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Collection online

Digitisation is central to the management of the Museum Plantin-Moretus’ extensive collection. Using the online search modules, you can search our digital databases. In this way, you can reserve books, documents, drawings or prints that you wish to consult in the reading room.

The world's two oldest printing presses

Printing led to a huge increase in the speed of communication. The two oldest printing presses in the world bear witness to this process. They were built around 1600, and can be admired in the Museum Plantin-Moretus, more than four centuries later.

Abraham Ortelius - Rockox house

Under the spell of Classical Antiquity

24.04.2015 - 16.08.2015 | This exhibition ran at Rockox House. It mainly featured items from the Plantin-Moretus Museum collection. Ortelius published the first world atlas in 1570. From 1579, Plantin printed this atlas, with Ortelius as the publisher.

The City Park

There are many traces of the Moretus family near the City Park. This district was built around 1870, and the city bought a lot of land from the Moretus-Della Faille family there. The current police station, Plantin en Moretuslei, the Plantin metro station: they are all linked to the family.

From the Print Cabinet's depot

Every quarter, the Print Cabinet shows a changing selection, based on a theme relevant to the season.

Scientific research and manuscript dating

The Museum Plantin-Moretus collaborates with the University of Leuven in scientific research into its rich collection of medieval manuscripts. Thanks to the work of Lieve Watteeuw and Catherine Reynolds of the research centre Illuminare, we now know with greater certainty when the manuscripts were produced, and by whom.

RICH research project

Reflectance Imaging for Cultural Heritage

The Museum Plantin-Moretus is a partner in the Leuven research project RICH, short for ‘Reflectance Imaging for Cultural Heritage’. Prof. Lieve Watteeuw of the Illuminare research centre and digital imaging expert Bruno Vandermeulen are working together to digitise the Museum’s bookbindings, prints and miniatures optimally.

The Magic of Type Design

10.09.2011 - 02.10.2011 | In The Magic of Type Design: from Sketch to Digital Letter, young designers exhibited their typefaces in the Museum. All of them were attending the Expert Classes at the Plantin Institute. The designers investigated the different structures of letters and the associated typographic conventions.

Inside and outside

In Inside and Outside, book designers and typeface designers exhibited their projects from start to finish – from the sketches to the digital end product. On display were not just designs but also finished projects, digitally printed books and new letters and fonts.

Magisterial

The exhibition 'Magisterial. Masters of the Plantin Society (1951 - 1974)' marked the 55th anniversary of the Plantin Society. From the time of its foundation in 1951, the Society has sought to improve the aesthetics of typography and expertise in printing. This exhibition showed the work of teachers from the period 1951 to 1974.