Plantin-Moretus Museum

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List

Library at the Plantin-Moretus Museum
Type Cultural
Criteria ii, iii, iv, vi
Reference 1185
UNESCO region Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription 2005 (29th Session)

The Plantin-Moretus Museum (Dutch: Plantin-Moretusmuseum) is a printing museum in Antwerp, Belgium which focuses on the work of the 16th century printers Christophe Plantin and Jan Moretus. It is located in their former residence and printing establishment, the Plantin Press, at the Vrijdagmarkt (Friday Market) in Antwerp and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005.

History

The printing company was founded in the 16th century by Christophe Plantin, who obtained type from the leading typefounders of the day in Paris.[1] Plantin was a major figure in contemporary printing with interests in humanism; his eight-volume, multi-language Plantin Polyglot Bible with Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Syriac texts was one of the most complex productions of the period.[2] Plantin's is now suspected of being at least connected to members of heretical groups known as the Familists, and this may have led him to spend time in exile in his native France.[3][4]

View of the courtyard of the museum

After Plantin's death it was owned by his son-in-law Jan Moretus. While most printing concerns disposed of their collections of older type in the eighteenth and nineteenth century in response to changing tastes, the Plantin-Moretus company "piously preserved the collection of its founder."[5][6][7]

In 1876 Edward Moretus sold the company to the city of Antwerp. One year later the public could visit the living areas and the printing presses. The collection has been used extensively for research, for example by historian Harry Carter.[8] His son Matthew would later describe his research as helping to demonstrate "that the finest collection of printing types made in typography's golden age was in perfect condition (some muddle aside) [along with] Plantin's accounts and inventories which names the cutters of his types."[9]

In 2002 the museum was nominated as UNESCO World Heritage Site and in 2005 was inscribed onto the World Heritage list.

The Plantin-Moretus Museum possesses an exceptional collection of typographical material.[10] Not only does it house the two oldest surviving printing presses in the world and complete sets of dies and matrices, it also has an extensive library, a richly decorated interior and the entire archives of the Plantin business, which were inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme Register in 2001 in recognition of their historical significance.[11]

Collection

Original printing presses at the museum

See also

References

  1. ↑ Uchelen, edited by Ton Croiset van; Dijstelberge, P. (2013). Dutch typography in the sixteenth century the collected works of Paul Valema Blouw. Leiden: Brill. p. 426. ISBN 9789004256552.
  2. ↑ "Harry Ransom Center Acquires Rare Plantin Polyglot Bible". University of Texas. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  3. ↑ Imhof, Karen L. Bowen, Dirk (2008). Christopher Plantin and engraved book illustrations in sixteenth-century Europe (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521852760.
  4. ↑ Harris, Jason (2004). The Low Countries as a crossroads of religious beliefs ([Online-Ausg.]. ed.). Leiden [u.a.]: Brill. ISBN 9789004122888.
  5. ↑ Mosley, James. "Caractères de l'Université". Type Foundry. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  6. ↑ Mosley, James. "Garamond or Garamont". Type Foundry blog. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  7. ↑ Warde, Beatrice (1926). "The 'Garamond' Types". The Fleuron: 131–179.
  8. ↑ Carter, Harry (2002). A view of early typography up to about 1600 (Reprinted ed.). London: Hyphen. ISBN 9780907259213.
  9. ↑ Drucker, Margaret Re ; essays by Johanna; Mosley, James (2003). Typographically speaking : the art of Matthew Carter (2. ed.). New York: Princeton Architectural. p. 33. ISBN 9781568984278.
  10. ↑ Mosley, James. "The materials of typefounding". Type Foundry. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  11. ↑ "Business Archives of the Officina Plantiniana". UNESCO Memory of the World Programme. 2008-05-15. Retrieved 2009-12-11.
  12. ↑ "The Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, Antwerpen".

Bibliography

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Coordinates: 51°13′06″N 4°23′53″E / 51.21833°N 4.39806°E / 51.21833; 4.39806

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