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This list of women printers and publishers before 1800 includes women active as printers or publishers prior to the 19th century. Before the printing press was invented, books were made from pages written by scribes, and it could take up to a year or two for a book to be completed. Books were a luxury mainly for religious scholars and the upper classes. Johannes Guttenberg invented the printing press around 1450, which allowed for mass production of books. Having books become more widely available meant that a wider range of people had access to information, but this threatened the authority of the state. Some printers had their works censored and may have been jailed for disseminating information of which the state did not approve.[1]
Printing required setting type and running the press itself, which could be arduous, as well as bookbinding. Although running the press was considered too physically difficult, many women were able to do all the jobs required to produce a book. Generally, women learned the trade from their fathers or husbands. From the mid-1500s to the mid-1600s, women made up 10% of the printing workforce in London.[1]
Prior to the abolition of the guild system in 19th-century Europe, the most common way for a woman to become a businesswoman was to inherit a business and profession from her late husband, as the guild privilege was by custom granted to the widow of a guild member. This was often the case in regard to women printers and publishers prior to the 19th century.
The list is sorted chronologically, by country:
Present-day Belgium was among the Low Countries of western Europe, which by the 16th century were "highly urbanized, literate, and cosmopolitan". Collectively known as 'Nederlanders", they shared common cultural roots, including ensuring that they had legal property and contractual rights. During the 16th and 17th centuries, there was significant growth in burgeoning fields, such as art and literature, which provided opportunities for women in the cities.[2] In particular, four women printers ran the family-owned Plantin-Moretus printing house (Plantin Press) over the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries: Martina Plantin, Anna Goos, Anna Maria de Neuf and Maria Theresia Borrekens.[3] According to the Plantin-Moretus Museum, they were largely responsible for company's longevity, and continuity.[3]
Leon Voet, notes that Martina Plantin and her sisters were not isolated cases, and states that "sixteenth-century Italian and Spanish travelers, accustomed to a world where women were barred from public life, repeatedly expressed amazement – and often indignation – in their accounts of the Netherlands at the extensive participation of women and girls in economic activities and their free and easy bearing in public."[4]
The printing industry was established in France in the 16th century, with Lyon being the first center and later Paris. The names of many widows active in the profession is known from the 16th century, such as Nicole Vostre (fl. 1537), Jeanne Bruneau, and Sibille de La Porte (fl. 1593).[17] In the first half of the 17th century, 208 widow printers and publishers were active in France, and during the 17th century, about 540 widows are estimated to have been active within the publishing, printing and retailing book business in France.[18]
England followed the European custom of allowing widows to inherit the guild privilege and business of their late printer and publisher husbands until they remarried, and 34 widows are known to have been active as book printers and publishers in London in 1641–1660.[18]
There were a few women publishers in the 18th century, including the tumultuous times leading up to and through the American Revolution.[63] Since printing was often a multi-generational family business, there were some printing families with two or more generations of women printers, which was the case with Ann Timothy and her mother-in-law, Elizabeth Timothy.[64] Benjamin Franklin also played a role in women running printing and publishing businesses. Franklin had used his own money to set up printing operations in the colonies for six years for each business. In the meantime, if the husband, like Lewis Timothy died, Franklin negotiated the arrangements for wives to take over the contract.[65] It was generally a financial necessity for widowed women in the printing profession to carry on the business,[64] like Ann, Elizabeth, and Margaret Hartman Markoe Bache.
These women followed Elizabeth Glover who set up a printing press after the seaboard journey from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony between 1638 and 1639 when it is believed that The Freeman's Oath was published in Glover's house.[65]
There were at least six women who were the official printers for various colonial governments, as Ann Timothy did for the state of South Carolina.[64] According to a syndicated article, "Helped the Colonial Cause": "In nearly every case they advocated the colonial cause, and their editorials did much to arouse the spirit of patriotism in the men."[63][66]
During the Middle Ages, nuns of the Vadstena Abbey managed a printing press and published works, but the first woman to be professionally active as a printer and publisher was not to appear until circa 1500. Since the widow of a male printer and publisher normally took over the business of her late spouse, women became fairly common in these professions in relation to the number of males, particularly in the 18th century, which was an era during which the Swedish press expanded rapidly, and 45 widow printers and publishers are known between 1496 and 1799; however, the majority of them only managed the business a few years before they remarried, and only a few truly left a mark in the profession.[143]
Women active in the United States (after 1776).
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