PIERRE BOAISTUAU - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

continued until the middle of the sixteenth century. 285 For example, the case of
Lyonnais printer Sebastian Gryphius who obtained most of his material from Basle is
quite representative of the relations between the two cities. 286 Lyon was also more
receptive than Paris to the new Reformed ideas which, as Natalie Zemon Davis has
shown, had an impact on the printing industry of the city and in particular on the
printers’ journeymen. 287 The unique geographical and commercial position, the
famous fairs which attracted merchants from all over Europe, the cosmopolitanism, as
well as the fact that it remained far from the censorship of the Sorbonne, allowed the
development of a flourishing printing industry. 288 Lyon established a distinguished
reputation for its editions of texts of Roman law and the production of humanist
works. Although Lyon never acquired the dynamism of Paris, it became the second
largest city in the production of books in France, and was able to sustain an active and
competitive role in this trade for most of the sixteenth century. Many editions of
Pierre Boaistuau’s works were printed by some of the most renowned of the city’s
printers, such as Benoit Rigaud who had made a name publishing popular classics. 289
2.2.2. The changing face of an industry
285
Bietenholz, P. G., Basle and France in the sixteenth century: the Basle humanists and printers in
their contacts with francophone culture (Geneva, 1971).
286
On Sebastian Gryphius (c. 1492-1556), the German-born ‘prince of Lyonnais printer-publishers’,
see ‘Competitors or collaborators? Sebastian Gryphius and colleagues, 1528-1556’, in Mclean, I.,
Learning and the Market Place: Essays in the History of the Early Modern Book (Leiden, 2009), pp.
273-289.
287
Davis, N. Z., ‘Strikes and Salvation at Lyon’, in her Society and Culture in Early Modern France
(Stanford, 1975), pp. 1-16.
288
For the rise of printing in Lyon see Geisendorf, P. F., ‘Lyons and Geneva in the Sixteenth Century:
The Fairs and Printing’ in Gundersheimer, W. L. (ed.), French Humanism, 1470-1600 (London, 1969),
pp. 146-159; idem, see Romier, L., ‘Lyons and Cosmopolitanism at the Beginning of the French
Renaissance’, pp. 90-109; Wadsworth, J. B., Lyons, 1473-1503: the Beginnings of Cosmopolitanism
(Cambridge, MA, 1962). Also see Ford, P., Jondorf, G. (eds), Intellectual Life in Renaissance Lyon
(Cambridge, 1993).
289
On Benoit Rigaud see Scheler, L., ‘Une supercherie de Benoit Rigaud: l’impression anversoise du
Discours de miseres de ce temps’, Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance, vol. 16 (1954), pp. 331-
335; Davis, N. Z., ‘On the Protestantism of Benoit Rigaud’, Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance,
vol. 17 (1955), pp. 246-251.
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