Guillaume Le Bé

Guillaume Le Bé (* 1525 in Troyes, † 1598 in Paris) was a French engraver, type designer, type founder and publisher of the Renaissance. In modern France he is called to distinguish it from its namesake Guillaume II Le Bé as Guillaume Le Bé I.

Life

Le Bé was born in Troyes, and learned the printer Robert Estienne. 1545 he went to Venice, where he worked in various printing companies. Although Le Bé also designed Greek and Latin letters, but most famously he was by his Hebrew types with which he created wonderful writings in the style of ancient manuscripts. When his employer and friend Claude Garamond died in 1561, he purchased of his widow a part of the equipment of Garamond punches tailoring. Le Bé spent the end of his life back in France (Paris). His writings came later into the possession of Pierre Simon Fournier the foundry.

Guillemets

Although the quotes called " guillemets " have already been used for the 1527 quote mark, there is the French name until 1677 in the " Considérations en faveur de la langue Francoise " ( considerations for the French language ) of Marolles. It goes back to the namesake Guillaume II Le Bé, the (supposedly took place in 1622 ) introducing the quotation mark has been wrongly attributed. Guillemet is a diminutive for the name Guillaume (German: Wilhelm ).

• Man
• Frenchman
• Typographer
• Publishers ( 16th century )
• Printer (Venice)
• Born in 1525
• Died in 1598