Albertus Pighius, Controversiarum praecipvarvum in comitiis Ratispondensibus
tractatarum (Paris: Ex officina Carolæ Guillard
sub insigni solis aurei in uia Iacobæa, 1542)

HB4/1.a.1.8

Paris’s oldest printing shop under female leadership

During her two widowhoods, Charlotte Guillard (d. 1557) ran the oldest printing shop in Paris,
the Soleil d’Or (founded in 1473), from 1518 for two years and again from 1537 for twenty years.
The business of book printing changed greatly in the first half of the 16th century. The Soleil
d’Or remained successful under her leadership by focusing on scholarly law books and the works
of the Fathers of the Church (Jimenes, p. 22). Guillard had the necessary knowledge of the
market, but she may not have been responsible for the quality of the texts printed under her
management (Jimenes, pp. 71-2). She benefited from the emergence of new occupations, such
as proof-readers, to ensure the good quality of publications (Jimenes, pp. 72-4). This was an
advantage she shared with her male counterparts. This development can consequently not detract
from the fact that Charlotte Guillard is yet another woman with the ability to hold her own among her male contemporaries and who has been temporarily forgotten by history.

The book displayed is by the Catholic theologian Albert Pighius (1490-1542), ‘one of the most important and influential Roman Catholic polemicists’ of his time (Lane, p.30). In this work he addresses some of the controversial issues between Catholics and Protestants discussed at the Colloquy of Ratisbon (Regensburg) in 1541, which he had attended. The conference was one of several attempts to reunite Catholic and Protestant fronts in the Holy Roman Empire. This particular copy was part of the first large influx of printed books at St John’s through a donation by Thomas Paynell (d. 1564). He is traditionally identified as a canon of Merton Priory (Surrey) before the dissolution of the monasteries, who later became a translator, diplomat in the service of Thomas Cromwell, and chaplain to Henry VIII.