1776 First Book printed in Montreal - Mesplet Reglement de la Confrerie de l'Adoration Perpetuelle du S Sacrement et de la Bonne Mort.

A landmark of Canadian printing history — among the very first books printed in Montreal, produced by Fleury Mesplet in 1776 at the very dawn of the city’s typographic tradition.

Extremely rare on the market. Examples of such early Montreal imprints are most often held in institutional collections and seldom available to private collectors.

Author: Unknown.
Title: Réglement de la Confrerie de l'Adoration Perpétuelle du S. Sacrement et de la Bonne Mort. Érigée dans l'Église Paroissiale de Ville-Marie, en l'Isle de Montréal, en Canada. Nouvelle Édition...
Language: Text in French.
Publisher: Montréal, F. Mesplet & C. Berger, 1776. Casey, Catalogue of Pamphlets 1536; Dionne 18; Lande, Rare Canadiana 153 (“considered the first Canadian imprint in Montreal”); Tremaine 231.
An earlier edition of this work is believed to have been prepared by Mesplet in Philadelphia. He emigrated to America on the advice of Benjamin Franklin and moved to Montreal in 1776 when commissioned by the Continental Congress to accompany Franklin, Chase, and Carroll in establishing a French-language press.
Size: 5.5" x 4".
Pages: 40 pages.
Binding: Attractive original boards covered in figured wallpaper (spine worn but hinges still tight; overall worn and scuffed as shown), housed in a quarter morocco cover with an ex-libris of C. Gordon Smith depicting Montreal in 1760, and preserved in a fine burgundy morocco slipcase.
Content: Good content (tight, faint staining to lower right corners as shown; lacking rear blank free endpaper as noted). Complete.

Estimate: Extremely scarce. No comparable copies currently available on the market. A highly desirable early Montreal imprint.

The book: Widely regarded as the first Montreal imprint, this small devotional manual represents a foundational moment in Canadian printing history. Printed in 1776 by Fleury Mesplet shortly after his arrival in Montreal, it reflects the establishment of one of the earliest presses in the Province of Québec.

Mesplet, trained in Europe and active in Philadelphia, came to Montreal under the influence of Benjamin Franklin and the Continental Congress, bringing with him the tools and knowledge necessary to establish a French-language press. This work, distributed to members of the Confrérie — which counted approximately 1,000 members in late 18th-century Montreal — stands as a rare witness to the cultural and religious life of early Ville-Marie.

Collector’s note: Early Canadian imprints of this period, particularly those printed by Mesplet, are increasingly difficult to obtain. Many surviving examples are preserved in institutional collections, significantly limiting availability on the open market. This example offers a rare opportunity to acquire a true artifact of Montreal’s printing origins.

The printer: Fleury Mesplet (1734–1794) was a pioneering printer in North America. Born in Marseille and trained in Lyon, he worked in London and Philadelphia before settling in Montreal in 1776. He would go on to found the Gazette Littéraire de Montréal in 1778 with Valentin Jautard, and later La Gazette de Montréal in 1785, now known as the Montreal Gazette.

Despite periods of imprisonment for his political and literary activities, Mesplet remained central to the development of print culture in Canada, publishing works in French, English, Latin, and Iroquois.

✔ First Montreal imprint (1776)
✔ Printed by Fleury Mesplet
✔ Foundational Canadian printing artifact
✔ Rare outside institutional collections