The Intaglio Printers 1642

This is "The Intaglio Printers", an etching made in 1642 by Abraham Bosse, offering a peek into a 17th-century print shop. Bosse's detailed depiction is invaluable for understanding the social and economic dimensions of printmaking at the time. It reveals the division of labor within the workshop, from preparing the ink to operating the press, and the ways in which these laborers brought printed materials into the world. In it we see the means of production, the tools and techniques of the trade. It is through images like this that we can study the conditions and realities of cultural production of this period. By examining archival documents and other historical sources, we can reconstruct the world of this print shop, the relationships between artists, artisans, and patrons, and the circulation of images in early modern France. These traces of cultural, social, and institutional histories are key to understanding art's place in our world.