- Guy Marchant
Guy [Gui, Guyot] Marchant was a printer of books, active in Paris from 1481, and especially at the end of the
fifteenth century , and founder of a family business that lasted until theFrench Revolution . [ [http://www.publicartinla.com/USCArt/Doheny/hayward/descr.html http://www.publicartinla.com/USCArt/Doheny/hayward/descr.html] .] Marchant himself is reported to have produced 170 "incunabula ". [ [http://www.ndl.go.jp/incunabula/e/collection/col_05.html] . These include a "Danse Macabre " from 1485 ( [http://www.cc.jyu.fi/~mirator/pdf/Fein.pdf this PDF] ), works ofAristotle , the first letter ofChristopher Columbus in 1493. [http://www.usm.maine.edu/~maps/columbus/bibliography.html] ]One of his most influential productions was the "Compost et Kalendrier de Bergiers", a fore-runner of the perennial
almanac . ["Calendar and Compost of Shepherd" (1931), edited by G. C. Heseltine, is an English edition.] It was translated into English in 1503, as "The Kalender of Shepherds", and ran to at least 17 further editions. [Keith Thomas, "Religion and the Decline of Magic" (1971), p.350. Thomas notes that it had astrological content, in the sense of describing the influence of planets on parts of the body, and a method offortune telling .]Notes
External links
*fr icon [http://www.mediatheque-agglo-troyes.fr/bmtroyes/_/nv/calendrier/calendrier.htm "Le grand Calendrier et compost des bergers", illustrated walkthrough of the months]
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