The Movable Type Used by Paul Perny in His Dictionnaire français-latin-chinois de la langue mandarine parlée and His Contribution to the Typography of the Chinese Script in France.

This article examines the challenges and advancements in printing Chinese characters alongside alphabetic scripts in 19th-century France, focusing on the French Catholic missionary Paul Perny’s 1869 *Dictionnaire français-latin-chinois de la langue mandarine parlée* (French-Latin-Chinese dictionary of the spoken Mandarin language). Perny’s dictionary marked a turning point due to its innovative use of small, high-quality Chinese typefaces—matrices acquired from the American Presbyterian Mission in Shanghai—that allowed sinograms to be printed at a size harmonious with Latin letters, enhancing legibility and typographic integration. The work emphasized modern spoken Mandarin and included extensive encyclopedic cultural information, distinguishing it from earlier dictionaries that focused on classical Chinese and used larger, less practical type. Perny’s typographic innovations influenced French printing practices, with the French National Printing Office incorporating his Chinese type matrices into their collection, reflecting broader 19th-century efforts by missionaries and typographers to adapt Western printing technology to Chinese script.