Paris (France) -- Description and travel; Paris (France) -- History
It was in Louis' reign that the art of printing was introduced into
Paris. As early as 1458 the master of the mint had been sent to Mainz
to learn something of the new art, but without success. In 1463, Fust
and his partner, Schoeffer, had brought some printed books to Paris,
but the books were confiscated and the partners were driven out of the
city, owing to the jealousy of the powerful corporation of the scribes
and booksellers, who enjoyed a monopoly from the Sorbonne of the sale
of books in Paris; and in 1474 Louis paid an indemnity of 2500 crowns
to Schoeffer for the confiscation of his books and for the trouble he
had taken to introduce printed books into his capital. In 1470, at the
invitation of two doctors of the Sorbonne, Guillaume Fichet and Jean
de la Puin, Ulmer Gering of Constance and two other Swiss printers set
up a press near Fichet's rooms in the Sorbonne. In 1473 a press was at
work at the sign of the Soleil d'Or (Golden Sun), in the Rue St.
Jacques, under the management of two Germans, Peter Kayser, Master of
Arts, and John Stohl, assisted by Ulmer Gering. In 1483 the last-named
removed to the Rue de la Sorbonne, where the doctors granted to him
and his new partner, Berthold Rumbolt of Strassburg, a lease for the
term of their lives. They retained their sign of the Soleil d'Or,
which long endured as a guarantee of fine printing. The earliest works
had been printed in beautiful Roman type, but unable to resist the
favourite Gothic introduced from Germany, Gering was led to adopt it
towards the year 1480, and the Roman was soon superseded. From 1480 to
1500 we meet with many French printers' names: Antoine Verard, Du Pre,
Cailleau, Martineau, Pigouchet--clearly proving that the art had then
been successfully transplanted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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