Search

Manuscripts

The museum’s collection includes 638 manuscripts, ranging from the ninth to the eighteenth century. The basis of the collection was laid by Christophe Plantin himself: he bought manuscripts that he could use to make book editions of Greek and Roman authors and church fathers. Plantin was also given manuscripts.

Carmen Paschale by Sedulius (860 AD)

The oldest manuscript in the Museum Plantin-Moretus is a 9th-century gem by the author Caulius Sedulius. This manuscript was created in around 860 in a Liège scriptorium. Christophe Plantin inherited it in 1581.

Froissart's Chronicles

Jean Froissart was an historian of the 14th century who wrote in French. This copy of his Chronicles is a fine example of Flemish miniature art in the Middle Ages. The Chronicles are an important source of information about the Hundred Years War.

The Wenceslas Bible

The Wenceslas Bible is a two-volume manuscript of the text of the Bible, produced in 1402 and 1403. This luxury manuscript with its stunning ornamentation was commissioned by Conrad of Vechta, mint master of King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia. The two volumes were acquired in or after 1805. They are the finest examples of illuminated manuscripts in the collection formed by Plantin and the Moretus family.

The 36-line Gutenberg Bible

The 36-line Bible is a monument in the history of printing. The Augustinian monastery of Nuremberg donated this copy in 1514 to its new sister institution in Antwerp. When that monastery was closed in 1522 because of Lutheran sympathies, the Bible was put on the market. Nobody knows how it then ended up in Plantin’s library.

Octo missae

The Octo missae contains eight Mass settings by the Antwerp composer Georges de la Hèle. This monumental work was the first musical work to be printed by the Officina Plantiniana, in 1578.

Gerard Mercator, map of Flanders

The geographer Gerard Mercator revolutionised cartography. This map is a surprisingly accurate representation of the county of Flanders in 1540.

Who was Christophe Plantin?

Christophe Plantin was an intellectual with a nose for business. Shortly before 1550 he moved from France to Antwerp. Five years later, he started his own printing works. He developed his printing office into the world’s largest such business.

Jan I Moretus

Jan Moerentorf worked his way up from bookshop assistant to Plantin’s right-hand man. A polyglot and autodidact, he latinised his name as ‘Moretus’. After Plantin’s death in 1589, he ran the Officina Plantiniana until 1610. The printing business kept its position as the leading book supplier of the Counter Reformation.

Balthasar I Moretus

Balthasar I Moretus cultivated close ties with Spain. As a result, the Officina Plantiniana’s export business to Spain and its overseas territories flourished once again. His luxury editions commanded respect throughout Europe.

Inhoudstype

Subscribe to our newsletter