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Unlike other trades, people in the book trade have left numerous products. Their inventory permits to identify the shops and workshops activity. Historical sources also permit to know the framework in which the book world lives and functions. This article examines the documents relevant to a part of this framework: the oversight and solidarity patterns characteristic of the book trades in sixteenth-century Paris. The University oversight set Paris apart from the other main print cities, Lyons and Rouen. When studied in terms of censorship, this oversight has other facets: the control of the book and manuscript people—some of them university officers—, the defence of the franchise of trades, the opposition to monopolies. The actions of the royal power, who progressively controlled the trades, are known regarding censorship in response to religious disturbances, the organization and control of the trades. But further studies are needed on privileges and monopolies, the charges of printer to the king and the circulation of official documents. A latent sixteenth-century royal project, the incorporation, is mentioned. As to the inner organization of the trades, three structures are presented: the group of 24 University libraires jurés, the trustee of the booksellers and printers and his assistants, the trade parish: the Confrérie Saint Jean-l’Évangéliste. Finally, this writer suggests some lines of research on the subject.