Two great printing houses dominated the publishing world of Paris in the sixteenth century: Estienne and de Colines. Henri Estienne began by imitating the strategy of Aldus, issuing small-sized classical editions. Upon his death in 1520, his printshop foreman, Simon de Colines, took over operations and also married his widow. When Henri's son Robert became old enough to assume ownership in 1526, Simon de Colines became an independent printer until his own death two decades later. Simon and Robert between them transformed French printing. In this they were aided by Geoffroy Tory, an illustrator and typographer, and Tory's student Claude Garamond. These two artisans developed new type styles that by 1532 appeared in both de Colines and Estienne publications, and made French typography the standard of excellence across Europe. This Belmont Abby book is a de Colines first edition of Catullus, and bears a printer's mark adapted from Estienne's.[AHB] Further information on Catullus can be found in the annotation for our 1685 edition of his work. As that edition of the same author was also published in Paris, it makes an interesting example of the development of printing techniques and typographic styles over a century and a half.

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