Introduction

It has long been assumed that the sixteenth century experienced an extraordinary transformation in the meanings and modes of publication. With the introduction of the print medium, a massive technical, intellectual and cultural revolution began to occur all across Europe. ¹ The printing trades reached Paris in 1470 and the next one hundred years or so would see an unprecedented shift in the forms, meaning and technology of publication from manuscript to print. The sixteenth century in France was a unique moment in publication culture, of evolving and eventually diverging scribal and print forms.