Abstract

The Antwerp publisher Jan Moretus I inherited the Plantin Press upon Christophers Plantin’s death in 1589 and managed it successfully until his own death in 1610. Despite the efforts of some of his relatives and competitors to divide and weaken the Press, he was able to maintain the business as a whole and retain important privileges for the printing of the Bible and reformed liturgical texts that his father-in-law had previously obtained. He even succeeded in expanding the activities of the Press such that it became one of the largest in Europe once again. The archives of the Plantin Press provide scholars with an exceptional opportunity to understand much of what went on in the world of printing and publishing. Offering detailed information about contacts with authors, payments to the pressmen and to the artists for the illustration, as well as the subsequent distribution of the books, these documents, constitute a unique resource that attests to many facets of Jan Moretus’s management of his Press.