One Long Line
From one printing press to the next, one line runs through the centuries.
Why this image
An old wooden hand press stands at a window, and from it a long band of metal type pours over the sill, down the wall and into the street, where it becomes a winding river running through the town into the distance. In April 1583 Christophe Plantin set up his printing house on the Breestraat; when he left in 1585 his son-in-law Raphelengius took it over 3. On 17 May 1683 Jordaan Luchtmans set up as bookseller and publisher, and in 1848 Evert Jan Brill took the firm over 2. Brill's antiquarian shop on the Nieuwe Rijn carried three hundred years of memory 4, and Brill today stands on the Plantijnstraat: in Leiden it is one long line 1.
What it draws on · 4
Plantijnstraat
Brill still exists and is still in Leiden, these days on the Plantijnstraat — a street carrying the name of Christophe Plantin. From the press that began on the Breestraat in 1583 and would cut the city's first Arabic types there, to the publisher that made the Encyclopaedia of Islam: in Leiden it is one long line.
Sources · 2
- Nederlandstalige Wikipedia — Koninklijke Brill NV: huidig adres Plantijnstraat 2, Leiden
- John A. Lane — 'The Arabic type specimen of Franciscus Raphelengius's Plantinian printing office (1595)'
van Luchtmans tot Brill
On 17 May 1683 Jordaan Luchtmans set up in Leiden as an independent bookseller and publisher; in 1697 he opened a bookshop and publishing house on the Rapenburg. By 1848 no one of the Luchtmans family wished to take the firm on any longer, and Evert Jan Brill — who had worked there for years — took it over. From 1 July 1848 the firm was called E.J. Brill.
Sources · 3
- Nederlandstalige Wikipedia — Koninklijke Brill NV
- Allard Pierson (UvA) — Archief van Uitgeverij Brill
- G/Geschiedenis — '333 jaar Uitgeverij Brill'
Huis Assendelft
At the end of April 1583 Christophe Plantin settled in Leiden: he bought the large Huis Assendelft complex on the Breestraat, at the corner of the Vrouwensteeg, and set up his printing house there. He was appointed printer to the university. Plantin stayed only two years; when he left in 1585 his son-in-law Franciscus Raphelengius took the business over. A plaque on the building commemorates Plantinus and Raphelengius.
Sources · 3
- Amsterdam University Press — 'Christoffel Plantijn in Leiden (1583-1585)'
- Erfgoed Leiden en Omstreken — Verhalen: 'Plaquette Plantinus en Raphelengius'
- Nederlandstalige Wikipedia — Christoffel Plantijn
de boekhandel
E.J. Brill's antiquarian bookshop stood on the Nieuwe Rijn from 1948. The business itself is far older: it goes back to 1848, when Evert Jan Brill took over the Leiden bookselling and publishing firm of Luchtmans, a house that had existed since 1683. Anyone looking here for books on Islam, Arabic or the Ottoman Empire came to a shop with three hundred years of memory.
Sources · 2
- Leiden University Libraries — Collection Guides: Archive of Smitskamp's 'Het Oosters Antiquarium' (ubl131): antiquariaat aan de Nieuwe Rijn sinds 1948, geschiedenis vanaf 1848 en Luchtmans 1683
- Allard Pierson (UvA) — Archief van Uitgeverij Brill
Shares its places with · 3
Own the LettersRaphelengius and Arabic Printing · Brill Publishing House and Printing Press
The BequestFormer E.J. Brill Bookstore
Half SailedFormer E.J. Brill Bookstore
Painted with an image model from the facts on this page, and chosen by hand. City in Motion.