He was the second son of a knife maker from Langres in Champagne who had relocated to Berlin where he believed - correctly, as matters turned out - that there would be more possibilities for expanding his business than in small-town eastern France.
[1] He was able to afford a good education for his children: Peter attended Berlin' well-regarded Friedrichswerdersches Gymnasium [de] (secondary school) until he was 14.
[1] In a conscious move to prepare himself for work in the book trade, in his spare time he studied the history of literature, bibliography and encyclopaediae.
Two years later, having concluded his apprenticeship, but finding the opportunities in Braunschweig somewhat limited, he moved south to Basel where he worked with the "Deckersche Buchhandlung".
Meanwhile Humblot's friend, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Duncker, was running the publishing business built up by Heinrich Frölich.