Richard Breton

Richard Breton (1524 - 1571) was a French publisher of illustrated books in collaboration with François Desprez.

Breton, the son of Guillaume Le Breton, was a publisher and book illustrator and bookbinder at the French court for Catherine de' Medici. For his printer's mark he used an allegorical figure of Charity holding a Sacred Heart, with a crown, a sceptre, a mitre, and a hoe symbolizing labour. He collaborated with Philippe Danfrie, adopting Danfrie's musical type in his publications. Breton and his partner Francois Desprez bought Danfrie's dies and type in 1559.

Breton produced the costume book, Recueil de la diversité des Habits qui sont des present en usaige tant es Pays D'Europe, Asie, Afrique, et isles sauvages, (Paris 1562) with 121 woodcuts, and a dedication to Henry of Navarre by his colleague François Desprez. The first edition was printed in civilitié type, a special italic typeface used for children's books. Two subsequent editions in Breton's lifetime employed roman type.

Breton published the pseudo-Rabelaisian Les songes drolatiques de Pantagruel, (Paris 1565), which featured 224 fanciful grotesque figures, and was also a collaboration with François Desprez. Four illustrations from the Songes were used on a Scottish Renaissance painted ceiling at Prestongrange, in 1581. A copy of the book was in the library of Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney who died in 1593.

At a time when the sale of Calvinist literature was permitted in France, Breton was active in promoting Protestant literature. Richard married Jeanne Warnier, they had a daughters Jeanne and Anne, and a son Thomas. Richard's sister Nicole Breton married René Guillon, a teacher of ancient languages at the University of Paris.

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