Jean-Louis de Boubers
Jean-Louis de Boubers de Corbeville | |
|---|---|
| Born | Template:Birth date Lille, France |
| Died | July 30, 1804 (aged 73) Brussels, Belgium |
| Occupation(s) | Printer, publisher, bookseller, type founder, music publisher, paper manufacturer |
| Years active | 1748–1804 |
| Known for | Royal printer for the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium; official bookseller for the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie; printing the complete works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
Jean-Louis de Boubers de Corbeville (18 June 1731 – 30 July 1804), also referred to as Boubers the Younger, was a French printer, publisher, and bookseller who extended his business activities into the Liège area within the Holy Roman Empire. In addition to his printing and publishing ventures, he was engaged in type founding, music publishing, and paper manufacturing. He held the position of royal printer for the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium based in Brussels.
Biography
Jean-Louis de Boubers was born in Lille to Henri-Louis de Boubers de Corbeville, a military officer, and Marie-Catherine Gavois. His brother Claude-René-Denis de Boubers gained recognition as "one of France’s most distinguished typographers," while another sibling, Henri-François de Boubers, also pursued a career in printing.
He formed marital connections with notable bookselling families: initially marrying the daughter of Louis-François Barbier, a bookseller from Arras, in 1752, and later wedding the daughter of Lille bookseller André-Joseph Panckoucke in 1759. These unions linked him to the significant eighteenth-century publishing dynasty established by Charles-Joseph Panckoucke and Henri Agasse de Cresne, which subsequently influenced media enterprises such as those created by Jean Prouvost.
Beginning his career as a printer and bookseller in Dunkerque in 1748, de Boubers expanded his operations to Liège, a duty-free zone advantageous for printing due to lenient copyright regulations. In 1759, he encountered conflict with local authorities in Liège that resulted in his temporary expulsion. His efforts to relocate to Lille in 1760 were thwarted by municipal officials; however, he ultimately obtained citizenship in Liège in 1761.
By 1768, he secured permission to establish himself as a printer in Brussels. In 1774, he issued the esteemed twelve-volume complete works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, presented with a London imprint. Serving as the official bookseller for the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, he published theatrical plays and opéras comiques staged between 1777 and 1799.
A member of the Freemason lodge Les Vrais Amis de la Justice in Brussels, de Boubers also printed the Journal de Bruxelles. He passed away in Brussels in 1804.