1545, Garamont publisher

In 1545, Jean Barbé, a Parisian bookseller, joined forces with Claude Garamont to set up a bookshop and publishing business. Jean Barbé was undoubtedly the main financial backer, while Claude Garamont supplied the typefaces, in particular the italics he had just engraved. Printing was regularly entrusted to Pierre Gaultier, Garamond’s brother-in-law, who was also a typefounder. Nine editions appeared in 1545, including six in-16s, the format best suited to Claude Garamont’s small italic roman. In 1550, Garamont set up his own engraving and type-founding workshop, for the first time separate from a printing works, on rue des Carmes under the sign La Boulle. Faced with financial difficulties, he reluctantly abandoned publishing and bookshop to devote himself to engraving and type-founding. In particular, he declares: “I made very little profit from my work, which is to carve and found letters (...) Those who only know how to carve letters make little progress (...) They build the booksellers‘ nest, they bring them their honey.”

Document: David Chambellan. Pia et religiosa meditatio in sanctam Iesu Christi crucem et eius vulnera. Paris, Claude Garamont, Pierre Gaultier, 1545. 16°. First work published by Garamont, with preface, Feb. 18, 1545, to Matthieu de Longuejoue, bishop of Soissons, father-in-law of the late David Chambellan. Médiathèque de l‘hôtel-Dieu de Dole. Photo by Henri Bertand.