French printers in London, 1500s

[Kathleen Much]

In London, I ran into a comment that Thomas Petyt in 1547 "freed the
draper Thomas Raynald, who took over operation of his press while
Petyt continued to publish and sell books from Maiden's Head. By 1548,
some of his printing material had passed to William Hill." At the same
time, a John Petyt, Draper, was plying the trade of bookseller in
London. He freed his apprentice Christopher Barker in 1559; CB later
became Queen's Printer.

Arber believed that Thomas Petyt was son or brother of John Petyt (the
Parisian bookseller/printer Jean Petit, who died about 1541). The DNB
says, "PETYT, Thomas (b in or before 1494, d 1565/6), printer and
bookseller, was born in England but may have been related to the
Parisian printer John Petit, who is said to have had printed books 'in
thaundes of Thomas Petytt' in exchequer receipts." John Petit of
London isn't the son of Jean Petit I of Paris, if Renouard is correct:
"On a cru qu'il [Jean Petit I] avait quitté Paris pour s'établir à
Rouen, en 1540, et que sa femme était fille du lbr. rouennais Jean
Bouvet, mais le Jean Petit qui exerça comme libr.-impr. à Rouen de
1540 à 1559 était originaire de Troyes et ne peut être identifié avec
lui."

Does anyone know whether Thomas Raynald is the same as Thomas
Regnault, and if so, what his relationship is to the Regnault family
of printer/booksellers of Paris? Can anyone add more to the possible
relationship between the two John Petyts and Thomas Petyt?

Renouard says, "François Regnault I exerce à Londres vers 1496, à
Paris, 1501-1540; meurt à Rouen entre le 23 nov. 1540 et le 21 juin
1541." He had four sons, none named Thomas, and four daughters.

I am principally looking at London publishers, but I would love to
establish direct connections with Parisian ones.

Grateful for any leads,
Kathleen Much

[David J. Shaw]

I'm always rather suspicious of attempts to make these cross-channel
identifications on the basis of an apparent similarity of name.
Documentary evidence is needed!

I've looked at the late Kitzi Pantzer's entries for these Petyt and
Raynald in the Indexes in vol. 3 of STC (1991). This is about as
authoritative as we have at present.

She has separate entries (p. 135) for Jean Petit (of Paris), Jean Petit
(of Rouen), and Thomas Petyt, with no mention of any connection between
them.

For Petyt, she notes that "at least some of his printing material seems
to have passed to Thomas Raynald and William Hill by 1548." The index
gives a list of all known publication, noting that the dates supplied
for undated items are of undetermined reliability and that "Petyt
deserves further study".

However, the entry for Thomas Raynald, physician and printer (p. 142),
suggests that the Thomas "Reynolds" freed as a Draper by Thomas Petyt is
a different person.

There seems to be an inconsistency between these two entries,
underlining the point that they deserve further study. There seems to be
no connection between Raynald and Regnault or between Petit and the
Petit family.

There is a discussion of documentary material concerning Thomas Raynald,
physician, in Sir d'Arcy Power's article 'The Birth of mankind; or, the
woman's book : a bibliographical study' in /The Library,/ 1927; s4-VIII:
1 - 37.

For a discussion of book trade contacts between Paris and London, you
could look at my piece on 'French émigrés in the London booktrade to
1850'. Pp. 127–143 in: /The London book trade: Topographies of print in
the metropolis from the sixteenth century,/ edited by Robin Myers,
Michael Harris and Giles Mandelbrote. Oak Knoll Press & The British
Library, 2003, xvi, 185p. ISBN 0-7123-4832-8.

David Shaw
--
Dr David J. Shaw
Secretary, Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL)
***@djshaw.co.uk and ***@cerl.org
http://www.djshaw.co.uk/
--

Post by Kathleen Much
In London, I ran into a comment that Thomas Petyt in 1547 "freed the
draper Thomas Raynald, who took over operation of his press while
Petyt continued to publish and sell books from Maiden's Head. By 1548,
some of his printing material had passed to William Hill." At the same
time, a John Petyt, Draper, was plying the trade of bookseller in
London. He freed his apprentice Christopher Barker in 1559; CB later
became Queen's Printer.
Arber believed that Thomas Petyt was son or brother of John Petyt (the
Parisian bookseller/printer Jean Petit, who died about 1541). The DNB
says, "PETYT, Thomas (b in or before 1494, d 1565/6), printer and
bookseller, was born in England but may have been related to the
Parisian printer John Petit, who is said to have had printed books 'in
thaundes of Thomas Petytt' in exchequer receipts." John Petit of
"On a cru qu'il [Jean Petit I] avait quitté Paris pour s'établir à
Rouen, en 1540, et que sa femme était fille du lbr. rouennais Jean
Bouvet, mais le Jean Petit qui exerça comme libr.-impr. à Rouen de
1540 à 1559 était originaire de Troyes et ne peut être identifié avec
lui."
Does anyone know whether Thomas Raynald is the same as Thomas
Regnault, and if so, what his relationship is to the Regnault family
of printer/booksellers of Paris? Can anyone add more to the possible
relationship between the two John Petyts and Thomas Petyt?
Renouard says, "François Regnault I exerce à Londres vers 1496, à
Paris, 1501-1540; meurt à Rouen entre le 23 nov. 1540 et le 21 juin
1541." He had four sons, none named Thomas, and four daughters.
I am principally looking at London publishers, but I would love to
establish direct connections with Parisian ones.
Grateful for any leads,
Kathleen Much
.

...