t at the central t o w n of its jurisdiction i n a b u i l d i n g called the P a l a c e of Justice or, m o r e simply, the Palace. T h e corridors of this edifice w e r e o c c u p i e d by small dark shops f o r the sale of all sorts of goods. I t was a strategic l o c a t i o n f o r bookshops since the lawyers w e r e n o t o n l y rich customers b u t a v i d readers of all sorts of books. A l l the great booksellers in Paris h a d o n e s h o p a n d sometimes two in the Palace, a n d this was the o n l y p l a c e outside the U n i v e r s i t y q u a r t e r w h e r e it was legally permissible to m a i n t a i n a b o o k s h o p . W h e n a l a w was issued, it was r e a d by the p u b l i c criers at designated places i n the city a n d then p r i n t e d a n d d i s t r i b u t e d by o n e of the r o y a l printers. T h e r e w e r e several n a m e s used to describe the laws — edits, arrets, declarations, lettres patents, a n d so o n ; b u t n o practical difference was i n d i c a t e d b y these terms. 2 T h e most i m p o r t a n t edicts w e r e k n o w n by the n a m e of the t o w n in w h i c h the K i n g h a p p e n e d to b e at the m o m e n t of p r o m u l g a t i o n ; thus w e h a v e the edict of Gaillon, of Nantes, of Fontainebleau, a n d so on. T h e p o l i c e system of Paris h a d its h e a d q u a r t e r s i n an a n c i e n t b u i l d i n g , the C h ä t e l e t , o r i g i n a l l y a castle or fortress. T h e w o r d was e v e n t u a l l y e x t e n d e d to i n c l u d e the p o l i c e courts, w h i c h w e r e courts o n l y of first instance, located i n the b u i l d i n g . H e r e also w e r e the offices of the P r o v o s t of the city a n d of the L i e u t e n a n t - G e n e r a l of Police.

APPENDIX

THE

GUILD

C

SYSTEM

W h e n the printers a n d booksellers w e r e organized i n a g u i l d i n 1618, their activities w e r e b r o u g h t i n t o c o n f o r m i t y w i t h a n industrial a n d c o m m e r c i a l p a t t e r n that was c o m m o n i n all E u r o p e a n countries. T h e distinction b e t w e e n masters a n d j o u r n e y m e n a n d apprentices was a n a t u r a l one, a n d the developm e n t of distinct artisan g r o u p i n g s w i t h religious, charitable, a n d craft objectives was inevitable. N o r is it surprising that by the b e g i n n i n g of the seventeenth century the guilds h a d b e c o m e associations of masters exclusively. A l t h o u g h there was n o absolute u n i f o r m i t y in details, each g u i l d h a d a m o n o p o l y of w o r k i n the craft a n d d e f e n d e d craft standards a n d prerogatives against all sorts of interlopers. E a c h g r o u p r e q u i r e d of f u t u r e m e m b e r s the f u l f i l l m e n t of such prerequisites as a p p r e n t i c e s h i p , presentation of a specimen 2 A. Esmein, Cours elementaire d'histoire du droit franfais, 15th ed. (Paris, 1925), pp. 736-737; Germain Martin, Les Associations ouvrieres au XVIII' siecle (Paris, 1900), p. 44.

T H E GUILD SYSTEM

355

of skill or the taking of an examination, an oath of loyalty, and an entrance fee; each imposed restrictions on methods of work and limited the number of apprentices; and each was administered by an assembly and an elected council or syndicate. T h e essential aims of the system were economic — attained by the regulation of production and sale; social and moral — attained by emphasis on craft solidarity; and political — involving relations to the State, especially in matters of taxation and policing. T h e r e was, however, n o intercity combination of all the guilds of one craft; industry was entirely on a local, not a national, basis. N o r was there any intracity combination; journeymen had their unions, but the masters did not form any managerial coalition. Each guild, however, had many of the legal advantages of a modern corporation. Each had large financial capacities, could own real estate, and could raise common funds; could sue and be sued at law and could address the K i n g by petition or remonstrance; and had a fixed rank in public ceremonials, which played an important part in the civic life of the time. By the beginning of the sixteenth century we find in all the guilds a recognition of three grades of masters: the jeunes, w h o had been masters for less than ten years; the modernes, w h o had been from ten to twenty years in the guild; and the anciens, with more than twenty years, and the anciens bacheliers, anciens w h o had held a guild office. T h e jeunes could not be elected to office and often had n o vote in craft deliberations; the modernes might fill an office but, again, might have n o vote. In most of the larger guilds v o t i n g for officers was restricted to a comparatively small group of members, a sort of electoral college representative of the whole membership. T h e electors met on a specified day each year in the Chätelet and proceeded to choose by majority voice-vote a syndic and a varying number of wardens (usually four) k n o w n as juris, gardes, or adjoints. Besides this committee of officers there was also an executive clerk who served as secretary to the wardens, made out reports of their meetings, kept the accounts, collected charitable assessments, and superintended the employment of workmen coming from other cities. T h e integrity of the guild system was threatened from many directions. As far back as 1485 Charles V I I I created the "workmen following the C o u r t , " who represented many crafts and were quite independent of guild affiliations. A t an early date any craftsman w h o taught a trade to the poor and abandoned children of the H ö p i t a l de la T r i n i t y in Paris was made a master. In the towns there was always the chambrelan — the journeyman w h o assembled his wife, his children, a few still poorer journeymen, and some apprentices and competed at reduced prices in his own lodgings. T h e existence of all these exceptional groups did less to disturb the theory of a unified, general guild system than did the practice of selling masterships and other craft offices. Louis X I (1461-1483) began, or at least made common, the selling of mastership letters on a solemn occasion such as a coronation, the birth of a D a u p h i n , or a royal entry into a town. T h e s e letters freed the purchasers from the need of serving as apprentices or journeymen; the guilds had to accept as qualified members men w h o had some money b u t little or no craft knowledge. A l t h o u g h the chief aim was to supply the royal treasury, the device was a great help to those w h o could not otherwise surmount the obstacles to regular admittance.

356

APPENDIX C

The scheme, however, was so simple and at first so productive that it was overdone. Any pretext was invoked, and the number of letters increased from two in every guild on each occasion to as many as eight. Sales slowed down, especially when the guilds secretly added further assessments and almost ostracized the purchasers. Henry IV found the market so much oversupplied that he annulled all the unsold letters of his predecessors in order to get rid of those he himself issued. In the eighteenth century, though the guilds were forbidden to receive any new masters until all the royal letters had been taken up, the latter often remained for ten years without purchasers. Variations of the scheme piled up during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In 1691 the King took from the guilds the right to elect their own wardens and then he created equivalent offices to be sold to the highest bidders. Auditors of accounts, treasurers of common funds, inspectors of weights and measures, supervisors of registers, keepers of the archives, disbursing treasurers — these and dozens of other offices were devised as sources of income outside the regular channels of taxation. There was no need to throw these offices into a public market. No guild could calmly regard such wholesale invasion of its practices and status. They responded feverishly, selling their silver plate and other possessions, mortgaging their income for decades in advance, and adopting every conceivable device to buy up the offices rather than letting them go on general sale. Venality of offices was not, however, the only financial plague to afflict the guilds; they were continually burdened with the heavy expenses — from 800,000 to 1,000,000 livres annually —of numerous and intricate lawsuits. The delimitation of crafts led to constant quarrels among closely related ones — the tailors and the second-hand clothes men; the harness makers, saddle makers, and bridle makers; the drapers, fullers, and dyers. Purely commercial suits, such as demands for the payment of a letter of exchange, came before the commerce courts; but suits involving professional disagreement came in the first instance before the Chätelet, with appeal to the Parlement. And appeals might stretch the litigation endlessly; one suit lasted sixty-five years, another a century and a half. Each guild fought bitterly to maintain its own privileges and its monopoly.

INDEX

INDEX Absolutism, 343 Academie Franfaise, 36, 141 Academies, 36, 141 Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, 33 Accounts, settlement of, 182, 187 Advertising, 60, 201 Alloues, 242, 2 5 1 , 280 Almanach royal, 65, 20g Almanacs, 28, 59, 139, 2 1 6 Amanuenses, 47 " A n c i e n t " books, 220 Anisson f a m i l y , 145, 178, 197 Announcements of new books, 202 Appraisers and auctioneers, 138 Apprentices (binding), 335-337 Apprentices (engraving), 3 1 5 Apprentices (printing and publishing), age, 273; contracts, 274-278; duties, 282-286; educational background, 272; examination, 274; fees, 276; induction of, 273-276; marriage, 272; need for, 269-271; number o f , 2 5 1 - 2 5 2 , 265266, 279-280; prerequisites, 2 7 1 - 2 7 3 ; social status of, 273, 274, 281; sons of masters, 128; term of service, 160, 278 Arrangements, with publisher, 44, 224 Astrology, 38, 57 A u t h o r and engraver, 310; geographical status, 1 1 ; living conditions, 12; number of, 27; and proofs, 5 1 ; publishers as authors, 43, 93; "rights," 2 1 1 , 228, 232; social position, 89; wealthy, 8 2 84, 9 7 - 1 0 0 Banishment, 80 Bankruptcies, 130 Banquets, 1 1 0 Benedictines, 45 Bibliotheque du Roi, 26 Bibliotheque Nationale, 26 Binders, apprentices, 334; chef d'oeuvre, 335; complaints, 326; fees f o r mastership, 334; guild of, 327, 329; inspection of shop, 327, 330, 333; journeymen, 335; number of, 334; quarrels with printers, 328; requirements of apprenticeship, 330; requirements for mastership, 330; revised statutes, 333;

separation from book guild, 329, 344; sons, 3 3 1 Bindery, part of early printing office, 324 Bindings, anonymous, 326; costs, 326, 337; elaborate, 334; leathers, cost of, 337; medieval mss, 325; prices, 337; small books, 333; styles of, 332, 334 Blondel, Pierre Jacques, 223, 252 Books, additional matter, 7 1 ; on America, 26; burning of, 76; changes in subject matter, 23, 33; classification of subjects, 28-39; condemnation of, 64, 73, 77; confiscation of, 77; expensive, 1 9 1 ; fine, 145; length of, 42; official reports, 25; popular, 28; prices, 99, 143, 205; production, 23-28; reasons f o r success, 348; sales, 203; in several volumes, 7 1 ; subversive, 72; of travel, 25; on T u r k s , 26 Booksellers, capital, 1 9 0 - 1 9 2 ; early, 1 1 5 ; income, 190; number of, 1 1 1 - 1 1 2 , 1 2 8 129; and publishers, 189; retailers, 186; superiority, 1 2 1 ; sworn, 1 1 1 Bookshops, number of, 189; provincial, 189 Bosse, A b r a h a m , 322 Bourgeoisie, 6, 8, 32 Brochures, 25 Brotherhood of St. J o h n the Evangelist, 1 0 7 - 1 1 0 , 1 1 6 , 167, 256, 3 1 7 , 320 Bureau contentieux, 65, 146 Bureau gracieux, 65, 146 Calendrier du cour, 209 Cancels, 53 Capital, f o r printing shop, 179-182 Cartesianism, 38 Celebrations, 165 Censors, board of, 6 1 , 344; ignorance of, 73; n u m b e r of, 65 Censorship, administration, 70; evasions of, 72-76; inadequacy of, 67; nature of, 54-60; penalties f o r violation of law, 7 6 - 8 1 ; reforms proposed by Malesherbes, 69 Chancellor, 146 Chapel, 259 Chätelet, lieutenant of, 147 Church, influence on business, 157

360

INDEX

Classes, social, 5 - 1 3 Clergy, 141 Collationeur, 50 College de France, 15, 88 Colleges, 16 Colporters, 72, 140 Compagnie de la Navire (Grand'Navire), 199 Compagnie des Usages, 198 Companionships (compagnonnages), 257 Competition, among publishers, 223 Confr£rie du Saint Sacrement, 258, 262 Contracts, publishing, 100-103 Control, royal, 227, 343 Copper plates, 312, 315 Copyists, number of, 1 1 1 Correcteur, 50 Correctness, of text, 55 Council of State, 353 Courier services, 352 Court of Commerce, 1 1 9 Craft associations, 255 Culture, growth of, 347 Death, as penalty for violating censorship, 81 Dedications, 85 Deposit copies, 26, 214, 217, 225 Determinants, social, 4-22 Dictionaries, 34 Dijon, population of, 5 Director of Book Trade, 65, 146, 158, 236. 345 Discounts, 188 Drinking, 259, 260, 269, 298 Droit d' auteur, 237

First Estate, size of, 6 Food, cost of, 299, 300 Foreign trade, 155, 193, 197 Formats, 39-43 Galley proofs, 52 Galleys, as punishment, 80 Gallican Liberties, 21 Gilders, 327, 332 Godard and Merlin, 243 Gonzague, Louis de, foundation for poor girls, 313 Government publications, 217 Grande Compagnie des Libraires (Lyon), 197 Gratuities, royal, 85-88 Greek, knowledge of, 272 Guild of printers and dealers, administration of, 122; archives, 166; board of managers, 1 2 1 ; and civil authority, 123; disorder in meetings, 164; election of officers, 120, 121, 123, 132, 163-164; end of, 136; entrance fee (seventeenth century), 160; establishment of, 122; examination for mastership, 1 6 1 - 1 6 3 ; families, 136, 137, 200; fees for mastership, 179; financial records, 166; fines, 123; government control, 174; headquarters, 168; inspectors, 124, 147; internal management, 160-169; limitation of suffrage, 124, 126, 133; masters, contributions of, 180; masters, reception of, 127, 160; meetings, 165; number of (1777), 134; object of, 146; officers of, 129; official printing, 149; prerogatives, 149 ff.; trade problems in sixteenth century, 118-120; quarrels, 130; supervision, 150; syndics, number of, 164; trade regulation, 1 1 6 - 1 2 2 Guild system, 355

Ecclesiastical preferment, 90-92 Editions, size of, 202, 316 Editors, 50 Education, 13-20; effectiveness of, 14; of girls, 13; theory, 35 Encyclopedic, 35, 45, 52, 96, g8, 201, 204 Engravers, 140, 145; guild of, 319; social position, 324 Engravings, costs, 316, 323; dealers in, 310; printers of, 316, 319, 320 Errata, 53 Etching, 315

Haberdashers, 139 d'Hemery, Joseph, 147, 148, 232, 345 Heresy, 56, 59 d'Hericourt, Louis, 228 History, books on, 33 Holidays, 300 Hours of work, 263, 300

Fairs, 186-187 Families, publishing, 200 Feast days, 259 Fines, for nonattendance on guild meetings, 123; for workmen, 259

Illustrations, costs of, 321; difficulties in, 3 1 1 ; of manuscripts, 310; printing of, 318; in second editions, 317 Illustrators, of books, 3 1 1 Immorality, 59, 318

INDEX Imprimerie Royale, 143 equipment, 177 Imprints, 74, 151 Imprisonment, 77, 79 Index of forbidden books, Inspection, of books, 154, ing shops, 159 Interlopers, 251. See also

ff.,

177,

178;

57 221; of print-

361

Librarians, 93 Libraries, 27 Lille, population of, 5 Livres ά figures, 313 Livres ά vignettes, 317 Luneau de Boisgermain, 231 Lyon, population of, 5, 197, 233, 261

Monopoly

Jansenism, 21, 22, 130, 19g Jesuits, 21 Journeymen, 355; associations, 256; auxiliary police, 246; chances of advancement, 244; definition of, 241; employment, 247-252; enticement of, 248; freedom of movement, 248; hostility to apprentices, 251, 281; letter of dismissal, 248; notice of leaving, 250; number of, 242; in papermaking, 297; registers of, 246; status in eighteenth century, 268; tickets for, 24g; treatment of, 253; weekly lists of, 249 Labor troubles, 174, 343 L a Brosse, Guy de, 322 L a Fontaine, granddaughters, 231 Latin, books written in, 18; importance of, 14; knowledge of, 160, 272; struggle with French, 19 Law, books on, 41, 216, 227 Laws: 13 January 1535, 56; edict of Villers-Cotterets (31 August 1539), 19, 42, 46, 49, 74, 119, 266, 343; 28 December 1541, 265; edict of Chateaubriand (1551), 59, 318, 343; ordonnance of Moulins (February 1566), 57, 58; edict of Gaillon (May 1571), 59, n 8 , 158, 267, 343; edict of Nantes (1598), 21, 80, 297; 16 June 1618, 39, 110, 122; Code Michaud (January 1629), 63, 70; edict of St. Jean de Luz (26 May 1660), 319; 21 December 1667, 318; code of 1686, 108, 128; code of 1723, 59, 71, 131, 226; 25 June 1750, 333; 12 March 1776, 333; 30 August 1777, "34. 234. 346 Laws, disregard for, 72, 159, 346; names applied to, 354; number of, 142; penalties for violation, 76-79; preambles, 156 Lawsuits, 236, 356 Lawyers, as authors, 93-94 Letters of mastership, 128, 143 Libraires etalans, 140 Libraires-imprimeurs, 189

Malesherbes, 230 Manuals of style, 51 Manuscripts, prices for, 96 Marketing by mail, 202 Masters, duties to apprentices, 277; grades of, 355; number of, 137; requirements, 175 Mastership, 355 Mathurin Fathers, church of, 108 Medicine, books on, 57 Mercantilism, 157, 343 Molinists, 21 Molinosisme, 21 Monastic orders, 141 Money, value of, 351 Monopole, 263 Monopoly, 123, 136, 151 Montgolfier, Pierre, 305 Nimes, population of, 5 Nobility, education of, 13; numbers of, 6; of the robe, 35 Offices, sale of, 355 Orders, religious, 91 Orthography, 48 Palace of Justice, 124 Pamphlets, 216 Paper accounts, 307; cost analysis, 309; foreign trade, 307; government control, 306; prices, 143, 307, 308; sales and distribution, 187, 306; sizes, 39, 290, 308 Papermaking, brotherhoods, 301; code, 293; contractor, 294; control of workmen, 298; cost of food, 299-300; cost of materials, 303; government regulation, 293; guild, 292-293; inspection, 291-293; instability of employment, 297; investment, 296; masters, 292-295; process of manufacture, 290, 295; proposals for school, 302; raw materials, 289; strikes, 301; wages, 299-301 Paper mills, number of, 290, 297; organization of, 294, 295, 297; ownership, 294; production, 303

362

INDEX

Papetier, 291 Parchment, 46 Parlement, 56, 57, 60, 353 Partnerships, publishing, 198 Patronage, 85-89, 324 Peddlers, 72. See Colporters Penmanship, 46 Pensions, 85, 88, 89 Permission clandestine, 67 Permission tacite, 67 Permit, 58, 61, 67, 7 1 , 73, 2 1 1 - 2 1 2 Philology, books on, 34 Philosophes, 38 Physicians, 15 Piracy, punishment for, 130, 218-219 Poetry, 36, 92 Police, 61, 354 Politics, books on, 63 Population, 5 Pornography, 318 Port Royal, 22 Ports of entry, 154 Prelecteur, 50 Printers, of engravings, guild, 320; following the Court, 141; investment, 181-182; journeymen, 241-269; limitation of number, 128, 176, 344; number of, 112, 1 1 3 , 125; quarrels with dealers, 344; royal, 141; status of, 121 Printing: clandestine, 75, 125, 153, 246; clubs, 135; controlled by dealers, 18g; costs of, 194; daily life in shop, 260; equipment, 175-179, 181; equipment, sale of, 139; foreign, 75; as a hobby, 153; number of shops in Paris, 1 1 2 ; preparation of copy for, 48; sixteenthcentury conditions, 173 Privilege, definition of, 2 1 1 ; earliest, 212; evasions of law regarding, 225; last one, 237; Parlement and, 215; renewal of, 215, 221; vital part, 214 Prodigies, infant, 16 Professionalism, among authors, 93 Professors, salaries of, 352 Proofreading, 49-54. 93 Publishers, attitude toward authors, 4445; capital investment, 190-192, 219; contracts, 95; failures, 188; journeymen, 241; program, 107; provincial, 197, 215, 228; relations with other publishers, 197; relations with printers, 194-197; relations with public, 201207; restrictions on, 192-194 Publishing, development of, 184-190 Purchasing power, 351

Quality, of content, 156, 158; maintenance of, 156-160; of material, 156, 158; penalties, 159 Quietism, 21 Religion, 20-22, 33; books on, 32, 58, 60, 7 1 , 198, 217 Rent, for bookshop, 192 Repression, ineffective, 346 Romances, 37, 41, 96 Royal Academy of Painters and Sculptors, 109, 110, 316, 319 Saint A n d r i des Arcs, church of, 108 Sainte Union, 198 Saints' days, 109 Sale of offices, 130 Salesmen, 185-186 Salons, 35, 85 Scholars, 17 Science, books on, 38 Scribes, number of, 1 1 1 Second Estate, size of, 6 Second hand books, 193 Shop management, 250 Six Guilds of Paris, 119, 244 Smuggling, 76, 219 Specialization in titles, 188 States General, 135 Stationery shops, 45 Strikes, 262-269 Subscription books, 96, 204 Subsidies, for publication, 191 Syndic, 121, 124, 129 Taille douce, 312, 315 Taxation, 1 1 7 , 129, 154, 182, 304, 326 Teachers, as authors, 93-94 Textbooks, 25, 32, 1 1 5 , 185 Theology, importance of, 15, 32, 41 T h i r d Estate, 6 Trade marks, 1 5 1 - 1 5 2 Transportation, difficulties of, 305 Trie, 263 Type, amount in shop, 176; and presses, improvements in, 158 T y p e founders, 128 Ultramontanes, 21 Unigenitus, 22, 130 Universities, number of, 16; Paris, 15, 44. 56. 57- 6o > n l > " 5 . l 2 1 · '33· 291. 343 University quarter, 124, 150

INDEX Wages, 247, 254, 264 Wardens, 122, 129 Warehouses, 151 Waste paper, buying of, 138 Wealth, of authors, 82-84; of publishers, 207-210

363

Wholesalers, 186 Widows, 245, 274 Woodcuts, 312 Workers en conscience, 247, 250, 255 Working day, length, 183; number of, 182 Workmen following the Court, 355