Main (Thompson) Library location: Class of '51 Reading Room. Sébastien Nivelle (c.1523 – 1603) was born in Troyes, France circa 1523 to the stationer Jean Nivelle. He first began work in Paris for the press of Charlotte Guillard, one of the first documented female printers, in 1549, and in the next year, he declared himself a printer and started a practice at the Sign of the Storks. There he worked alongside Guillaume Merlin and Guillaume Des Bois. In 1549, Nivelle printed his first independent book, Omnia opera of St. Ambrosius. This early work indicated his interest and determined the majority of his following publications, which included the works of prominent Church figures like Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Hieronymus. Nearly four hundred books could be attributed to Nivelle by his death in 1603. Nivelle's mark in the Vassar Library consists primarily of his initials, N.S., overlapping beneath a cross with two horizontal bars. On either side of the monogram are tiny spades. His full device, influenced by that of his partner Guillaume Merlin, includes a series of narratives illustrating filial piety, which appear as medallions in each other four corners of a rectangular woodcut. The center, enclosed by a fruit-bearing wreath, contains a depiction of a cityscape with two large storks flying through the upper plane. In some of his devices, Nivelle used biblical inscriptions.