If fonts intrigue you, a trip to the Museum Plantin-Moretus/Prentenkabinet, Antwerpen - UNESCO World Heritage will fascinate you. The museum takes its name from Christoffel Plantin and his son-in-law, Jan I Moretus.The museum is dedicated to the history of printing and houses the Plantin-Moretus printing enterprise.
In 1555, Plantin founded the De Gulden Passer publishing house (The Golden Compasses). A year later, he relocated his printing business to the Vrijdagmarkt square in a building that is now the oldest part of the Plantin-Moretus Museum.
De Gulden Passer printed the geography “Theatrum Orbis Terrarum”by Abraham Ortelius, the “Kruydtboeck” botanical studies by Mathias Lobelius, anatomical works by Andreas Vesalius and Joannes Valverde and mathematics “De thiende” (The Art of Tenths) by Simon Stevin.
In 1571, the Catholic King Philip II, of Spain, granted the printer the exclusive right to print and sell all liturgical publications for Spain and its colonies. In 1578, Plantin became the official printer of the protestant Staten Generaal (States-General), which led the insurgence against Spanish rule. He printed the “Biblia Polyglotta” (Bible in five languages).
The museum Library contains over 25,000 volumes printed by De Gulden Passwer. In addition to the opportunity to study font uses, you will find a collection of Flemish miniature art including a two-volume Bible illustrated with Czech miniature art that was printed for King Wenceslas of Bohemia in early 1400’s
Claude Garamond, considered the premier designer of typographical elegance, supplied one of the font sets Plantin used for typesetting. Garamond made it into the technical age as the Apple Garamond font released in 1984. It is also a default font for Microsoft products and Adobe software.
The Museum Plantin-Moretus preserves the only complete set of Garamond’s letter dies. After 300 years, the Museum Plantin-Moretus is still called upon for digitization of old type fonts.
If a single trip may not be enough to satisfy your curiosity, you could enroll in the Plantin Society’s two year course at the museum. Founded in 1951, the Plantin Society is a Museum Plantin-Moretus supporter.
The purpose of the society is to study the evolution of typographical technologies from the past to the present day. The first year of the course concentrates on typography, printing processes, current typesetting and pre-press techniques, digital design, bookbinding, and the graphic arts. Year two delves into book layout, type preparation, font design and use, paper, the history of illustration and graphic design, applied graphic arts, advertising, poster and packaging design. The courses are in Dutch.
For less structured study, the Association of Antwerp Bibliophiles, founded in 1877, offers lectures and visits to libraries or private collections of old books. The AAB publishes the De Gulden Passer yearbook.
Visit the two oldest surviving printing presses in the world at the museum and see 300-year-old books printed on them. Visitor information and children’s workshop schedules are available on the Museum Plantin-Moretus/Prentenkabinet, Antwerpen - UNESCO World Heritage website.
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