Yolande Bonhomme (c. 1490–1557[1]) was a French printer and seller of liturgical and devotional books in Paris. She was among a handful of important female book printers in Paris during this time, including Charlotte Guillard, Francoise Louvain and Marie L'Angelier.[2]

She was the daughter of Pasquier Bonhomme, himself a printer and one of four appointed booksellers of the University of Paris, and the wife of another printer, Thielmann Kerver.[1][3] She began printing on her own following her husband's death in 1522 in their shop at street level in the Hotel Unicorn on the Rue Saint-Jacques, Paris.[4] The University of Paris and the Catholic Church were among her patrons.[5] She published a book of hours in 1523[1] and another in 1546;[5] both books survive. In 1526, she became the first woman to publish the Bible.[1] She also published the Roman Breviary (Latin: Breviarium Romanum) in 1534 and a Breviarium Romanum nuper reformatum in 1537. She joined forces with Charlotte Guillard to demand better quality paper from the papermakers' guild.[6] Estimates of her output range from 136 (according to Axel Erdmann) to 200 (according to Beatrice Beech, based on Renouard) publications before her own death in 1557. Because she often used her husband's name on the colophon for early books, her identity as the printer can be difficult to pinpoint.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Yolande Bonhomme". Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.
  2. ^ Farr, James R. (16 December 2008). Farr. The Work of France: Labor and Culture in Early Modern Times, 1350–1800. p. 88. ISBN 9780742557185.
  3. ^ Galligan (29 May 2018). "Invisible Women: Yolande Bonhomme, 16th-Century Publisher".
  4. ^ Stell, Marianna. Segment: Female Printers in Sixteenth-Century France. Library of Congress. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
  5. ^ a b "Yolande Bonhomme — Printer and Bookseller". Duke University Libraries. Archived from the original on 2021-09-07.
  6. ^ Beech, Beatrice Hibbard (1985). "Yolande Bonhomme: A Renaissance Printer". Medieval Prosopography. 6 (2): 79–100. ISSN 0198-9405.

Further reading

  • Beech, Beatrice Hibbard,"Yolande Bonhomme: a Renaissance printer", Medieval prosopography 6.2, 1985. JSTOR 44946027
  • Beech, Beatrice Hibbard, "Women Printers in Paris in the Sixteenth Century," Medieval Prosopography: 10.1, 1989 JSTOR 44946106
  • Axel Erdmann, My gracious silence: women in the mirror of 16th century printing in Western Europe, 1999.
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