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The dying Seneca

As a humanist, Balthasar I Moretus was a great admirer of Seneca. He commissioned a painting by Rubens of the Roman rhetorician. The suspicious emperor Nero compelled Seneca to commit suicide in 65 AD.

Rubens, design of printer's mark

As well as painting for Balthasar I Moretus, Rubens also designed printer’s marks. This design was used for the title page of the second volume of the Opera omnia, (collected works) of the humanist Justus Lipsius.

Rosewood curio cabinet

The museum has a rich collection of antique furniture. The rosewood and ebony curio cabinet definitely belonged to the Moretus family. The cabinet is supported by four Moors – a learned allusion to the name Moretus.

The entry of Charles V into Bologna

This print from 1530 shows the triumphal entry of Charles V into Bologna. He was crowned as Holy Roman Emperor there. The artist Robert Péril provided an eyewitness account in this print.

Map of Antwerp

This famous woodcut by Virgilius Bononiensis shows Antwerp in 1565. Bononiensis – or Boloniensis – may have been an Italian from Bologna. The rich trading city of Antwerp attracted many Europeans in the 16th century.

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.

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