, the first of a family of eminent printers and booksellers, called
, the first of a family of eminent
printers and booksellers, called in French Detournes, was
born at Lyons in 1504, and learned printing first in the
house of Sebastian Gryphius. He appears to have established another house about 1540, and printed many books
in the name and on account of Gryphius; but from 1544
we find his own name to a number of very correct editions.
Among others may be mentioned, an edition of “Petrarch,
”
in Italian, Dante,
” Les Marguerites des Marguerites de la reine de Navarre,
”
Vitruviu$,
” with Philander' s commentary
and woodcuts finely executed, 1552, 8vo and “Froissart’s Chronicles,
” Quod tibi
fieri non vis, alteri ne faceris.
” This device is still to be
seen on the front of a house at Lyons, in the rue Raisin,
where his printing-office stood. He was succeeded by his
son, John, who was also king’s printer, and carried on the
business until 1585. His editions did not yield in elegance
or correctness to those of his father, but being obliged at
the date above-mentioned to quit his country, upon account of his religion, for he was a protestant, he settled at
Geneva, where he had every encouragement, and in 1604
became a member of the council of two hundred. Like
the Geneva printers, however, he deteriorated what he
printed here by employing bad paper. He died in 1615.
His descendants continued the printing and bookselling
business at Geneva, and had established a very extensive
trade, when in 1726, John James, and James Detournes
purchased the stock of Anisson and Posnel, famous booksellers of Lyons, and obtained permission, notwithstanding
their religion, to settle there; and as they also continued
their house at Geneva, they greatly extended their trade,
particularly to Spain and Italy. In 1740 the learned John
Christian Wolff dedicated to them his “Monumenta Typographica,
” as to the oldest printing and bookselling family in Europe. Their trade, which consisted chiefly in
theological works, having begun to fall off when the Jesuits
were suppressed, their sons, who had a plentiful fortune,
sold off the whole of their stock in 1730, and retired from
a business which had been carried on in their family with
great reputation for nearly two hundred and forty years.