Sébastien Gryphe: among Lyon’s leading printers

Sébastien Gryphe (1493 ? –1556) was the son of Württemberg printer Michael Grief, in whose workshop he began his training, which he continued in other workshops in Germany and Italy. Then, at the request of the partners of the Compagnie des libraires, he settled in Lyon around 1522-1523. In 1528, he became a printer and bookseller, and set up shop under the sign of l’Écu du Griffon. He bought an italic and roman font and began printing in italics and small format. He quickly established himself as one of Lyon’s leading printers.

In the 1530s, he decided to publish treatises by Latin agronomists, who had been attracting considerable interest since the end of the 15th century. Grouped together in collective editions under the conventional title Libri de re rustica, the treatises of Cato, Varron, Columella and Palladius were the subject of numerous editions and reprints until the end of the 16th century. In 1541, Gryphe worked with the Italian humanist Piero Vettori, who commissioned him to print the text he had prepared of Cato's De agricultura and Varron's Res rusticæ. The work is in 8" format, as are all the books in successive editions. It is written in italics for the main body of the text, while the Roman alphabet is used in a secondary manner - for titles and to highlight the first words of each chapter.

Document: Constantini Cæsaris, De agricultura, Lyon, Sébastien Gryphe, 1541. In 8°. École Estienne Library.