The son of a printer and bookshop owner, Auguste Bernard (1811–1868) quit his studies at the age of seventeen to become a typographer at the Parisian printing house of Firmin Didot, before becoming an editor with the royal printer. Bernard spent his leisure time collecting documents on the history of the people and customs of the ancient province of Forez (roughly, the area of the Loire valley). He is best known for his histories of typography and printing in France and Europe, his most celebrated work being his biography of Geoffroy Tory, the first French royal printer. He published in 1853 this collection in two volumes, containing the first printed transcriptions of the medieval charters of the Abbey of Savigny in northern France and the Abbey of Ainay in Lyon. Volume 1 contains the charters of the Abbey of Savigny, founded in the twelfth century.