Mamert Patisson (d. 1601); Paris, 1575-1601

Robert II’s widow, Denyse Barbé, continued printing under his name for a few years after his death before she married her second husband, Mamert Patisson, in 1575. This trend was continued by Mamert whose first book bears the following imprint information: ‘Apud Mamertum Patissonium, in officina Rob. Stephani’.

M. Verrii Flacci quae extant et Sex. Pompei Festi de verborum significatione libri XX. Josephi Scaligeri Ivlii Caearis F. in eosdem libros castigationes, recognitae & auctae (Paris, 1576), title page detail of Estienne device 27.

This touching tribute might also be seen as a publicity stunt by Mamert in an attempt to piggy-back on the reputation of the Estienne press. Schrieber suggests a more cynical motive: that the lease on the Estienne house, which was in the name of Robert Estienne, would otherwise have been lost.[1] More altruistically, it could also be viewed as an endeavour to keep the press alive for Robert II’s children. If Mamert’s intention was the latter, he was successful for he was able to pass on the press as a going concern to Robert III Estienne.

Discovrs svr les medalles et gravevres antiques, principalement Romaines (…) Par M. Antoine Le Pois, Conseiller & Medicin de Monseigneur le Duc de Lorraine (Paris, 1579), title page detail of device 26.

Mamert did not just use one formulation. For example, the Discovrs svr les medalles et gravevres antiques, principalement Romaines by the French physician and numismatist Antoine Le Pois (1525-78) was published in 1579 by Mamert, now Royal Printer, with the imprint ‘Au logis de Robert Estienne’.

Iosephi Scaligeri Ivl. Cæsaris f. Opus novvm De emendatione temporvm in octo libros tribvtvm (Paris, 1583), title page detail of Estienne device 25 (which may be found on Robert II’s De recta & emendata linguæ Anglicæ scriptione, dialogus (Paris, 1568).

That Mamert was consciously drawing attention to the earlier Estienne press of Robert I may be seen in his addition of a colophon on the final leaf of his 1583 edition of Scaliger’s De emendatione temporum, which reads as follows: ‘Excvdebat Robertvs Stephanvs Typographvs Regivs, Lvtetiæ Parisiorvm, Idib. Novembris, Ann. M. D. LXVII’. The use of a colophon as late as 1583 is unusual and it was undoubtedly deliberate on Mamert’s part.

Sources

Armstrong, Elizabeth, Robert Estienne, Royal Printer (Cambridge, 1954).

Bernard, Auguste, Les Estienne et les types grecs de François Ier, complément des annales stéphaniens (Paris, 1856).

Didot, Ambroise Firmin, ‘Patisson, Mamert’, Nouvelle bibliographie générale, (Paris, 1856; Copenhagen, 1965 reprint), 39-40, p. 335.

Renouard, Antoine, Annales de l’imprimerie des Estienne (Genève, 1971 reprint).

Rott, Jean & Peter, Rodolphe, ‘Exposition Jean Calvin’, Revue d’histoire et de philosophie religieuse 45 (1965), 128-155.

Schreiber, Fred, The Estiennes. An annotated catalogue of 300 highlights of their various presses (New York, 1982).

[1] Schreiber, Fred, The Estiennes. An annotated catalogue of 300 highlights of their various presses (New York, 1982), p. 201.