Guillaume Fichet

Guillaume Fichet (French: [fiʃɛ]; 21 September 1433 – c. 1480) was a French scholar, who cooperated with Johann Heynlin to establish the first printing press in France (Paris) in 1470.

Fichet and Yolande of Valois

Biography

He was born at Le Petit-Bornand-les-Glières, in Savoy. In 1467, he was elected rector of the Sorbonne, where he and Heynlin installed the first press ever set up in France. They brought from Switzerland three master typographers: Michael Friburger, Ulrich Gering and Martin Crantz. The first book printed was the Epistolae ("Letters") of Gasparinus Pergamensis (1470). Also Fichet's own works followed, such as his Rhetorica (1471). The publisher gained recognition by publishing several speeches made by leading Cardinal Basilios Bessarion. Bessarion's 1471-2 "Orations against the Turks," as the piece came to be called, is known as one of the first pieces of mass-propaganda used in Europe.[1]

Notes
  1. Meserve, Margaret (December 2003). "Patronage and Propaganda at the First Paris Press: Guillaume Fichet and the First Edition of Bessarion's "Orations against the Turks"". The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. 97 (4): 527.

References
  • Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Fichet, Guillaume" . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  • Philippe, J. (1892). Guillaume Fichet: sa vie, ses œuvres. Introduction de l'imprimerie à Paris. Annecy: J. Dépollier.
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