Christophe-Jean-François Ballard

Christophe-Jean-François Ballard (Paris, c. 1701 – Paris, 5 September 1765) was a music printer in Ancien Régime France and the last member of his family to run the firm with real authority. His significance lies in the fact that he belonged to one of the longest-lived publishing dynasties in the French music trade, the Ballards, whose catalogue documents French musical taste over roughly two centuries.

Son of Jean-Baptiste-Christophe Ballard, he inherited the royal printing privilege on his father's death. He had been engaged in the book trade since 1741 and in printing since 1742 but, according to a police report, he was "lazy and without talent," and with him the fame and success of the firm faded. By then, printing privileges had ceased to be chiefly a sign of royal approval and had become a means of swelling the royal treasury. In 1762 a royal decree limited their validity to fifteen years, and in 1790 they were abolished.

The Ballards retained privileges that had grown ever emptier, continued to use lozenge-shaped noteheads and sixteenth-century-style historiated initials, and either would not or could not adapt to the times. A report by a commission of Parliament in 1764 asserted that the public had long been dissatisfied with Monsieur Ballard's music. After his death, his widow and then his son Pierre-Robert-Christophe, who died in 1812, kept the business going with great difficulty. In 1800 the house was listed as printer to the theatres of the Republic and to the arts. The last Ballard was his grandson, also named Christophe-Jean-François, who died in 1825.

The family enjoyed royal favour for generations: its members served as syndics of the guild of booksellers, royal counsellors, judges of the commercial court, administrators of charitable hospitals and commissioners of artillery. While the firm maintained its rigour, the quality of its printing was highly praised, and its editions form in themselves a history of French musical taste.