PIERRE BOAISTUAU - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

During the second half of the fifteenth century, presses were established in numerous
urban centres across Western Europe, enabled by the free state of the business and a
remarkable movement of labour. For example, Paris attracted many craftsmen from
the Rhineland. In addition to capital, minimum knowledge and skills were necessary
for setting up a printing business at the time. It would be much later (more than half
way through the sixteenth century) that regulations, licenses and skills’ tests began to
set some limitations to this practice. The rapid multiplication of presses gradually
resulted in the expansion of trade networks and the creation of a book market, which
at first, used the same channels as the manuscript market, at the same time continuing
to expand, with the opening of new distribution stores across Europe. The book
market growth caused the rise of other commercial enterprises closely-related to
printing. 290 For example, new occupational groups such as type founders and
designers appeared, and new techniques and equipment were employed. The
preparation of a book and its illustrative material led to a change in the methods of
production and to a rearrangement of book-making arts. New skills led to
occupational changeovers; skills and professions traditionally diverse, such as
technicians, illustrators, writers, translators, editors and others, were gathered together
in one place, the printer’s workshop, which resulted in new forms of cross-cultural
interchanges and professional mergers. 291
290 The advent of print and the expansion of book markets set up a chain reaction in the developing
European economy which should not be overlooked. For more information see McLuhan, M., The
Gutenberg Galaxy (Toronto, 1962); Febvre, L, Martin, H. J, The Coming of the Book; Halasz, A., The
Marketplace of Print: Pamphlets and Public Sphere in Early Modern England, esp. Chapters 2 and 4.
291 For a description of the printer’s workshop see Eisenstein, E. L., The Printing Revolution in Early
Modern Europe, esp. Part I, 2. For a depiction of the printer’s workshop see the Book of Trades (Das
Ständebuch) by the German woodcutter Jost Amman, first published in 1568. It was a common
phenomenon at the time for one to enter the business after getting married to a printer’s daughter or
widow; a known example is Robert Estienne (1503-1559) who married one of Josse Bade’s daughters
and merged the presses of Bade and Estienne. Also, many printing firms had a strong family character,
as was the case for the Marnef brothers.
- 101 -