Charlotte Anne Panofré

The role of economic factors in the printing of English Protestant pamphlets in Strasbourg, 1553-1558

My doctoral thesis, 'Printing Protestant Texts under Mary I: The Marian Exiles' Publishing Strategies in Strasbourg, Wesel, Antwerp and Geneva (1553-60)' explores the relationships between the English Protestant refugees (fleeing Mary I's policies) and their European hosts, from the perspective of their polemical pamphlets, most printed clandestinely on the Continent. The view whereby Protestant printing was facilitated by shared religious sensibilities between city authorities, printers and refugees still pervades studies of the exile movement. My research, consisting in identifying clandestine printers and in offering an introductory analysis of the printing world in which English pamphlets were issued, suggests instead that economic considerations, rather than religious affinities, influenced the refugees' publishing strategies and their printers' decisions. My research in the Herzog August Bibliothek further investigates the impact of war and political instability on the Strasbourg printing world between 1545 and 1560 and the ways in which this benefited the English Protestant refugees seeking to have their texts published there by impoverishing its printers and creating a buyers' market. It consists in a thorough investigation of the books issued in Strasbourg's printing offices between the 1540s and the 1560s (about 500 items), using paper as an economic indicator and monitoring its use. Combined with an examination of typographical material, I also hope to use paper-analysis as a way of identifying with certainty the Strasbourg printing houses who worked for the English.