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The Golden Compasses (1969-1972)

The Golden Compasses

(1969-1972)–Leon Voet–rechtenstatus Auteursrechtelijk beschermd

The History of the House of Plantin-Moretus


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Introductory

Chapter 1
Records and Accounts1.

In about 1556, in connexion with a delivery to a customer, Plantin noted in passing that he had not kept his account-books for 1553, 1554, and 1555, implying that he could not verify this particular bill.2. The young printer does not seem to have learnt his lesson immediately. He still managed to lose some of his ledgers and account notes,3. but, nevertheless, from this time on he began to be generally more careful with such records.

Plantin started a grand livre in 1555 in which transactions for a particular period were arranged according to the individual or body concerned.4. Probably at the same time he began a journal in which he entered daily sales (and purchases, where appropriate) of books, in the chronological order in which the transactions were made. These journals, however, are preserved only from 1558 onwards.5. Plantin also kept note of various other receipts and expenditures in separate registers,6. but entries in these were much abbreviated, tended to be careless, and are presumably far from complete.

All this changed at the end of 1563 when Plantin went into partnership with Cornelis van Bomberghen and other members of that family. Until the partnership was dissolved in 1567 its book-keeping was exemplary.1.

The partners started a Giornale della Stampa2. and a Libro della Stampa or ledger,3. and kept them, in Italian, according to the principles set out by Luca Paciolo in the first printed treatise on double-entry book-keeping (Venice, 1494). In these books all the transactions of the partnership were entered, giving a clear picture of its activities.

The book-keeper, either Cornelis van Bomberghen himself or a clerk in his service, made up his accounts from entries which Plantin kept in a series of registers: his journal des affaires (purchases of equipment, paper, etc., sales, receipts and expenditures4.), the grand livre des affaires (which contained practically the same information but concentrated under fewer headings5.), a livre des ouvriers (the wages of the pressmen, compositors, proof-readers, illustrators, etc.6.), a livre des libraires et autres (for business with booksellers and private customers not conducted through the shop7.), a livre des ventes à la boutique,8. a

journal de C. Plantin (with the livre des ustensiles and entries of various transactions1.), and a livre des relieurs.2.

These various records made it possible to calculate and enter up the production costs of every book printed.3. This represented a form of industrial book-keeping and cost accounting practically unique in pre-nineteenth-century Europe.4.

The dissolution of the partnership in 1567 meant an end to this refined double-entry book-keeping according to Paciolo's precepts. Historians of accountancy have expressed some surprise at this return to a less perfect system and have assumed that Plantin did not grasp the full scope and potential of double entry. This was probably partly the case, but there is no doubt that there were also practical considerations. Keeping the accounts by the double-entry method, as in 1563-67, demanded a great deal of time and the Giornale della Stampa and the Libro della Stampa required the services of an expert. There was good reason for it in a joint enterprise where it was necessary for the partners to be able to know at short notice what their assets and liabilities were, what profits they could expect to make, or what losses they would have to help cover. Once Plantin was independent again there was no longer any need for him to go to so much trouble. His records of his main transactions, incomings, and outgoings were sufficient to show him whether he was making a profit or a loss, without the extra labour involved in double entry of all this information. Plantin's successors were of the same opinion and the fairly rudimentary method of accounting to which he returned was to remain practically unchanged until the end of the officina in the nineteenth century.

The journal5. and the grand livre6. remained the basis of the system, without the balancing and other refinements which had characterized the 1563-67 period, but they were more accurately kept than before

1562. Most transactions continued to be entered up in chronological order in the journals.1. Whenever the extent of the transactions in hand or the needs of the moment required it, special ledgers were started. Thus there was one for dealings with the booksellers (this might be further divided into ledgers for the libraires d'Anvers and libraires étrangers), another for business conducted with people other than booksellers, or for some other special category.2. Particulars were sometimes extracted from these ledgers and entered in separate books.3. Plantin also continued some of the registers he had had to keep during the partnership and which he had found valuable (some of these had actually been started before 1563). They included livres des ventes à la boutique, livres des ouvriers, livres des relieurs, and cahiers de Francfort. He also initiated livres de caisse in which cash receipts and payments were entered.4. Such registers were preserved very carefully from 1567 onwards, although this does not mean that there are no gaps. Hiatuses in the record are particularly apparent in three categories of business: the affairs of the branches at Paris and Leiden (the accounts probably remained in those cities and were later lost); the Frankfurt Fairs, where the same thing must have happened;5. and the activities of the firm in the nineteenth century (presumably a number of the registers were still of practical use and were therefore retained by Edward Moretus when he handed over the Plantin House to the City of Antwerp in 1876).6. Why so few livres des ventes à la boutique should have survived is less clear.7.

Besides these regular accounts, Plantin and his successors preserved many other papers which record their activities. The information

they provide may also appear, wholly or in part, in the account-books, or it may be kept entirely separate. Such documents include letters, bills, receipts, IOUs, notes of deliveries of paper and other materials, inventories of printed books and stocks of paper, ‘privileges’ granted by the authorities for printing books, proofs, insurance and customs declarations, as well as more intimate items such as last wills and testaments, and accounts for personal purchases. Part of this record was in the form of registers, part in loose sheets of paper or parchment put into files and stored in chests and trunks. All this material was sorted out with some care, either at the time of the transfer of the house to the municipality,1. or afterwards by the director Max Rooses, and assembled and bound.

Naturally it was in this part of the Plantinian archives, consisting as they did of piles of loose sheets of paper, that the greatest losses must have been sustained. In many cases chance alone must have decided what went into the waste paper basket and what was preserved for posterity, although the volume of material that has survived gives the reader the impression that the almost obsessive care of Plantin and the Moretuses for their documents prevented much from being thrown away.

The business, its spheres of operation2.

The masters of the Gulden Passer were at the same time printers, publishers, and booksellers. As booksellers they sold not only their own products, but also those of other printers, both native and foreign.

The Officina Plantiniana functioned for more than three hundred years and in the course of this long period it repeatedly had to adapt to changing circumstances. This is reflected in changes within the firm in the relative importance of its printing, publishing, and selling activities.

In about 1650 the Moretuses began to specialize almost exclusively in service books for the Spanish market, and henceforth they acted mainly as the publishers of what they printed on their own presses. Their retail trade contracted and was similarly restricted largely to the sale of their own works.

The picture for the preceding period is much more complex. Like the later Moretuses, Plantin and his immediate successors were both printers and publishers. To a great extent they themselves bore the costs of publishing many of the works they printed. On the title-pages of books in Latin this was generally indicated by the formula Ex officina Christophori Plantini - changed to Ex officina Plantiniana1. under the Moretuses.

In the troubled years after the Spanish Fury at Antwerp (1576), Plantin was often constrained to print and publish works that might displease the Spanish authorities and their supporters. To cover himself, he devised a means of distinguishing between books which he freely undertook to produce, or at least found not too irreconcilable with his personal position, and those that were forced upon him or were likely to have unpleasant consequences for him. The former category were given the usual formula Ex officina Christophori Plantini; the latter had the subtle modification In officina.2. Sometimes, however, he preferred to publish potentially dangerous works anonymously or under the name of one of his sons-in-law, or even of one of his journeymen.3. In vernacular works he often made use of formulas which revealed the fact that he had been obliged to publish them; books in Dutch might bear the words ‘Deur bevel vande overheijt’ [By command of the authorities].4.



illustratie



illustratie
(1) Opposite left: Olaus Magnus, Histoire des Pays Septentrionaus, 1561, with Plantin's own imprint. (2) Opposite, right: The same book showing the imprint of the Paris bookseller and publisher Martin le Jeune, who bought a large part of the run and whose copies were given a special title-page. The upper part of Plantin's original title-page (the actual title of the book) was retained, and also the two lines of text at the bottom.




illustratie
(3) Spread from the Libra de la Stampa (Arch. 1). This ledger records in great detail, with all the refinements of double-entry accounting in the new Italian manner-and even written in Italian-the firm's transactions during the partnership with members of the Van Bomberghen family, 1563-67.




illustratie
(4) Spread from the ledger, 1566-69 (Arch. 40). Already at the end of the partnership with the Van Bomberghens Plantin contented himself with a simpler method of book-keeping, consisting of ledgers (as shown here) and journals (see plate 6). The ledgers detailed transactions with booksellers and important private customers: deliveries and payments to these on the left-hand page (‘doibt’); deliveries and payments received from them on the right-hand page (‘doibt avoir’). Whenever a page was filled the balance was shown and the account continued on the next available blank




illustratie
(5) Spread from Plantin's costing notes. For the benefit of the Van Bomberghens in the period of the partnership, 1563-67, Plantin kept meticulous records (Arch. 4) of the costs of each book produced. The entries on the page illustrated give details of the company's earliest publications (1564): the 16mo Virgil; H. Joliffe, Responsio venerabilium sacerdotum...; ABC avec la civilité puerile; Testamenten der 12 Patriarchen; Reinard de Vos; the 16mo Horace; the 16mo Lucanus; and Promptuariolum Latinae linguae.




illustratie
(6) Opposite: Page from the journal for 1566 (Arch. 5). The journals list all transactions (purchases and deliveries of books, payments made and received, and occasionally also purchases of paper and other materials) on a daily basis in chronological order. These entries were usually transferred to the ledgers, but mostly in a much abbreviated form.


Bearing the costs of printing and publishing books demands a great deal of capital. The quantity of work which Plantin and the early Moretuses printed would have been beyond the means of businessmen with far greater resources. A large percentage of the works, consequently, were commissioned by third parties, the masters of the Golden Compasses being merely the printers. These third parties might be the authors themselves - or relatives or other persons with an interest in the writer - who were prepared to meet the total cost of putting their books before the literate public. This was often, though not always, indicated on the title-page: ‘Impresso en Anveres por Christophoro Plantino, prototypographo dela Catholica Magestad. A costa d'el autor’ (Garibay, Compendia historial ... de todos los reynos de España, 1571); ‘Imprimé par Christophle Plantin, pour l'aucteur’ (E. Perret, XXV Fables des Animaux, 1578); ‘Abrahamo Ortelio cosmographo regio excudebat Christophorus Plantinus’ (A. Ortelius, Nomenclator Ptolemaicus, 1579); ‘A Anvers, de l'imprimerie de Christofle Plantin, pour Abraham Ortel autheur mesme de ce livre’ (A. Ortelius, Théatre de l'Univers, 1579); ‘Ghedruct tot Leyden by Christoffel Plantyn voor Lucas Jansz. Waghenaer’ (L.J. Waghenaer, De spieghel der zeevaerdt, 1584). In some cases the officina did not disclose its share in the production of a particular work and let all the credit accrue to the author. Only the initials and the type used reveal that the introductory text of Rubens's Palazzi di Genova, 1622, was printed on the presses of his close friend Balthasar I Moretus. In other instances it was the author who modestly retired, his financial contribution being revealed only by the Plantinian account-books.1.

Ecclesiastical and secular authorities often enlisted the services of the famous Plantinian press, commissioning works and frequently taking an entire edition, which they then paid for and distributed. In 1562, in Plantin's absence, the firm printed Reformation de la confession de la foy que les ministres de Genève présentèrent au Roy en l'assemblée de Poissy, by F. Claude de Sainctes, a work which attacked the French Calvinists. It was ordered by Polytes, the recorder (griffier) of the city of Antwerp,

acting on behalf of the Privy Council at Brussels. Ten years later, in 1572, the Council of Brabant commissioned Plantin to print Discours sur les causes de l'exécution faicte ès personnes de ceux qui avoyent conjuré contre le roy et son estat, an apology for the St. Bartholomew's Eve massacre. In 1582 the city of Antwerp had its Rechten ende costumen van Antwerpen printed by Plantin, who was in fact their official printer. In such instances the share of the public body in the production of the work was not explicitly stated on the title-page or in the colophon, although the formulation of the address made it clear that Plantin was simply the printer, not the publisher.1.

Plantin and the early Moretuses also worked for other publishers. Usually there is only a discreet colophon or some indication at the end of the book to remind the reader of the firm's part in it. The first book which Plantin printed, G.M. Bruto's Fanciulla, has an unobtrusive ‘De l'imprimerie de Christophle Plantain’ at the back, while the emblem of the publisher Bellerus adorns the title-page.2. Sometimes, however, Plantin's collaboration is stated on the title-page. Most of the albums of engravings published by Philip Galle but with a text in letterpress printed by Plantin have a formula to this effect.3.

In other cases there is no mention at all of Plantin's participation and it is only the type and initials, or entries in the accounts, which reveal it.1.

On the other hand Plantin's correspondence shows that many works bearing the words ‘ex officina Christophori Plantini’, which would normally be taken to mean that he had borne the costs of printing and publishing, were in fact produced with the financial backing of colleagues. In many letters towards the end of his life the great printer would sadly explain how, since the Spanish Fury, he had become a ‘hireling’ in the service of more fortunate competitors - in particular Michel Sonnius of Paris and Arnold Mylius of Cologne - who subcontracted work to him, but retained his name on the title-pages, hoping that his international repute would improve their sales.2. These laments are probably somewhat exaggerated and the publications Plantin mentioned are more likely to have belonged to yet another category: works printed or published with partial financial backing from third parties.

These third parties might be the authors themselves who helped to cover Plantin against possible financial risks, advancing him the necessary cash to pay his workers and buy his materials in anticipation of the return on the capital invested. The sums invested were usually balanced by supplying the backer with a number of copies of the work printed.3. These third parties could also be secular or ecclesiastical authorities who subsidized the publication of specific editions.4. This sort of sponsorship is not usually stated in the works themselves, and again is revealed only by an examination of the Plantinian

correspondence and accounts. Financial backing of this type could also be provided by other publishers. At the beginning of his career Plantin made many agreements with colleagues in the trade who contracted to take a considerable proportion of the copies of the work to be printed. Such copies were generally printed with a special title-page bearing the name of the sponsor;1. in exceptional cases the name might be coupled on the title-page with that of Plantin.2. In his later years, too, Plantin sometimes invoked the financial aid of publishing printers in Antwerp or abroad, although this was usually done to facilitate the production of interesting and promising, but costly projects.3. For one such enterprise, Plantin joined forces with Steelsius and Nutius; the three Antwerp publishers even had a common printer's mark prepared and coupled this with their combined address: ‘Antverpiae, apud Christophorum Plantinum, haeredes J. Steelsii, et Philippum Nutium’ (Decretales Gregorii, 1573).4. There were other instances of the names of the temporary associates appearing together on the title-page; for example H. Luytenius's Enarrationes Evangeliorum, 1565, had ‘Antverpiae, excudebat Christophorus Plantinus sibi et Antonio Tilenio’.5. The author believes that a good deal of Plantin's editions after 1576 belong in this category, i.e. works financed by money advanced by Sonnius, Mylius, and others, who were repaid in appropriate numbers of books, Plantin retaining a percentage of the edition to sell on his own behalf.

Thus Plantin and the early Moretuses were primarily printers and printer-publishers of their own works. Occasionally they also acted as publishers of books printed by other firms. Examples are understandably not very numerous: the masters of the Golden Compasses needed all their resources to keep their own presses active. It was, in fact, only in the peak years of 1568-75 that Plantin used other printers. However, in this period, when his own presses were fully taken up with production of the Polyglot Bible and of missals and breviaries, he did so fairly often, contracting out urgent work (sometimes paid for by authors or other publishers) to such printers as Theodoor Lindanus, Hendrik Aelsens, and Jan Verwithagen in Antwerp, Ghislenus Manilius in Ghent, Jan Masius (or Maes), Jacob Heydenberghe, and Servatius Sassenus in Louvain. Only Verwithagen and Masius put their names in the books which they printed for Plantin. Masius, who was responsible for the greatest number of such impressions, used type supplied by Plantin.1.

Outside the years 1568-75, there appear to be scarcely any instances of the masters of the Golden Compasses publishing books printed by other firms. However, there were occasions both before and after that period when they helped finance such productions, usually by agreeing to take a considerable proportion of the copies printed. As has been seen above, they frequently had recourse to this method to obtain finance for their own projects, supplying copies with their client's imprint by way of repayment. They stipulated and obtained the same terms when they helped finance the production of a book.2. For example there are copies known of Le premier volume de Roland furieux of 1555 with Plantin's imprint, and others with that of the Antwerp printer Gerard Spelman. To judge from the initials and type used, the work was certainly not printed on Plantin's presses.

An edition might also acquire two different title-pages for other reasons. There are copies of works printed in 1567 which have Plantin's Paris address on the title-page.1. He must have thought that this would stimulate sales in France. Many of the works published by Plantin's son-in-law at Leiden between 1585 and 1589 exist in two versions, one giving the Dutch university town as the place of publication, the other Antwerp. This does not mean that Plantin helped to subsidize his son-in-law's publications. The Antwerp address must have been used as a means of assuring a market for certain ‘suspect’ works2. (emanating as they did from Protestant Leiden) in the Southern Netherlands, which had been brought back under Spanish rule. Later the Moretuses did help to meet the costs of a few of their Leiden relatives' publications, including the Dutch edition of the Dodoens herbal of 1618,3. although in this particular case copies intended for Antwerp were not given a special title-page.

On a number of occasions Plantin and his successors varied this practice of involving themselves in the publication of other printers' works by buying up remaining copies of an earlier publication, providing them with a new title-page, and reissuing them. Sometimes such books were made part of a new series; or they might contain a certain amount of new material.4.

The production of a book involves several processes.1. Printing consists of the reproduction of a text by mechanical means, and a text is obviously the first requirement.

To reproduce a text certain materials and instruments are necessary. In the time of Plantin and the Moretuses these consisted of: paper or parchment to provide a surface on which to print; printing presses; lead type, cast in matrices which had been struck with punches; and ink. Most of these were supplied to printers by specialist firms.

In Plantin's day the possession of a text and a suitably equipped workshop did not mean that the printer was ready to begin. Authorities kept careful watch over their typographers and insisted that the religious and political orthodoxy of every text should be attested before printing.

Once the printer had obtained the church's approbatio, and the necessary ‘privilege’ or patent had been granted by the secular authority, he could set about choosing the format of the book and the typeface he was going to use. His choice in these matters was determined by the paper and founts he had available, by the purpose and nature of the work, and in some cases by the author's wishes. He then decided on the number of copies to be printed; this depended either on his own instinctive judgment of the potential market, or on his customer's requirements.

It was at this point that the actual work of printing began. The compositors set the type in lines in their composing sticks, placed the lines of type in long trays known as galleys, and made these galleys up into pages. The text having been set in this way, a proof was pulled and passed to the proof-readers for correction. When all faults had been corrected, the journeymen laid the formes in the presses and printed the requisite number of sheets. Other workmen, the collators, assembled the printed sheets, folded them into quires, and then made the quires up into complete copies.

This completed the work in the printing press itself. Most books were sold in albis, that is to say, unbound. If a customer wanted bound books then the copies were put out to specialist bookbinders.

Many editions were illustrated. Like the manufacture of paper and ink, the cutting or casting of type, and bookbinding, this was mostly done outside the house. Artists drew the models which the specialists cut in wood or engraved in copper - the only methods available to the illùstrator until the advent of lithography at the end of the eighteenth century. The wood-blocks could be printed on the same presses as lead type and the two processes could be integrated in the officina. Copperplates, on the other hand, required special presses and the printing of these was often left to specialist firms.

In the following sections the various aspects of printing, publishing, and business management will be dealt with. The different activities have been grouped together into a number of main subjects: first the printer's materials, next his techniques. The subsequent section is devoted to Plantin's publishing activities, as opposed to printing, and the one after that to the social aspects of a sixteenth-century business and the relationships between the master and his men. The final section deals with sales and financial aspects. In the Appendixes some particular problems are discussed and sources given from which the author has derived his conclusions.


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