Sebastian Gryphius

Sebastian Gryphius (* 1492 in Reutlingen, Baden- Württemberg, . † 1556 in Lyon, Rhône Dept. ) was a German - French book printer and humanist.

Gryphius was a son of the typographer Michael Greyff ( griffin); the printer Johann Gryphius and Franz Gryphius were his brothers. Like his brothers, he learned the art of printing books with his father. His subsequent years of travel have taken him to Venice by Aldus Manutius in the workshop. In this city his brother John also founded a printing house.

Around 1520 Gryphius went to Lyon and settled there. The first few years working there I.A. mostly Venetian bookseller. In addition, he was able to acquire over the years also has a reputation as an excellent translator of Greek and Latin classics. As a book printer rather legal and economic works were his metier; but also bestsellers such as Guillaume Budé, Erasmus Angelo Poliziano, inter alia,

1536 Gryphius founded in Lyon together with the entrepreneur Hugues de la Porte ( 1500-1572 ), the "Atelier du Griffon ". With this workshop he finally reached its economic as well as artistic breakthrough. In the early 1540s there was talk of him admiringly as " Prince de Libraires lynnais ".

His house as well as his workshop was soon a refuge of persecuted writers. The writer Étienne Dolet lived the first time after his release from prison in Gryphius and learned of this, the printing trade. But friends like Andrea Alciati, Barthélémy Aneau, François Rabelais or Guillaume Sceve found repeatedly in with him.