Charlotte Guillard

Name(s)

Charlotte Guillard

Date and place of birth

1480, Paris, France

Date and place of death

 1557

Family

Mother: Guillemyne Saney,

Father: Jacques Guillard

Marriage and Family Life

Three husbands: Berthold Rembolt in 1502 (printer d. 1518); Claude Chevallion in 1520 (printer d. 1537); no children.

Religion

Catholic

Transformation(s)

She was printing as a teenager.

Contemporaneous Network(s)

The Bishop of Verona commissioned her to publish his works.

Works/Agency

First female printer recognized for her business-acumen and numerous publications of accuracy and beauty. She owned four or five printing presses with between 12 and 25 employees and a stock of 13,000 books. 

Contemporaneous Identifications

Guillard worked at the famous Soleil d’Or printing house from 1502 until her death. 

Reputation

Well regarded and prolific printer. 

Legacy and Influence

Guild rules allowed Guillard to take over her deceased husbands’ business. Her name, not included on her husband’s imprint when he lived, appeared now under the somewhat somber imprint of “Vidua defuncti magistri Bertholdi Rembolt” or “widow of the deceased master Berthold Rembolt.” After 1520 as she worked with her new husband, Guillard’s name disappeared from the imprint, replaced by Chevallon’s. After Chevallon’s death, Guillard printed or published approximately 158 different titles on an average of eight a year, between 1537 and 1557.

Controversy

Living not only in the Renaissance, but also in the time of the Reformation, Guillard published anti-Protestant works.