Paper and print

20-23 April 2013, Ambert, Lyon and Trévoux

Our travels brought us a four-day bibliographical bonanza, with visits to a paper mill near Ambert, a museum of printing in Lyon, and the opportunity to see the premises of early printers in Lyon and Trévoux.

Moulin Robert de Bas, Ambert
The mill of Robert de Bas, situated above Ambert, lies on the side of the Laga valley, fed by leats from the river. It has been making paper since at least 1463 when it was acquired by Antoine Richard, from whom it gets its present name. Production was continuous from then until 1937, when the last active papermaker died. The mill and its equipment was taken over and restored by La Feuille Blanche, a charitable organisation and was opened as a museum in 1943, so this year it is proudly celebrating its 70th anniversary. It is the last of some three hundred paper mills which were operating in the region of Ambert during the 16th century. It claims to have been founded in 1326 by three crusaders who had learned the craft from the Arabs, but this would make the mill older than the one at Troyes, which is normally considered the oldest mill in France. Some of the buildings on the site date from the 15th century and the equipment and furnishings are mostly those left by the last papermaker.

The museum is a working mill and also exhibits the history and techniques of papermaking from its invention by the Chinese and its slow spread westward via the Arabs to Europe. Rags are still the raw material used, collected with increasing difficulty from hospitals and sources such as Emmaus. These are hand cut into short strips and beaten in tubs by trip hammers armed with a ferocious array of nails, which are driven by a cam shaft powered by a waterwheel. The mill does not seem to have used hollanders to macerate the rags. The resulting pulp is diluted as required, depending on the weight of paper to be made, and size is normally added at this stage to prevent the finished paper from being too absorbent. We were shown how the wire frame is dipped into the pulp, shaken to lock the fibres and stood to drain. The sheet of wet pulp is then turned upside down onto a felt and another felt placed on top of it in readiness for the next sheet. When there is a big enough pile, the whole team of workers is summoned to work the press to expel the water, finally using a capstan to exert as much pressure as possible. The felts and paper are then separated out, the felts retuned to the press for the next batch of paper and the leaves hung up on lines in the extensive drying lofts which are such a prominent feature of the buildings.


Mill buildings with drying lofts below roof. Moulin Richard de Bas, Ambert.

Strips of rag used to prepare pulp. Moulin Richard de Bas, Ambert.

Trip hammers beating the rags to prepare pulp. Moulin Richard de Bas, Ambert.

Worn nails from the head of a trip hammer. Moulin Richard de Bas, Ambert.

Dipping the frame and deckle into the vat of pulp. Moulin Richard de Bas, Ambert.

Turning the sheet onto a heap of paper sheets interleaved with felts. Moulin Richard de Bas, Ambert.

Press to expel water with capstan. Moulin Richard de Bas, Ambert.

Drying loft. Moulin Richard de Bas, Ambert.

As well as the papermaking equipment, the living quarters of the mill owner and his family remain unchanged since the 19th century. The living room and kitchen has the original furnishings, including a salt grinding mill decorated with a curled up fox. About eight people would gather around the table to eat: the mill owner, his family and apprentices. The bedroom contained three box beds. The one for the mill-owner and his wife had a cradle suspended above it which could be rocked by pulling a rope. One bed was used by the apprentices who would begin work at the age of seven or eight. It was a long day; in the mill in Ambert they apparently worked from midnight to noon and then may have had to spend further time working in the fields. One of the first tasks of the apprentices, who were too small to manage the heavy frames laden with wet pulp, was to look after the lighting during the night. It was claimed that work was done during the night for reasons of secrecy, but the numbers of mills and the movement of labour makes this an unlikely explanation once the craft was firmly established.


Bedroom with two of the box beds, the right one probably used by the apprentices. Moulin Richard de Bas, Ambert.

The mill currently makes 2-300 sheets a day and the products have been widely used by artists, including Salvador Dali and Picasso. The original text of the constitution of the Fifth Republic was printed on paper from the mill in 1958, and it is used for the diplomas of the Nobel Prize winners. During the summer months flower papers are made from plants grown in the gardens of the mills. Petals are gathered twice daily to keep the colours fresh and the result is highly decorative. We acquired a couple of sheets and are inspired to look out our own papermaking equipment when we get back home.


Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon

The museum is housed in a handsome Renaissance building located on the peninsula between the rivers Saône and Rhône in the quarter of the city, which has been frequented by printers and booksellers since the 15th century. Lyon was not only on a crossroads of trade, with four fairs a year, but also on a crossroads of ideas. Although it had no university it attracted scholars and printers in large numbers and by the end of the 15th century it had become the third printing centre of Europe, after Venice and Paris.


Renaissance court yard or traboule. Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon

The first printers arrived from Germany and Italy in 1473, among them Guillaume Le Roy, whose house we found in Vieux Lyon. They were responsible for some of the earliest illustrated books in France, including the earliest woodcut depiction of a printing press in an edition of the La grant danse macabre, printed by Matthieu Husz in 1499. The European invention is also put into perspective by the display of examples of printing from moveable types from China, Korea and Japan, which predated Gutenberg.


House of Guillaume Le Roy, the first printer in Lyon, now appropriately a medieval shop (closed the day we visited). Lyon


Tzu-chih T’ung-chien (Mirror for government) A fragment of a history of China from 403 BC to 960 AD printed in bronze moveable types known as Kyonjaja in 1422. These types were first cast in 1420, 30 years before Gutenberg perfected his invention. Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon


The tales of Ise, by Ariwara no Narihira. One of the oldest surviving Japanese illustrated books, printed in moveable wooden type with 49 woodcut illustrations. Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon

De la ruyne des nobles homes et femmes, by Boccaccio, printed by Mathieu Husz in 1483. A French translation of the Italian original, one of the earliest illustrated books printed in Lyon. Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon

In the sixteenth century there was a cluster of printers wedded to the ideas of humanism, attracting as authors and even as correctors to the press scholars such as Erasmus and Rabelais. Starting life as a monk, Rabelais went on to study medicine at Montpellier and stayed for some time in Lyon between 1532 and 1548. In his time he was renowned for his medical works but his best-known works Pantagruel with its attacks on the theologians of the Sorbonne, followed by Gargantua were published in Lyon by François Juste. Another of the scholars, Etienne Dolet, worked as a corrector with the humanist printer Sebastien Gryphe before setting up as printer himself. He was imprisoned more than once for the ideas he expressed and ended his life in Paris under the executioner’s axe in 1546. All these printers were represented in the Museum by original examples of their works, many of them illustrated by the wonderful woodcuts of Bernard Salomon or Pierre Vase and printed in the types of Granjon. They were among the most elegant books ever printed.

Emblemata, by Andrea Alciati, printed by Guillaume Rouillé in 1548 with woodcuts ascribed to Pierre Vase (two are signed PV). The 128 emblems are enclosed in a variety of woodcut frames. Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon

Quadrins historiques de la Bible revues et augmentées d’un grand nombre de figures. by Claude Paradin, printed by Jean de Tournes in 1583 with woodcuts by Bernard Salomon. This work was first issued in 1553. Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon

Alexandreidos, by Philippus Galtherus. Printed by Robert Granjon in 1558, using a cursive face known as civilité which he had designed and cut himself. The printer’s device is a play on his name “grand jonc” – a large bulrush, round which a snake is entwined. Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon

Lyon printers became embroiled in the religious controversies that shook the 16th century. A key document displayed in this section is the placard against the mass printed by Pierre de Vingle across the border in Switzerland in 1534, which was at the origin of the “affaire des placards” which was a key factor in starting the wars of religion in France. Written by Antoine Marcourt, at one time a citizen of Lyon who became a Protestant minister in Neuchâtel, the following extract gives a flavour of his style: “In the Mass, all knowledge of Jesus Christ is suppressed, the preaching of the Gospel is rejected and prevented, the time is filled with bells, yells, chants, ceremonial, candles, incense, fancy dress, and all kinds of monkey business, in such a way that the poor people are miserably kept and led about, like ewes or sheep, and eaten, gnawed and devoured by those ravening wolves.”

Articles veritables sur les horribles grands & importables abus de la Messe papalle, by Antoine Marcourt. Printed in Neuchâtel by Pierre de Vingle in rotunda type in 1534 it was widely distributed in Paris and elsewhere in France, allegedly even being posted on François I’s bedroom door in the royal residence in Amboise. Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon

The story of printing is continued by coverage of the regulation of the press, something of considerable relevance to my work on the 18th century book trade in Normandy. The numbers of printers and booksellers continued to be regulated into the 19th century, apart from of brief period during the French Revolution, and works had to be individually licensed by the authorities. Remote from Paris, printers in places like Rouen and Lyon were prepared to risk printing unlicensed books and forbidden items, and pirate editions were produced on clandestine presses, which often worked alongside the officially licensed workshops operated by the printer. Books were also secretly imported from across the border in Protestant Switzerland where the Geneva Bible was published. Among the items on display were edicts banning the works of the Enlightenment including authors such as Voltaire and Rousseau.

Reglement pour la librairie et imprimerie de Paris. Issued as a decree of the King’s Privy Council in 1723, this edition was printed in Aix when it was extended to the rest of the kingdom in 1744. Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon

Arrêt du conseil d’état du Roy. A proclamation of 1785 ordering the suppression of the first thirty volumes of the works of Voltaire which had been published in 1784. Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon
Manuel typographique, by Fournier le jeune, printed by him in 1764, this important manual is also an illustration of the excellent quality of printing possible even amidst the official stranglehold on the press. Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon

In the period of the French Revolution printers were called on to produce the assignats, paper money supposedly linked to the value of land and property, but which soon became worthless.

Domaines nationaux. Assignat de quinze sols. Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon

L’ami du peuple. No. 243, 7 October 1790. One of the many revolutionary periodicals, this one produced by Marat, who was assassinated by Charlotte Corday of Caen. Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon

The last chapter in the story is the demise of the metal type introduced to Europe by Gutenberg, which is in part due to a couple of printers in Lyon, René Higonnet and Louis Moyroud, who in the 1940s devised the Lumitype-Photon machine which used a rapidly revolving disc with images of letters which were exposed photographically onto a plate which was used for offset printing. The invention was perfected in the United States with the support of William W. Garth Jr. The first machine was installed in Massachussets in 1954 and it became the basis of much of the early computer typesetting in the 1960s and 1970s – perhaps including the system which rather messed up my London book trades in 1977!

Lumitype-Photon machine. Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon

The museum also had sections on the development of book illustration, including early experiments with colour printing and the introduction of photography.

Observations sur l’histoire naturelle, sur la physique et sur la peinture, avec des planches imprimées en couleurs, printed by Delaguette in 1752. The work is illustrated by plates printed in three colours, by Jacques Gautier-Dagoty (1716-1785) using the technique developed by the Frankfurt painter Jacob Christoph Le Blon who had invented it in 1719, using Newton’s theory of colours. Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon

Traité des maladies vermineuses dans les animaux by Chabert. Printed by the Imprimerie Royale in 1782 this is illustrated by plates by Édouard Gautier-Dagoty printed in four colours, learned by his father. Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon

The Museum has a very busy programme of activities and events – the programme for 2012-2013 runs to more than forty pages. When we visited, a most attractive exhibition had just opened on the printing and graphic design connected with the transatlantic passenger liners, from menus, programmes of entertainment offered to passengers, on-board newspapers and above all the publicity with the massive posters depicting the magnificent vessels that carried people to America in such style.
Transatlantiques, les imprimés des paquebots de légende. Poster for the exhibition, 19 April-1 September 2013. Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon

Transatlantiques, les imprimés des paquebots de légende. A selection of the exhibits. Musée d’imprimerie de Lyon

After spending a fascinating morning at the museum we wandered the area around the rue Mercière where many of the printers had their workshops, including the Passage des Imprimeurs, which housed the workshop of Etienne Dolet. Printers trained in Lyon spread to all parts of Europe and beyond. We even located the house of Fleury Mesplet, who was the first printer in Canada.

Passsage des Imprimeurs. On the left of the entrance a plaque commemorating Étienne Dolet (1509-1546), Lyon

Rue Merciére, plaque commemorating Fleury Mesplet, the first French printer in Canada, Lyon

Moving on from Lyon we found in Trévoux, the capital of the semi-independent principality of Dombes, the printing press set up in the 17th century to print the works of the Counter-Reformation under the protection of the Duc de Maine. These included the influential Dictionnaire universel of Trévoux (1721), and the Journal de Trévoux, published from 1701 to 1762, which conducted polemics against Boileau, Voltaire and the collaborators on the Encyclopédie. The press was run by the Jesuits and fell into decline after the society was banned in France in 1762, but printing continued there until 1781.

The second printing office at Trévoux, built in 1724. The sign over the door reads: Imprimerie de S. A. S.