REGNAULT, Francois ( - 1540) ‹ LBT 30082 ›
Badges
Floruit 1496 (A) — 1540 (B); Male, married
Life Events
| Event | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Death | - after 23 Nov 1540 - before 21 Jun 1541 | Duff, E.G. (1905) |
Family Relationships
| LBTNumber | Name | Relationship | Occupation | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6419 | BOURSETTE, Madeleine (mar. REGNAULT) ‹ LBT 06419 › | spouse | ||
| 34893 | REGNAULT, Francois ‹ LBT 34893 › | parent | Bookseller |
Occupations (2)
| Occupation | Comment |
|---|---|
| Printer | Duff, E.G. (1905) |
| Bookseller | Duff, E.G. (1905) |
Addresses (3)
| Date | Address | Trade at Addr | Source | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1496, (1496) | London | Duff, E.G. (1905) | ||
| 1523, (- 1523) | Paris - Rue St Jacques | Duff, E.G. (1905) | - sign of St Claude | |
| 1523, (1523 -) | Paris - Rue St Jacques | - sign of the Elephant |
SOURCES & TRANSCRIPTIONS
Transcriptions
Duff, E.G. (1905), pp.133-4
REGNAULT (FRANCOIS), printer and bookseller in London and Paris, was the most important among the foreign producers of books for the English market. He was the son of Francis Regnault the Paris bookseller who died about 1516. As a young man, about the end of the fifteenth century he was a bookseller in London and though he afterwards returned to Paris he never gave up his London business. Some time after 1516 and before 1520 he succeeded to his father's business, and well aware of the demand in England for foreign printed service books, set himself to export them. He began in 15I9 with a Breviary, Horae, and two Missals of Sarum use, but for the next year or two issued little. In 1524 his large output began and continued unbroken until 1535 when two serious checks to his work occurred, the suppression of many of the service books, and the act regulating the importation of foreign books. In 1536, finding his business seriously interfered with he wrote a letter to Cromwell. [Letters and papers of Henry VIII, XI, No. 1488.] In this interesting document he sets out that he lived in London forty years ago, and since returned to Paris and continued his trade as bookseller in London, and likewise printed missals, breviaries, and hours of the use of Sarum, and other books. Has entertained at his house in Paris honourable people of London and other towns of England. Understands that the English booksellers wish to prevent him printing such books, and to confiscate what he has already printed, though he has never been forbidden to do so, but his books well received. Asks permission to continue to sell the said "usaiges" and other books in London and the environs, and asks Cromwell to speak to the King, the Chancellor and others. If any faults have been found in his books will correct them. Apparently Regnault received little satisfaction, for on September 12th, 1538, Coverdale and Grafton { GRAFTON, Richard ‹ LBT 02592 › }, who were then with him in Paris, wrote another letter on his behalf to Cromwell saying that he had a large stock of service books on his hands "as Prymers in Englishe, Missoles with other soche like, wherof now (by ye company of ye Booksellers in London) he is utterly forbydden to make sale, to the utter undoying of the man." They beg that he may have license to sell those already printed "so that hereafter he prynte no moo in the english tong, onlesse he have an english man that is lerned to be his corrector." [Letters and papers of Henry VIII, Vol. 13, pt. 2, p. 123.] Coverdale, Grafton and Whitchurch { WHITCHURCH, Edward ( - 1562) ‹ LBT 02612 › } were at this time overseeing a new edition of the Bible which Regnault was printing. In November an edition of the New Testament was put out in opposition to an incorrect version printed by Nicholson { NICHOLSON, James ‹ LBT 30069 › } in Southwark. The printing of the great Bible was proceeding slowly when in December a raid was made upon the printing office, and all that had already been printed was seized and publicly burned in the Place Maubert, Paris. Regnault printed, up to May, 1523, at the sign of St. Claude in the Rue St. Jacques, and after September of the same year, in the same street at the sign of the Elephant, though he had used an elephant as device before moving to that sign. He died at Rouen some time between November 23rd, 1540, and June 21st, 1541, and his business was carried on by his widow Madeleine Boursette { BOURSETTE, Madeleine (mar. REGNAULT) ‹ LBT 06419 › }. [Renouard, pp. 313, 314. Documents, pp. 229-234.]
MLT Note: - also at Paris