The
Rue Saint-Jacques is a
street in the
Latin Quarter of
Paris which lies along the
cardo of Roman
Lutetia. The
Boulevard Saint-Michel, driven through this old quarter of Paris by
Baron Haussmann, relegated the roughly parallel rue Saint-Jacques to a backstreet, but it was a main axial road of
medieval Paris, as the buildings that still front it attest. It was the starting point for pilgrims leaving Paris to make their way along the
chemin de St-Jacques that led eventually to
Santiago de Compostela. The Paris base of the
Dominican Order was established in 1218 under the leadership of Pierre Seila in the Chapelle Saint-Jacques, close to the Porte Saint-Jacques, on this street; this is why the Dominicans were called
Jacobins in Paris.
Johann Heynlin and
Guillaume Fichet established the first
printing press in France, briefly at the
Sorbonne and then on this street, in the 1470s. The second printers in Paris were Peter Kayser and Johann Stohl at the sign of the Soleil d'Or in the Rue Saint-Jacques, from 1473. The proximity of the Sorbonne led many later booksellers and printers to set up shop here also.