Women and the Book Trade in Sixteenth-century France

Book excerpt: Focusing on the vastly understudied area of how women participated in the book trades, not just as authors, but also as patrons, copyists, illuminators, publishers, editors and readers, Women and the Book Trade in Sixteenth-Century France foregrounds contributions made by women during a period of profound transformation in the modes and understanding of publication. Innovatively, Broomhall here broadens the concept of publication to include methods of scribal publication, through the circulation and presentation of manuscripts, and expands notions of authorship to incorporate a wide sample group of female writers and publishing experiences. The work presents the only checklist of all known women's writings in printed texts between 1488 and 1599. Women and the Book Trade in Sixteenth-Century France constitutes the most comprehensive assessment of women's contribution to contemporary publishing yet available. It is of interest not only to book historians and French historians, but also to a broad range of scholars who work with other European literatures and histories, and/or women's studies.