Charlotte Guillard

St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (354–430).
Omnium operum.
Paris: Charlotte Guillard and Guillaume Desboys, 1555. (31305)

Charlotte Guillard (ca. 1485–1557) also ran an important printing shop on the Rue St. Jacques in Paris. She inherited her first press circa 1519 after the death of her husband Berthold Rembolt. Guillard proceeded to print a few modest publications under her own name, but by the end of 1521 she had married another printer, Claude Chevallon. She published some fifty books with him, adding the Rembolt trademark to indicate her collaboration. During the two decades following Chevallon’s death in 1537, Guillard again printed under her own name, producing at least 158 editions. Primarily theological and legal texts in Latin or Greek, these were printed mainly for the faculty and students of the University of Paris.

The exhibited volume comes from Guillard’s edition of the complete works of St. Augustine. This massive ten-volume undertaking, completed with the assistance of her nephew Guillaume Desboys, reflects years of planning and labor, effective team management, and vast financial risk. Guillard’s woodcut device on the title page of volume one features her initials and the trademark of her successful printing shop at the sign of the “Golden Sun” in Paris.

31305CharlotteGuillard_1000.jpg
Early Women Printers
Charlotte Guillard