L’Aventure éditoriale du théâtre français au xviie siècle par Alain Riffaud (review)

Written by one of France’s leading experts in book history, this study serves a double purpose. On the one hand, it develops approaches pioneered in Alain Riffaud’s previous work and provides fresh interpretation of many of the bibliographical issues confronting the historian of seventeenth-century French theatre. On the other hand, its comprehensive scope and approachable style make it ideally suited to researchers in theatre studies who may to date have had limited training in material bibliography or book history. Its four-part structure conceives the publication of theatre from multiple perspectives: respectively, that of the author, the activity of the printer, the publisher/bookseller, and (in a rather more varied section) the researcher. In the latter section in particular, one senses the imposition of a structure onto very diverse material. The material concerning authors traces a historical trajectory, from Jean Mairet to Corneille (via Jean de Rotrou and Tristan L’Hermite): printing in Paris takes off in the 1630s, and its quality rises from the 1680s, under competition from the Elzeviers. Mairet is shown to have followed attentively the printing of his works, whereas Rotrou’s supposed disdain for print is examined. This topos is then also examined critically in Corneille’s career; his attention to print, from Horace onwards, culminating in the 1663 folio edition of his works, is elucidated. In the sections concerning printers and publishers, the material practice of printing is combined with case studies of notable ateliers such as those of Antoine Coulon and Claude Blageart (the latter famous for having printed several of Molière’s works on behalf of Pierre Ribou). The novice can read this section as an introduction to the topic; the experienced bibliographer will find fresh insights into such matters as the sharing of printing between ateliers (identified by divergent practices of imposition, or typographical inconsistency), critical assessment of the layout of title pages, or techniques of counterfeiting. A particular interest of Riffaud’s is the use of material evidence to identify contrefaçons, and his chapters on that issue are essential reading. Riffaud’s previous book was entitled Une archéologie du livre français moderne (Geneva: Droz, 2010), and this concept of archaeology, crucial to his conception of bibliography, opens the final section. He insists frequently on the need to consult a maximum number of copies of a text, since various states can exist, some corrected, some not. There is much to admire in this book: the clarity of concept and method, the integration of material realities of publication and textual criticism, the detailed discussion of typographical material (fleurons and the like) used to identify the printer of counterfeit works, which all culminates in the virtuoso discussion of the editions of Le Malade imaginaire. This lucid and extremely readable book is a major contribution to the field.