‘A Woman of Great Courage’: Women in the Printing Trades in Early Modern Europe

Yolande Bonhomme

Yolande Bonhomme was the daughter of a printer, Pasquier Bonhomme, and the widow of another printer, Theilman Kerver, whose Paris shop produced some of the most beautiful printed books of hours of the early 16th century. After Kerver’s death in 1522, she continued their business at the sign of the Unicorn, their address in Paris, until her death in 1557. Her colophons identify her as “the matron Yolande Bonhomme, the widow of Tilman Kerver”. As the daughter of one of the four appointed book dealers of the Sorbonne, her use of both her maiden and married names points to her connections with two important printers, both her husband and father.

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