Treasures from the Archives of the Imprimerie Nationale at the Grolier
In December 2011 the Grolier Club of New York will host an exhibition on the history of the French national printing establishment, the Imprimerie Nationale, arguably the most important printing house in Europe. Drawn from the vast and comprehensive archives of the Imprimerie Nationale, Printing for Kingdom, Empire, and Republic will document the significant influence of the press, not only on printing and the book arts, but on French—and therefore European—literary culture from the mid-sixteenth century to the present day. The exhibition is being organized by the Grolier Club and the Institut Mémoires de l’?dition Contemporaine (IMEC), which recently added the historical collections of the Imprimerie Nationale to France’s largest archive of authorial and publishing materials, in cooperation with the Groupe Imprimerie Nationale, S.A.
Printing for Kingdom, Empire, and Republic, curated by H. George Fletcher (the retired Brooke Russell Astor Director at The New York Public Library, and the organizer in New York of IMEC’s 2009 exhibition “Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Literary Life under Nazi Occupation”), will tell the story of the Imprimerie Nationale, from a group of royal printers established by François I in 1538, to the Imprimerie Royale created by Cardinal Richelieu in 1640, through many generations of development, marked often by artistic innovation and wide cultural influence, but sometimes by distress and neglect, to triumphant survival in the present day. Over 200 objects will be on view at the Grolier Club from early December 2011 through early February of 2012, encompassing artifacts of various printing processes, such as punches, matrices, and typefonts from the days of François I to the present, as well as engraved plates and lithographic stones used to produce illustrations (including at least one plate from the famous Description de l’Egypt commissioned by Napoleon, with its proofs and published state). It will also show archival copies of the books produced at the Imprimerie Nationale, from the scholarly products of the Renaissance in France through the royal folios of the Sun King to the culture-changing works of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and thus to the work of postwar and present-day generations of French book artists. In many cases, original manuscripts, documents, and artwork will allow the visitor to follow the art, craft, and business of book-making from conception to realization. Video installations are planned to provide visitors with an overview of the history of the Imprimerie Nationale, as well as demonstrations of all aspects of book production.
