Introduction
In the early years of printing in Europe (after 1450), the trade was generally uncontrolled, which meant that any man with the financial means to set up a shop could theoretically do so. Control by guilds did not become common until the mid-16th century, and even then, the way printing was regulated varied from country to country. In London, the Stationers’ Company became the organization of choice in the early 16th century for those who worked in the printing trades, but it was not until 1557 that it received its royal charter and began operating as a printers’ guild. In Paris, printers formed fraternities that began to act like guilds, but they had no power to enforce regulations about participation. There were no regulations about who could enter the trade or how; it was not until 1571, for example, that Charles IX issued an edict formalizing training requirements for printers.
The lack of enforceable requirements meant that for a certain period, women could pursue the trade on their own terms. However, since working in the print trades required booksellers to be literate, and most people were not, the women who became involved in the print trade came into it as the wives, daughters or widows of male stationers; in other words, from families where literacy was valued.
But even in printing families, women were not presented as equals to their fathers, brothers and husbands. The way women were presented publicly reinforced assumptions about women’s inability to run businesses. For example, Charlotte Guillard was described by a corrector (editor) who worked in her shop as a “woman of great courage”. This identification reflected Guillard’s unique position in a world where women were historically excluded from the places of knowledge production.
Those women who did manage to run successful printing businesses rarely used their own, or even maiden names. Women tended to be identified in the same ways they were recognized in legal documents—as the wife, daughter or widow of a man, without the use of their own name. As a result, most women printers identified themselves on title pages as “the widow of…” or as “the widow”. If a woman remarried, she would then identify herself by her new name (and this practice has helped historians construct patterns of marriage in the trade). Printers’ daughters who learned skills from their fathers became attractive wives for other printers. Marriages between printing families created important social and economic networks. And in some cases, as with the Plantin family in Antwerp, dynasties of printing families with women at the helm became important sources of books and information throughout Europe.
There were some women who did work under their own names, establishing themselves as independent businesswomen. However, because of the social constraints under which women functioned, the identities of many women printers remain unknown and unknowable.
The books presented here represent Special Collections’ holdings of books printed by women in the 16th and 17th centuries only. As printing became more commonplace into the 18th century, the number of women involved in the trade increased exponentially (despite continuing to be known as “the widow…”), and the holdings of the department reflect that increase. This exhibit concentrates on the period when printing was still in its relative infancy, and the number of printers in Europe was still somewhat limited.
The information presented here is varied in its level of detail, as some women, as well as printing practices in some countries, have received more scholarly investigation than others. When available, source material for more detailed entries can be found in the List of Sources consulted. In general, the majority of information comes from readily available lists of printers (like those of the Stationer's Company), or from authority files like the CERL Thesaurus, Virtual Internet Authority File, and Wikidata, which have built on the existing research by scholars into the identification of some of these women; much of that research relies heavily on legal documents housed in various European national archives.