Note 536 — APPENDICES. I

There were royal printers in various cities of France after the latter part of the sixteenth century; but the office was neither regularly instituted nor general in its scope. These printers seem to have had it specially in charge to print official documents in the provinces, which function conferred on them certain privileges, and sometimes caused difficulties with the local authorities, who also had their special printers. The first editions of the edicts, ordinances, etc., emanating from the central authority were afterwards placed in the hands of the royal printing-office in Paris. See what I have to say on this subject in my work on Les Estienne, p. 56.

In 1844 M. Le Roux de Lincy published in the Journal de l'Amateur de livres, and also had printed separately in an octavo pamphlet of 16 leaves, a compilation entitled: Catalogue chronologique des imprimeurs et libraires du roi, par le père Adry; but those shapeless memoranda were not originally intended for printing, and I have been unable to obtain the slightest particle of useful information from them.