PIERRE BOAISTUAU - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

The fact that most of Boaistuau’s editions were printed in Paris makes his work
representative of the centralized character of French print industry at the time.
Furthermore, it reveals his conscious decision to live and work in the capital, thus
pursuing a writing career in a city that offered him the greatest possibilities of
success. Paris, along with Antwerp in the north and Venice in the south, was one of
the most suitable environments for an active writer in the mid-sixteenth century. It
had a vibrant book trade with international links, and some of the biggest publishing
firms in Europe, such as Vincent Sertenas, Jean Longis and Gilles Robinot who
published many editions of Boaistuau’s works. The city’s centralized production and
wide circulation network, combined with the Breton’s talent, ensured his successful
writing career.
2.3.2. The physical nature of books
Elegance was another feature of the French book production at the time, greatly
derived by the centralized character of the industry. As Andrew Pettegree has noted,
‘The concentration of capital and expertise in Paris, and to a lesser extent, Lyon,
facilitated the production of books of ever greater quality and sophistication’. 337 It is
not a coincidence that these favourable conditions led to the appearance of many print
novelties for the first time in Paris and Lyon, where the necessary capital allowed the
great number of specialised artisans to experiment with new forms and techniques.
The elegance and refinement of French books was also the result of attention to detail
by printers, typographers, illustrators and book-binders, and of the assimilation of
337 Pettegree, A., ‘Centre and periphery in the European book world’, p. 110.
- 116 -