Meer dan drie eeuwen lang hebben Christoffel Plantin en zijn opvolgers de bedrijfsvoering van de Plantijnse drukkerij en hun persoonlijke levenssfeer uitvoerig gedocumenteerd. Daarom heeft UNESCO het Plantin-Moretusarchief erkend als ‘Memory of the World’.
Vertrekkend vanuit het archief blogt onze archivaris Kristof Selleslach zeswekelijks in het Engels over concrete belevenissen in de Gulden Passer. In deze verhalen worden de Moretussen en hun werknemers opnieuw mensen van vlees en bloed. De Engelstalige blogberichten verschijnen op het Medium-kanaal van het museum.
Nu te lezen
A New Year's gift for Plantin
The sample book made by Jan Moretus (1575)
The Moretus upheld the tradition of season's greetings. Jan Moretus presented his father-in-law Christopher Plantin bulky samplings of the Officina Plantiniana's printed matter as a New Year's gift. We only know some Plantin imprints because they were included in the sample books.
The feast of Saint Luke
Celebration of the patron saint at the Plantin Press
For the Plantin Press the name day of Luke the Evangelist (18 October) was a very special Christian holiday. The printing presses were stopped for the entire day. The printers and typesetters were required to attend the solemn mass in honour of the patron saint at the cathedral. The proofreaders organized a banquet for which they had been saving up during the year.
A plastered printer
Alcohol abuse at the Plantin Press
Alcohol on the workfloor was a source of problems at the Plantin Press too. Multiple and repeated complaints about drunkenness notwithstanding, Andries d’Hondt was allowed to keep on working as a printer for many years. On the basis of the complaint book this blogpost recreates his intoxicated career.
Holiday reading with an ulterior motive
What does the content of a prize book tell us about young Melchior Moretus?
Latin schools stimulated competition between their pupils by awarding prize books after the exams. At the beginning of the summer of 1674 young Melchior Moretus (1661–1693) also received a prize book. The unusual subject of the book comes somewhat as a surprise . Can its content reveal something about Melchior as a school boy?
Gerelateerd
De archieven van de Officina Plantiniana werden op 4 september 2001 door de Unesco opgenomen in het ‘Memory of the World’-register van het roerend cultureel werelderfgoed.
Het Plantin-Moretus archief bevat documenten vanaf het midden van de 16de eeuw tot 1865. Het is een papieren goudmijn en telt 1.382 registers, 990 bundels, 187 pakken en meer dan 1.385 stukken op perkament.
