Note 215 — Chapter V · THE STATE CONTROL OF ENGLISH LETTER-FOUNDING.

In France, as early as 1539, typefounding had been legally recognised as a distinct trade. The edict of 1539 contains the following clause, applying the provisions and penalties of the decree to typefounders: “Et pour ce que le métier des fondeurs de lettres est connexe à l’art de l’imprimeur, et que les fondeurs ne se disent imprimeurs, ne les imprimeurs ne se disent fondeurs, lesdicts articles et ordonnances auront lieu . . . aux compagnons et apprentifs fondeurs, ainsi qu’en compagnons et apprentifs imprimeurs, lesquels oultre les choses dessus dictes seront tenus d’achever la fonte des lettres par eux commencée et les rendre bonnes et valables.” The whole decree is in curious contrast with the Acts regulating English printing and founding. The French “compagnons” are forbidden to band together for military, festive, or religious purposes, to carry arms, to beat and neglect their apprentices, to leave any work incomplete, to use any printer’s marks but their own; and so great is the fatherly solicitude of the Crown for the honour of the press, that printers are made amenable to law for typographical errors in their books. (Lacroix, Histoire de l’Imprimerie. Paris, 8vo, pp. 124–8.)