Printers' Marks: A Chapter in the History of Typography - W. Roberts

[SOME FRENCH PRINTERS’ MARKS.]

It is rather a curious fact, all things considered, that the introduction of the printing-press into Paris should have only antedated its appearance in this country by four years; such however is the case. It was at the commencement of the year 1470, the tenth of the reign of Louis XI., that Ulrich Gering, Martin Krantz, and Michel Friburger commenced printing in one of the rooms of the College Sorbonne. They had learnt their art at Mayence, and at the dispersal of the office of Fust and Schoeffer had settled down at Basel. They were induced to take up their residence at the Sorbonne by Jean Heinlin and Guillaume Fichet, two distinguished professors of that place. The first book printed at Paris was the “Letters” of Gasparin of Bergamo, 1470, which contains the following quatrain at the end of the work:

“Primos ecce libros quos hæc industria finxit

Francorum in terris ædibus atque tuis;

Michael, Udalrichus, Martinusque magister

Hos impresserunt, ac facient alios.”