This month's World Heritage Site

The Plantin-Moretus Museum
An Authentic Early Printer’s Workshop
 by Toni Dabbs

The Plantin-Moretus Museum is the only fully equipped printing workshop and publishing house dating from the Renaissance and Baroque Period. It includes both the business and home of a family that occupied the building from 1576 until 1876.

Plantin

The museum’s story begins with Christophe Plantin, a French bookbinder and leather craftsman, who immigrated to Belgium in 1550. Plantin had ambitions to become a printer, so he settled in the city of Antwerp, which had been known as a center for printing since 1481 (Gutenberg devised the means of printing with movable type in 1440).

By 1555, Plantin had the necessary capital to enter the printing trade. He called his new business De Gulden Passer (The Golden Compass), using the compass as his logo and a symbol of his motto: labore et constantia (work and tenacity). By living up to this motto, Plantin became one of the most respected printers in the world.

Between 1568 and 1573, he completed his masterpiece, Biblia Regia, the largest polyglot (multilingual) bible produced in the 16th century and the biggest typographical undertaking by a single printer in the Low Countries. Comprising eight folio volumes plus extensive commentaries and dictionaries, it was printed in five languages.

The project marked the pinnacle of Plantin’s career, and his workshop flourished. Now known as Officina Plantiniana, his business had 16 printing presses and employed 80 people, making it the largest combination printer, publisher and bookshop of its time, with an international clientele from as far away as the Americas, North Africa and the Far East.

On average, Plantin produced 72 editions per year over the course of his career, making him the first industrial printer in history. The quality of his work, which focused primarily on religious and human interest subjects, was always high.

Moretus

Plantin’s son-in-law, Johann Moretus, joined the business and worked alongside Plantin until the company founder’s death in 1589. He and succeeding Moretuses are credited with continuing to operate the business at the high standard established by Plantin.

The museum as it is today is mainly the result of improvements introduced by Plantin’s grandson (Johann Moretus’s son) and most important successor, Balthasar Moretus. Balthasar Moretus is especially noted for commissioning illustrations by Rubens.

Already prosperous, the Moretuses arranged good marriages and business deals that eventually made them financially independent of Officina Plantiniana. Nonetheless, they took good care of the old Plantin Press and its associated treasures.

When Edward Moretus finally closed the business in 1876, he turned over the grounds, buildings and contents to the city of Antwerp, ensuring that the beloved family estate would remain intact. As a result, the Plantin-Moretus Museum opened to the public on August 19, 1877.

Museum

Located at 22 Vrijdagmarkt in the historic center of Antwerp, the Plantin-Moretus Museum contains original and fully equipped workshops, the likes of which can be found nowhere else.

Highlights of the collection are the two oldest preserved printing presses in the world, dating from approximately 1600. In addition, there are five Blaeu type wooden presses from the 17th and 18th centuries and a press for intaglio printing from 1714.

Contents of the type foundry are unequaled, with 278 molds, 4.477 punches and 15,825 matrices capable of producing around 80 different letter types, including Greek, Hebrew, Syrian and Ethiopian. Among illustration materials are 650 drawings, 2,846 copper plates and 13,791 wood blocks.

The extensive private library holds not only the most complete single collection of Plantin and Moretus publications but also such rarities as a 36-line Gutenberg Bible printed in Bamberg before 1461 with material that belonged to Gutenberg and possibly under his supervision.

Sumptuous family living quarters also are open to view. They feature original antique furnishings, gilded leather walls, Audenaerde and Brussels tapestries, and works by Rubens, Quellin, Van Mildert, Verbrugghen and other artists.

Because of its association with ideas, technologies, and literary and artistic works of universal significance, the Plantin-Moretus Museum was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.

Toni Dabs is frequent contributor to The Cultured Traveler.

British Columbia travel writer Toni Dabbs is a regular contributor to The Cultured Traveler.