Denis Janot

Denis Janot was a Parisian printer and bookseller. He was born into a family of printers and the parents of his wife Jeanne de Marnef were also printers and booksellers. Janot started his career in the book business in 1529 in partnership with Alain Lotrian, but in 1534 he set up his own shop.

Janot is notable for printing books in the vernacular, especially in the field of the humanities, and for commissioning illustrations for the books he printed. Both printing in vernacular and illustrating books was to appeal to a wide audience. By publishing Guillaume de La Perrière's Le Théâtre des bons engins in 1540, Janot became one of the earliest French printers of emblem books.

He printed works of the notable classical authors such as Cicero as well as for contemporary ones, particularly in the matter of the Querelle des femmes, the contemporary discussion over the status of women. Some of the more important books of his time printed by him were the Roman de la Rose and Christine de Pizan's The Treasure of the City of Ladies. In 1543 Janot was granted the status of royal printer, and a catalog from around that time lists 163 books, only 14 of which were in Latin, and many of his translations were of Latin classical authors. He died in December 1544, and his business was run by his widow until she remarried a year and a half.