Plantin-Moretus Museum

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List
Type	Cultural
Criteria	ii, iii, iv, vi
Reference	1185
UNESCO region	Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription	2005 (29th Session)

The Plantin-Moretus Museum is a museum in Antwerp, Belgium honouring the famous printers Christophe Plantin and Jan Moretus. It is located in their former residence and printing establishment, Plantin Press, at the Friday Market.

History

The printing company was founded in the 16th century by Christophe Plantin. After his death it was owned by his son-in-law Jan Moretus.

In 1876 Edward Moretus sold the company to the city of Antwerp. One year later the public could visit the living areas and the printing presses. In 2002 the museum was nominated as UNESCO World Heritage Site and in 2005 it was inscribed onto the World Heritage list.

The Plantin-Moretus Museum possesses an exceptional collection of typographical material. Not only does it house the two oldest surviving printing presses in the world and complete sets of dies and matrices, it also has an extensive library, a richly decorated interior and the entire archives of the Plantin business, which were inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme Register in 2001 in recognition of their historical significance.^[1]

Collection

Title page of an edition of Rembert Dodoens Cruydt-Boeck edited by Jan Moretus.

• a Bible in five languages: Biblia Polyglotta (1568-1573)
• Thesaurus Teutoniae Linguae by Cornelis Kiliaan
• a geographical book: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum made by Abraham Ortelius
• a book describing herbs: Cruydeboeck made by Rembert Dodoens
• an anatomical book made by Andreas Vesalius and Joannes Valverde
• a book about decimal numbers from Simon Stevin
• a 36-line Bible
• paintings and drawings by Peter Paul Rubens
• the study of humanist Justus Lipsius and many of his works^[2]

See also

• Max Rooses

References

1. ↑ "Business Archives of the Officina Plantiniana". UNESCO Memory of the World Programme. 2008-05-15. Retrieved 2009-12-11. 
2. ↑ "The Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, Antwerpen". 

Bibliography

• Voet, Leon (1969), The golden compass: a history and evaluation of the printing and publishing activities of the Officina Plantiniana at Antwerp. Vol. 1, Christopher Plantin and the Moretuses: their lives and their world, Amsterdam: Vangendt & Co. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, ISBN 0710064667 
• Voet, Leon and Kaye, Raymond H. (1972), The golden compass: a history and evaluation of the printing and publishing activities of the Officina Plantiniana at Antwerp. Vol.2 The management of a printing and publishing house in Renaissance and Baroque, Amsterdam: Vangendt & Co. London: Routledge & KeganPaul, ISBN 0839000049 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Museum Plantin-Moretus.

• Museum Plantin-Moretus
• Pictures from the museum
• De Vinne, Theodore Low (1888). "A printer's paradise, the Plantin-Moretus Museum at Antwerp". De Vinne Press via Internet Archive. Retrieved 2009-11-14. 
• A review of the Plantin-Moretus Museum

v t e World Heritage Sites in Belgium Brussels Grand Place Major Town Houses of the Architect Victor Horta Stoclet House Flanders Belfries of Belgium and France1 Bruges (historic centre) Flemish Béguinages Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex Wallonia Belfries of Belgium and France1 Four Lifts on the Canal du Centre Neolithic flint mines at Spiennes Notre-Dame Cathedral of Tournai Major Mining Sites of Wallonia 1 Shared locally with other regions and with France

Coordinates: 51°13′06″N 4°23′53″E / 51.21833°N 4.39806°E / 51.21833; 4.39806