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Chrétien Wechel

Chrétien Wechel (in Latin, Christianus Wechelus, 1495-1554), was a printer and bookseller active in Paris, France between 1522 and 1554.

Born in Herentals, Brabant, Wechel settled in Paris around 1518-1519. In 1522 he became a sworn bookseller and printer; on that date, he was a factor in the Basel printer Conrad Resch. In 1526, he acquired the funds of Conrad Resch and became self-employed and, in 1528, obtained from the King of France letters of naturalization.

Christian Wechel specialized in Greek, Hebrew and humanist publications. He was close to the ideas of Martin Luther and the French Evangelicals: the Book of True and Perfect Orison, which he published in 1528, is a translation of Luther's Betbüchlein augmented with texts by William Farel and Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples. He also had a friend Claude Garamond.

His first address was at the shield of Basel ("sub scuto Basiliensi"), on St. James Street, near the Church of St. Benedict. In 1539, he established a branch near Saint-Jean-de-Beauvais Street, in a house that had belonged to Jean Périer who was the first husband of his wife, Michelle Robillard. He then took as his sign the Flying Horse, or Pegasus. The two addresses coexisted a time and, from 1546, Chrétien Wechel gave up the address of the Saint-Jacques street and gave in his works only the address of the street Saint-Jean-de-Beauvais.

Chrétien Wechel had two main printer's devices, each of which had several variations. The first represents a tree with two robins and the motto "Unum arbustum non alit duos erithacos"; the second shows a Pegasus above a caduceus surrounded by horns of plenty.

After his death, at the beginning of the year 1554, his son André Wechel took over the management of his workshop.

Works printed or sold by Chrétien Wechel

in 1529: The book of true and perfect oration  ;

in 1533: Alphabetum Hebraicum, by Agacio Guidacerio  ;

in 1533: Tabula in grammaticen Hebraeam, by Nicolas Clénard  ;

in 1537: Compendium Hebraicae grammaticae, by Sebastian Münster  ;

in 1537: Peculium Agathii, by Agacio Guidacerio  ;

in 1541: Institutiones Hebraicae, by Alain Restauld de Caligny (with Jérôme de Gourmont );

in 1543: Alphabetum Hebraicum, of Jean de Drosay  ;

in 1550: Prima rudimenta in Hebraeam linguistics, by Ralph Baines (with Charles Périer );

in 1553: Epistola ad Iudaeos, of Ludovico Carreto.

See also

Bibliography

Philippe Renouard, Directory of Parisian printers, booksellers, founders of characters, and proofreaders since the introduction of printing in Paris (1470) until the end of the sixteenth century, Paris, Minard, 1965.

Philippe Renouard, Documents on printers, booksellers ... having worked in Paris from 1450 to 1600, Paris, H. Champion, 1901.

Lyse Schwarzfuchs, The Hebrew book in Paris in the xvi th  century chronological inventory, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2004.

External links

Authority records: Virtual International Authority File  • International Standard Name Identifier  • National Library of France ( data ) • University documentation system