Dictionnaire des imprimeurs, libraires et gens du livre en Basse-Normandie 1701-1789

During the Age of Enlightenment the world of the book in France was closely regulated and censored. However in Paris and the provinces, particularly in Lower Normandy, books continued to circulate, including pirated editions, illicit works and popular literature. As well as the authorised printers and booksellers a host of hawkers and itinerant booksellers evaded the authorities to distribute books to smaller towns and villages. This study includes 592 biographical notices relating to the book trades in Lower Normandy. Of these there are 250 from Caen, as might be expected, but also about 100 from the little village of Muneville-le-Bingard in the region of Coutances. It is these fugitive figures that give this volume in the series of the Prosopographie des gens du livre en France au XVIII^e siècle its very special character.