The Death of Printing: How France Tried to Regulate the Press

In 1534, a series of anti-Catholic posters appeared across Paris, even on the door of King Francis I's bedchamber. The king's reaction would reshape France's relationship with the printed word for centuries. Lucas and Luna explore the Affair of the Placards, the resulting crackdown on Protestant printers, and the creation of France's first royal censorship system. They discuss how Francis I, once a patron of Renaissance learning, turned against the press; how the Sorbonne and the Parlement of Paris gained power to approve every book; and how this censorship paradoxically fueled the underground book trade. The episode covers the key figures: the reformer Jean Calvin (fleeing France just before the affair), the king's sister Marguerite de Navarre (a protector of dissidents), and the intransigent theologian Noël Bédier. It also explains the index of forbidden books, the chambre ardente, and the long shadow these controls cast on French intellectual life. A story of how fear can silence a revolution before it fully begins. #AffairOfThePlacards #FrancisI #JeanCalvin #MargueriteDeNavarre #NoëlBédier #Censorship #Renaissance #Reformation #PrintingPress #Sorbonne #ParlementOfParis #IndexOfForbiddenBooks #ChambreArdente #FranceHistory #FexingoHistory #History #EuropeanHistory #BookHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo