Promoting the Counter-Reformation in Provincial France: Printing and Bookselling in Sixteenth-Century Verdun

Abstract

This chapter explores a little-known Counter-Reformation print initiative in provincial France. Though for the most part the provisions of the Council of Trent were not applied in France, the bishop of Verdun, Nicolas Psaume, nonetheless sought to promote Tridentine reform. He introduced the printing press in his episcopal seat in the early 1560s and immediately used print not only to fight heresy but also to reform Catholic practice within his diocese. Psaume and his successors wrote and promoted texts that would further the Tridentine cause. The strength of the ecclesiastical structures and the bishop’s enterprising vision helped to make Verdun an important centre for cheap Catholic works written in French that sought to influence a wide readership.