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De Gulden Passer. Jaargang 34 (1956)

De Gulden Passer. Jaargang 34

(1956)– [tijdschrift] Gulden Passer, De–rechtenstatus Auteursrechtelijk beschermd

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illustratie
Portrait of Christopher Plantin.
Engraving by H. Goltzius (in: J. Bochius, Epigrammata funebria ad Chr. Plantini manes. Antwerpiae, ex Officina Plantiniana, 1590).


The personality of Plantin
by Dr. L. Voet
Curator of the Plantin-Moretus Museum

When I took as my subject for this lecture the personality of Plantin, I hoped to gather new material and thus afford a new glimpse of the man Plantin. Finally, however, I was forced to conclude that my predecessors M. Rooses(1), M. Sabbe(2), Prof. H. Bouchery(3), A.J.J. Delen(4), and other specialists(5), had already exhausted this particular subject. All I can do, therefore, is to give an honest summary of their statements with only a few personal interpretations.

I have no intention of retracing here in detail the life and career of the greatest printer of the South Netherlands; a brief survey will suffice:

Christopher Plantin was born about 1520 in the heart of France, in Touraine, probably at Saint-Avertin. Having learnt the printing trade in Normandy, he came in 1549 to the Spanish Nether-

lands and settled in Antwerp, not as a printer, however, but as a bookbinder. It was only in 1555 that he switched from the making of bindings to the making of books. With the little Italian-French treatise on pedagogy by Giovanni Michele Bruto, La Institutione di una fanciulla nata nobilmente. L'Institution d'une fille de noble maison, Plantin started his new career. His officina came only slowly into life, most probably through lack of funds. In 1563, however, Plantin was able to set up a partnership with the aid of financial backers: his star began to rise. The outbreak of iconoclasm in 1566 and the subsequent repression by the Spanish government scattered Plantin's companions - but left him with a fully equipped plant, money and powerful friends. Through these friends - chief among whom were Cardinal Granvelle(1) and Gabriel de Çayas, Secretary to Philip II - he secured the protection of the Spanish king. In consequence, the period from 1568 to 1576 saw the zenith of the Plantinian house. Then came the rebellion of the Spanish mercenaries - the notorious ‘Spanish Fury’ of 4th November, 1576. Plantin's officina escaped destruction, but the ruin of Antwerp and the bitter struggle against Spain considerably hampered its activities. Once again life became very difficult. From 1583 to 1585 Plantin even left Antwerp for Leyden in Holland, but the taking of the former city by Alexander Farnese prompted his return. He continued to print on the banks of the Scheldt until his death on July 1st, 1589.

These are the principal milestones of Plantin's career. They make it clear that the typographer lived and worked in difficult times, but in the manner of a born diplomatist he steered an adroit, if at times somewhat unscrupulous, course through the political and religious pitfalls of this time!

He always proclaimed himself a good catholic, yet at the very beginning of his career we meet with heterodoxy. Either in Paris or shortly after his arrival in Antwerp, Plantin became an adherent of the ‘Family of Love’ (Huis der Liefde), a heterodox sect

founded by Henry Niclaes(1). The help of Henry Niclaes and his followers paved the way for the young and ambitious Frenchman(2). The commonly accepted version of why he switched from the craft of bookbinding to that of the printing office is that on an evening in 1555 he was attacked by some drunkards on the Meirbrug, severely wounded and left for dead. Plantin recovered from his wounds but was physically unable to continue as a bookbinder. So he became a book printer.

At all events this is the reason given by Plantin himself in the letter ‘aux prudens et experts maistres d'écolles, et tous autres qui s'employent à enseigner la langue françoise’, printed in his famous La première et la seconde partie des dialogues français pour ieunes enfans (1567), in which he says:

 
‘Vray est que de nature
 
J'ay aimé l'écriture
 
Des mots sentencieux:
 
Mais l'Alciate pierre
 
M'a retenu en terre,
 
Pour ne voler aux cieux.
 
Cela voyant, j'ay le mestier éleu,
 
Qui m'a nourri en liant des volumes.
 
L'estoc receu puis après m'a émeu
 
De les écrire à la presse sans plumes.’

The way in which he received a sword-thrust in the shoulder has also been set down in detail in other documents of later date, but originating in his family(3). But though the incident in itself may be true, it does not explain how the needy craftsman(4) could suddenly set up a plant, the establishment of which required a certain outlay of capital, although perhaps not a great deal.

And that explanation Plantin failed to give in his letter.....

Others have done it for him: in the Chronica des Hüsgesinnes der Lieften, the chronicle of the ‘Family of Love’ of Henry Niclaes, Plantin is stated to have obtained this money to print the works of that religious leader. Some doubt may be permitted, since the anonymous author of the Chronica never forgave Plantin for his later desertion from the Family of Love, when he joined the sect of Niclaes' rival, Henry Barrefelt, and he took delight in painting Plantin's actions in the darkest colours. But Professor Bouchery, in his interesting notes on Plantin's religious and political attitudes, has made it clear that there is every likelihood that the statement of the Chronica gives the bare truth(1).

To the various arguments put forward by Professor Bouchery we can add another: the first reference given to the incident which turned Plantin into a printer is, as we have already said, his own letter to the Antwerp schoolmasters, printed in the Dialogues françois of 1567 - that is to say 12 years after the facts, but precisely in the year that saw the arrival of the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands and the beginning of the great repression! This may be a matter of chance, but it seems more likely that Plantin was laying a smokescreen in order to prevent, or rather to provide in advance a ready answer to any too pertinent inquiries concerning his chequered career!

During the following years the religious attitude of Plantin continued to be rather dubious from an orthodox catholic point of view. He remained a member of the ‘Family of Love’ and, moreover, some of the merchants who were partners in the company he founded in 1563 were not merely heterodox but staunch Calvinists. Later on Plantin was to boast that he had broken with them because of their religious opinion, but this he did only in 1567, shortly before Alva's arrival! And after 1567 he remained in contact if not in close and friendly relations with his old associates(2).

Most of these details have been unearthed by historians from among the Plantin papers. But at that epoch the secret was sufficiently well kept to prevent Plantin from being unduly annoyed by

the authorities(1) or to alarm beyond measure his powerful friends and protectors among the Spanish party(2), but not well enough, however, to prevent his name from being included on the list of Calvinist suspects drawn up by Francisco Pays in 1567(3).

This was most dangerous, for in that same year the Duke of Alva began his systematic repression of heresy in the Netherlands.

And so the year 1567 became a year of great fear, not only for the Netherlands in general, but also for Plantin himself, since Professor Bouchery has irrefutably proved, by means of the Plantinian correspondence, that the intense fear and intense emotion to which the typographer was subjected in this fatal year almost led to a nervous breakdown. He literally bombarded his powerful friends - more especially Granvelle and de Çayas - with protestations of his fidelity to the Catholic faith, and of his great love of the Spanish king and Spanish rule.

In fact even more than his friendship with Calvinists and his relations with the ‘Family of Love’ could have been held against him; in 1566 Plantin had also actively aided the Calvinist rebels by founding at Vianen a clandestine Calvinist and anti-Spanish printing office. Plantin's head was at stake!

But his protestations were believed, and the affair of the printing-

press at Vianen was never thoroughly investigated. Through the intervention of Granvelle and de Çayas Plantin was able to win the support of King Philip for his great dream, the Polyglot Bible. The danger passed(1).

Personally I believe that we can go a step further, and say that the idea of the publication of the Polyglot Bible was purposely put forward by Plantin to pour oil on the troubled waters and to regain the goodwill of the Spanish party; it cannot be just by chance that he began his transactions with Philip II in December 1566, when the riots following the iconoclastic outbreak had nearly been quelled, and that in the letters which were intended to prove Plantin's adherence to the Catholic faith and his affection for the Spaniards there should occur as a constant refrain the question of the Polyglot Bible(2). The bait was swallowed - and sure now of Philip's protection, Plantin could breathe a sigh of relief. I think we may safely assume that this colossal Polyglot Bible, which after four centuries remains Plantin's chief glory, saved at the same time both his printing office and his head!

From 1568 until 1576 Plantin conscientiously followed the Spanish track, but when, after the explosion of the Spanish Fury, the city of Antwerp joined the rebels, he again stepped over the bounds. But he would not have been Plantin if he had not tried to keep open a backdoor leading to his Spanish friends. He flirted with the leaders of the revolt - with Prince William of Orange; with the Archduke Mathias of Austria; with François, Duke of Alençon and Anjou; he became the official printer of the States General, the leading organizers of the revolt; he became an intimate friend of Henry Janssens Barrefelt, the successor to and rival of Henry Niclaes(1). But he never abjured King Philip; he printed the most compromising political and religious pamphlets under false addresses or under the names of friends and relatives; he remained still in quite close relations with his Spanish friends, insisting as always upon his Catholic faith and loyalty to Spain, and trying to explain in psychologically interesting, but not always very convincing, letters some of his more outrageous transgressions.

And so, when in 1585 the revolt was finally crushed in the Southern provinces, Plantin was able to return unmolested to Antwerp, and continue to work in peace until his death(2).

So far as we can judge him, Plantin was an ambitious man who loved above everything the printing establishment he had built up from nothing until it was the best equipped office of his time. He started his printing career in 1555 ‘esperant mieus’(3); when, at

the end of his life, his officina declined, he would end many a letter with the melancholy phrase: ‘D'Anvers, en nostre jadis florissante et ores flaitrissante Imprimerie’(1). Many, if not most, of his acts are to be viewed in the light of this facet of his personality.

And in this light also his correspondence must be read. It sounds perhaps disrespectful from a Curator of the Plantin-Moretus Museum, but I must confess that I do not accept literally all that Plantin wrote during his lifetime! Remember always that he was a businessman living in difficult times when one false step could cost a man his head and his fortune! Generations of historians have expressed sympathy for poor Plantin, engaged in an everlasting struggle with his creditors, his ruin precipitated by the Spanish king who did not fulfil his promises of financial help. I do not deny that Plantin had his share - and a very large share - of financial troubles(2), but where is the businessman, in any age, who has ever admitted to his creditors that his business was flourishing?(3) The very man who towards the end of his life begged

alms of 1,000 florins(1) left at his death a sizeable fortune evaluated at 135,000 florins(2), that is to say the equivalent of some millions of Belgian francs(3). Therefore the correspondence of Plantin should always be read very critically and should be cheked wherever possible by the diaries and account books.

Some instances of Plantin's tampering with the truth have already been given in this paper; many others are to be found in the studies of M. Rooses and Professor Pouchery, while Professor De Roover has indicated others(4). I would like to add to this list one further item, since it has found its place in economic history. In November, 1572, Plantin wrote to his protector, de Çayas, that three months previously his men, taking advantage of the fact that he had on hand an urgent order for the printing of missals and breviaries

for the Spanish king, went on strike; that he chased them all from his house, making believe that he was going to give up his business, and that finally they resumed their jobs(1). This has been cited as an example of strikes and lock-outs in the Netherlands of the 16th century(2). The pay-books of Plantin show indeed that in the months of September, October, and November of that same year some of his printers and compositors must have been absent - but far from all! And one curious fact remains; the men who went on the so-called ‘strike’ did this at the end of August, at the time when news must have reached Antwerp of the great slaughter of the French Huguenots on Saint Bartholomew's Eve, destroying the Calvinist hopes of a general rising of the Netherlands against Spain, and promising new repressive measures and more troubles in that country(3). I think we may safely assume that the story told to de

Çayas covers some affair in which purely economic problems were solidly mixed up with political and religious considerations, and that those do not at all agree with the explanation given to the secretary of Philip II(1).

It is possible, as Plantin says in his letters, that the initiative had been taken by his workmen, but the economic situation in general, and that of Plantin in particular(2), being far from brilliant at the moment, it seems likely that the strike must have been an outburst of political ill-temper rather than the formulating of financial aspirations: an explosion of indignation at the news of the Saint Bartholomew massacres on the part of men won over to the new ideas yet forced to work on ‘papist’ editions for the Spanish ‘bloodhounds’ (and perhaps a reaction by Plantin, dismissing his men for fear that this might get to the ears of the Spanish authorities and lead to reprisals). More probably, however, it was an instance of some manoeuvre on the part of Plantin himself; his Polyglot Bible and his committments in printing breviaries, missals and other liturgical works for the account of the King of Spain had stretched his financial resources and possibilities to the utmost limits. In consequence, the prospect of new and even graver political troubles must have been a source of much anxiety to the printer, and possibly to such an extent that he considered it wiser to reduce temporarily the activity of his officina and wait to see what the future would bring(3).

So we can envisage Plantin as a clever businessman who struggled in a manner not always over-scrupulous through the political and religious strife of his time. But we must also take into account other considerations when judging his personality and his acts. First of all he was, and remained, a Frenchman. If he seems to have loved Antwerp, he had no special patriotic interests in the affairs of the Netherlands. He could judge with serenity the different political parties - and take the best of it, to his own profit.

As for his religious convictions, we take it for granted, with Professor Bouchery and Professor de la Fontaine Verwey, that Plantin was a deeply religious man whose life and character had been conditioned by the doctrine of the ‘Family of Love’ and of the Barrefeltists. In this heterodox sect, religious dogma and cult were superseded by ‘Charity’, by the love of God. According to the teachings of both Henry Niclaes and Henry Barrefelt, one could be a good Catholic or a good Protestant and still be a member of the ‘Family of Love’, if one only loved God and mankind and did not try to force one's own views upon others(1). Such were Plantin's own views, and he expressed them in many letters.

In March, 1569, he wrote to Cardinal Granvelle: ‘En ce temps qui nous est fort rude.... Dieu, par sa grâce, veuille incliner le cueur du Roy et de son Magistrat à miséricorde et clémence vers son pauvre peuple, qui veut recognoistre ses fautes, et ne perdre pas les bons et respentants avec les rebelles et opiniastres’ - dangerous words in a dangerous time!(1)

In November, 1571, he admonished his son-in-law, Jean Gassen, thus: ‘nous entremectre de vouloir rien changer aux affaires d'autruy, si ce ne fût par conseil et du consentement d'iceux en toute équité’; peace of mind one can only have when one possesses ‘une bonne, douce et patiente humilité de coeur, mère seule de tous biens et dons de Dieu, nourice de toutes vertus divines et vray lieu

d'amitié, concorde, paix et union avec les bons, et le seul refuge, force, armes, victoire et vengeance (si besoing est) à l'encontre des mauvais et de tous ceux qui, d'ung coeur hautain, braveté de courage, malicieuse, sotte, fine ou cauteleuse nature, voudroyent dominer, suppéditer, ou abastardir les autres’(1). In July, 1567, in a letter to a member of the ‘Family of Love’, he again raises his voice against the persecution of those who hold other opinions: ‘Ce quoy faisant tous (disons nous) avons assés à quoy nous employer sans s'amuser à partialiser et reprocher des malfaictures et fourvoyement des autres, si non en tant que l'office de fraternelle correction et instruction de la Charité le comporte à l'émendation du prochain et acquisition des âmes à nostre Dieu et Père’(2).

Out of all this(3) Plantin emerges as a morally upright, modest, unpretentious(4) and deeply religious man, yet a man, nevertheless who considered it to be his duty to respect the opinion of others; a tolerant man in an intolerant age.

This aspect of Plantin's personality throws another and brighter light on many of the acts and deeds of the businessman. In honour and conscience he could proclaim himself a good Catholic, remain a member of a heterodox sect, and be friends with men of varying religious opinions. He was a Humanist in the full sense of the word.

And this the Plantin correspondence also reveals: though he was a cautious man, always waiting to see which way the wind would blow, he never became a traitor. He loved his business and enjoyed success, but not to the point of sacrificing others for it. Not even in 1567, the great year of fear, did he seek a scapegoat in order that he himself might escape the danger.

The enthusiastic judgment of that other great humanist, Arias Montanus, seems to have been in no way exaggerated when the chaplain of Philip II wrote to de Çayas: ‘Never have I seen a man who allied greater ability to more goodness and to a keener concep-

tion of virtue and the exercise of it. Each day I find in him things which move me to praise God, and above all the great humility and incredible patience he shows in face of the envy of his colleagues, to whom, though he could with much justification do harm, he has never ceased to do good.’ And in another place: ‘This is no fleshly man; he is all spirit. He gives no thought to food, drink, or repose. He lives for his work.’(1).

But Plantin himself was to give the best summary of his philosophy, his life, and his personality when, some time before his death he wrote on the draft of a letter: ‘Un labeur courageux muni d'humble constance résiste à tous assauts par douce pacience’(2).


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