ABSTRACT
Printers wished to cater to a market delighted with illustrated books. The chapter studies the use, reuse, and adaptation of block illustrations, highlighting Paris-Breton personal and trade connections, which permitted printers to illustrate and innovate with page design. An edition printed by Étienne Larcher in Nantes in 1499 made use of interchangeable blocks previously used by his brother Jean Larcher dit Du Pré, active chiefly in Paris. How did printers recognize, use, and profit from the extended trade market in block illustrations? Because woodblocks were expensive to produce, requiring expert designers and block-cutters, printers and publishers retained blocks for many years and reused them, sometimes in the same edition and sometimes without regard to textual context. Tracing the travel and use of Du Pré’s blocks from Paris to Venice demonstrates the esteem held for the Parisian printer’s material and the broader commercial market in typographic material.
