Madeleine Eggendorffer
Madeleine Eggendorffer | |
|---|---|
| Born | Template:Birth date Fribourg, Switzerland |
| Died | September 27, 1795 (aged 51) Fribourg, Switzerland |
| Occupation(s) | Entrepreneur, bookseller, publisher |
| Years active | 1769–1795 |
Madeleine Eggendorffer (likely born on 30 June 1744 in Fribourg, Switzerland – passed away on 27 September 1795 in Fribourg) was a distinguished Swiss entrepreneur, bookseller, and publisher.
Biography
Marie-Madeleine de Boffe and her brother Joseph were the offspring of Jean-Charles de Boffe, a bookseller, and Anne-Marie Jordan in Fribourg. In 1769, Madeleine entered into marriage with Ludwig Wilhelm Eggendorffer, an Austrian who had briefly served as a bookbinder for the de Boffe establishment. Following the death of Jean-Charles that same year, Madeleine and Joseph inherited the family bookstore, which unfortunately declared bankruptcy in 1771. Subsequently, Madeleine acquired Joseph’s shares and became the sole proprietor.
Despite the arrival of her first child, Madeleine persevered in overseeing the bookstore while raising four children in total. Supported by her husband’s expertise as a bookbinder, she managed to run Fribourg’s only bookstore successfully until her demise in 1795.
The inventory she curated predominantly consisted of French literature, supplemented by German and Latin works. The collection included authors such as La Fontaine, Rabelais, Voltaire, and Diderot. Madeleine also championed female writers like Madame du Boccage, the Marquise de Lambert, Madame de Maintenon, and Madame de Sévigné. As a publisher, she released notable works including Abbé François-Xavier Duchet’s Culture des abeilles ou Méthode expérimentale et raisonnée sur les moyens de prendre mieux par des abeilles and Beat Emanuel von May’s extensive eight-volume Military and Diplomatic History of Switzerland (1788).
To broaden her commercial reach, Madeleine regularly participated in three-week fairs held in Bern where she sold books and accepted orders. Literary and legal publications were in highest demand at these events, followed by religious volumes. She maintained strong professional relationships with booksellers throughout Switzerland—particularly through the Typographical Society of Neuchâtel—and extended connections to France in cities such as Lyon and Paris.
Notably, Madeleine Eggendorffer achieved an almost exclusive control over printed materials in Fribourg while actively managing her enterprise as a married mother. Her business activities are well documented through correspondence with the Neuchâtel Typographical Society.
Upon her death in 1795, her husband continued the bookstore operations until their son Aloys (Louis) took over. The Eggendorffer family name remained influential within Fribourg’s book industry until the mid-1800s.