Note 529 — APPENDICES. I

This appointment involved him in some difficulty with his colleagues, as may be seen from the following letter, of which I found a copy in the Bibliothèque du Louvre, in the Nyon collection.

'When I asked and obtained the office of king's printer, of which M. Le Breton had been deprived by death, I had no idea that it could cause any heart-burning on the part of my confrères, with whom I have always earnestly desired to be on the best of terms. If I had been able to foresee such a thing, I am too much a friend of peace to have voluntarily exposed myself to it by assuming a title which was subject to dispute. But, monsieur, when I submitted the question to you, I thought that I could see that it did not seem to you free from doubt. For this reason I cannot hesitate to abandon claims which seem to me well-founded.

'I beg you therefore, monsieur, to regard as not having been made the claims that I put forward on this subject, and as my confrères do not pretend that any one of them has the right to style himself first king's printer, in like manner I agree to assume simply the title of ordinary printer to his Majesty, and that we shall be placed in the Almanack Royal in the order of our reception.

'Paris, 20 November, 1779.

PIERRES.'

For this famous printer, see Lottin, Catalogue des Imprimeurs de Paris, vol. ii, p. 139.