Jean Crespin (c.1520 – 12 April 1572) was a French Protestant lawyer who became a significant printer[1] and martyrologistinGeneva.
He was born at Arras and studied law at Leuven. In 1540 he was in Paris, where he worked with his friend François Baudouin under the leading jurist and advocate Charles Du Moulin, and became himself advocate at the Parlement of Paris. He became interested in the doctrines of the Reformed Church; and when he returned to Arras, his relations with the Protestants caused him to be treated as a heretic.
In 1545 he went to Strasbourg, where he married. In 1548 he moved near his friend John Calvin; with his family he settled in Geneva, where he established a printing-press. In 1555 he received citizenship there. He died at Geneva in 1572.
In common with other printers and publishers of his time he also wrote and compiled books, most famously his martyrology, now popularly known as the Livre des Martyrs. This went through several editions between 1554 and 1570, under a variety of titles.
In addition, he is credited with:
This article incorporates text from a publication in the public domain: Jackson, Samuel Macauley, ed. (1914). New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (third ed.). London and New York: Funk and Wagnalls. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)