God's Plagiarist

Migne harnessed a will of iron and boundless personal energy to the latest innovations in print technology and marketing. Most famous for his massive 469-volume edition of the Church Fathers, Migne was the founder of the Ateliers catholiques of Paris and owned a total of ten newspapers during the course of his life. Bloch shows how closely Migne's activities in the newspaper world coincided with his editing and marketing of the Church Fathers. He sold the Fathers by means of advertising and merchandising ploys so creative and modern that Bloch is able to link Migne and his methods to the rise of wholesale exchange and large department stores in Paris. Migne's assembly-line production and innovative pyramid sales schemes placed him a the forefront of France's new commerce.