ABSTRACT
There is a series of records that can help ll out the picture on this and other points. In the Public Library in Rouen there is a collection of 534 letters addressed to the widow of the bookseller Jean-Baptiste III Machuel between 1769 and 1772, more than 200 of them from itinerant booksellers mostly from the region around Coutances. The content of these letters has been elegantly analyzed by Dominique Mellot and many of the following examples are derived from his work. They cover not only Muneville-le-Bingard but also surrounding parishes.3
