This article devoted to one of the founding fathers of the new history of the book, Henri-Jean Martin looks back at both the origins of the Histoire de l’édition française and the entire work of the man who, along with Roger Chartier and Jean-Pierre Vivet, directed it. The latter was a publisher and journalist and the least known of this rather unusual trio. By presenting a kind of archaeology revealing this momentous history of the book and of publishing, the article encourages the reader to understand the often-hidden mechanisms of what can be described as “social order”. The second part of this study is devoted to the rest of the work and action of a historian with a passion for the world of books, from antiquity to the present day.