Born in Paris, Henri-Jean Martin's initial professional position was that of ''conservateur'' in the ''réserve des imprimés'' of the Bibliothèque nationale, a position he held from 1947 to 1958. In 1958 he published his famous work, ''L'Apparition du Livre'' (''The Coming of the Book''), which he co-authored with the French historian Lucien Febvre. In 1962 he was named ''conservateur en chef'' of the Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon. With master printer Marius Audin he helped create Lyon's Musée de l’Imprimerie. In 1970 he left Lyon for Paris, and a chair of bibliography the history of the book at the École Nationale des Chartes, where he taught until 1993. In 1998 he was awarded the Gutenberg Prize of the International Gutenberg Society and the City of Mainz.
Henri-Jean Martin also taught at the École Nationale Supérieure des Bibliothèques (ENSB, in Paris, today the ''Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Science de l'Information et des Bibliothèques'' / ENSSIB in Lyon), and at the École pratique des hautes études where he served thirty years as a ''directeur des études'' in the ''IV° section''.