'I beg you therefore, monsieur, to regard as not having been made the claims that I put forward on this subject, and as my confrères do not pretend that any one of them has the right to style himself first king's printer, in like manner I agree to assume simply the title of ordinary printer to his Majesty, and that we shall be placed in the Almanack Royal in the order of our reception.
'Paris, 20 November, 1779.
PIERRES.'
For this famous printer, see Lottin, Catalogue des Imprimeurs de Paris, vol. ii, p. 139.
[530] For this paragraph, see my Les Estienne.
[531] He is mentioned as 'imprimeur du roi,' without other description, in the registers of the cemetery of Les Réformés de la Trinité, rue Saint-Denis; but I think that he was simply an engraver on copper, like Tavernier.
[532] [Clearly a misprint; perhaps 1561.]
[533] He had been in business since 1784.
[534] He had been in business since 1813.
[535] He had been in business since 1785.