Anthoine Vérard, Publisher and Bookseller
By
Mary Beth Winn, University at Albany, S.U.N.Y.
Anthoine Vérard dominated French book production
in Paris from 1485 to 1512, a critical period in the shift from manuscript to
print. Although he defined himself
invariably as a “humble bookseller,” this modest epithet belies the gargantuan
scale of his enterprise, for during his career he issued more than 300
editions. Even more remarkable than
their sheer number, however, is their visual splendor, for Vérard was the
“father of the French illustrated book.”
His hallmark was the deluxe in-folio volume, printed on vellum, with
woodcuts overpainted by the best artists of the time. Vellum copies exist for most of his editions[1],
but even among these deluxe copies, gradations in quality are evident. To his royal and princely patrons, Vérard
presented truly personalized volumes, with miniatures expertly painted by the
finest artists and armorial bearings added to the borders. In anticipation of other sales, however,
Vérard also prepared more commercial versions, deluxe in appearance but
mass-produced, in which woodcuts were coarsely and quickly overpainted with
abundant color but mediocre skill. If
the latter were destined for a “clientèle fascinée par l’apparat (jusqu’au
mauvais goût),”[2] the finest
examples were justifiably counted among the treasures of the royal
library. All of them alert us to an
essential characteristic of early printed books: the uniqueness of each copy.
These “hybrid” volumes, in which the arts of
manuscript and print were skillfully combined, reflect the coexistence of both
forms of “publishing” at the end of the fifteenth century. They also reflect Vérard’s uncanny ability
to exploit both arts in order to capitalize on the two coexistent systems of
exchange: commerce and patronage.
Vérard used the new technique of printing to create, in relatively short
order, multiple copies which he could then individualize by traditional
manuscript methods. As a result, he
could offer deluxe manuscript-like books to patrons while at the same time sell
the ordinary copies to customers at his shops.
He could, more importantly, assume the role of “author” of the book,
creator of the material object achieved through what he termed as an “art
d’invencion.” Vérard proclaims his new
role visually, by depicting himself as the kneeling donor in presentation
miniatures, or verbally, by inserting a dedicatory prologue. “Humble bookseller” perhaps, he nevertheless
counted kings and princes among his patrons: Charles VIII, Louis XII, and the
future François I of France, Henry VII of England, the French queen Anne de
Bretagne.
Although little is known of his origins,
Vérard may perhaps have come from Tours to Paris where on September 12, 1485 he
launched his career with the publication of a small book of Hours for the use
of Rome. Already sensing perhaps that
these devotional books would become the best-seller of the new printing
industry, Vérard’s was the first illustrated edition of Hours, the earliest
printed in France,[3] the first
printed with French text as well as Latin.
Illustrated Books of Hours, issued throughout his career, constitute a
quarter of his entire production, accounting for more than eighty
editions. Among the most famous are the
Grandes Heures with wide historiated borders bearing texts in French
verse. Charles VIII ordered several
editions of these Hours, to which his official reader, Guillaume Tardif,
contributed various prayers. Vérard and
his contemporaries Du Pré, Pigouchet, Vostre, Kerver, and others, made Paris
the international center of Horae
production.
As the colophon indicated, Vérard in 1485
already operated from two shops, which attests to his rapid ascendancy in the
book trade. Both locations, one on the
Notre Dame bridge, the other at the Palais in front of the Sainte-Chapelle,
were identified by the sign of saint John the Evangelist, patron saint of scribes
and by extension of the book industry in general. By 1486 Vérard had adopted his printer’s device. Rectangular in shape, it contains the
monogram “AVR” set within a heart supported by two falcons; above this, the
French royal arms are supported by angels and surmounted by a crown. The design is framed by a distinctive border
of text which includes the publisher’s name within a prayer in verse:
Pour provocquier, Jhesus, ta grant
misericorde
De tous pecheurs faire grace et pardon,
Anthoine Verard humblement recorde
Ce qu’il a il tïent de toi par don.
Aside
from the Books of Hours, almost all of Vérard’s publications were in
French. His choice of texts reflects
the taste of the court and of the wealthy class which aspired to it: works of fiction,
chronicles and historical texts, translations of classical authors, and
devotional treatises, with a few popular “scientific” or political tracts. Many
of these works, such as the Legende doree
or Lancelot had already been
successfully printed in Lyons, Bruges, or Paris, and Vérard was thus assured
both of their popularity and their commercial value. He cannot be dismissed, however, as an imitator in his choice of
texts, for many contemporary works received their first edition at his
hands. Court poets and translators such
as Octovien de Saint-Gelais and Guillaume Tardif were first edited by
Vérard, although his relationship with
contemporary authors was not always free from conflict. Similarly, Vérard’s anthologies remain
invaluable as collections of fifteenth-century texts, despite the anonymity
dealt the authors and the liberties taken with their texts.
Vérard’s last editions date from ca. 1512, and although his widow Germaine Guyart and son Barthélemy Vérard took over the business, they never achieved his success. The protean functions of the 15th-century “libraire” are not adequately translated by the single term “bookseller”. Anthoine Vérard was a master in this multi-faceted role. He supervised the entire production of a book, selecting works to be printed and having them translated when necessary. He negotiated with authors, and occasionally without their approval, in this age before copyright, combined texts for a single volume; he edited the texts or hired writers to do so; to some of his books he even added prologues of his own. He provided illustrations, sometimes ordering new woodcuts made, sometimes borrowing them, at other times specifying which woodcuts might be re-used from his stock. For special copies, he hired artists to paint miniatures over the woodcuts. Vérard employed a host of authors, artists, editors, scribes, and printers, as well as merchants and clerks. He commissioned publications and financed them, publicized and sold them, personalized deluxe copies and delivered them. His position at the hub of a vast commercial network at a time of tremendous upheaval, expansion, and transition into a new print culture, establishes him as the first great “marchand libraire.”
[1] Of the 253 listed by
John Macfarlane, Antoine Vérard (London: 1900) only 46 have no
known copy on vellum. The earliest
secular text on vellum is the Orose
of 1491, but vellum was used for his very first edition of Hours in 1485 and
regularly thereafter. Although vellum
copies tend to be better preserved than the more common paper copies, some must
have been lost or destroyed, so the original total of vellum copies surely
exceeded what is now extant.
[2] Dominique Coq, “Les
incunables: textes anciens, textes nouveaux,” in H.-J. Martin, et al, Histoire de l’édition française, vol. I:
Le livre conquérant (Paris: Promodis, 1987), 189.
[3]
The IISTC lists two other editions which may precede Vérard's, but
neither is dated. One known only
from a fragment is attributed to
Jean Bonhomme, Paris, between 1480 and 1490; the other is an unillustrated
edition of Hours for the use of Rouen, attributed to the “Printer of the
‘Breviarum Rothomagense”, ca. 1480.