THE TRAVELLER.

Otago Witness, Issue 1630, 17 February 1883, Page 8

THE TRAVELLER.

WAYSIDE NOTES. (By a Travelling Contbibutoh,)

AN OLD PKINTING-OFFICE. Of all the numerous objects of interest which present themselves to the tourist in Belgium, if he happens to be a journalist, or to have any other connection with the art and mystery of printing, there is not one comparable with the Museum Plantin-Moretus at Antwerp. That city is the only place in Europe, I believe, where you can cross the threshold of a certain house and walk at once from the latter end of the nineteenth century into the middle of the sixteenth — where you can step back, in a word, from 1882 to 1555. You can scarcely credit your own eyes when you find yourself in the private residence, the bookseller's shop, the composing-room, and the printing-office of one of the most famous typographers of the middle ages, and perceive that everything is just as he left it— furniture, pictures, old china, account - books, library, composingframes full of letter, formes, imposingstones, hand-presses, typefounding and bookbinding apparatus, proofs, revises, blocks, plates, and even the original drawings by Rubens, Erasmus Quell en, 801, Pauwels — some of the most distinguished artists of the day — for illustrating the numerous volumes published by Christopher Plantin and his successors at the sign of the Golden Compass, and with that trade-mark upon the title-page, together with the noble motto of "Labor© et Constantia," to which he and his house so faithfully adhered for a period of three centuries ; for it was his wish to perpetuate the business he had ! founded and had made famous all over Europe, and it was carried on by his daughter's husband and his descendants in lineal succession down to a few years ago, when it was bought, with everything appertaining to it, by the city of Antwerp, and religiously preserved as one of the most remarkable relics of the middle ages which it is possible to conceive. Its founder was born in the city of Tours, in France, and it is not unworthy of remark that that place is to-day the seat of the finest printing-office in the country, employing 1200 men, and turning out bookwork that has no superior in Europe. He was apprenticed at Caen, and afterwards learned the bookbinding business in Paris. He came to Antwerp in 1549, and took the premises of which I have been speaking six years afterwards. He gradually modified and enlarged them until in process of time they became a large quadrangular structure, with the private residence facing the Marche" Vendredi, the shop fronting the Rue dv St. "Esprit, and the printing-office looking into the courtyard of the quadrangle, where a vine of large dimensions and great antiquity masks with its abundant foliage the red brick walls pierced by numerous windows, with a single stone mullion and transom, admitting the light and sunshine from the south-east into the composing and press-rooms, and the chamber in which the great Justus Lipsius used to come and read and correct the proofs of some of the works printed in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew by his friend Plantin, upon whom the King of Spain, in 1570, bestowed the title of arcnitypographer. And in this house, after founding branch establishments in Paris and Leyden, he died in 1589, after having refused alluring offers made to him by the Iving of France, the Duke of Savoy, and the Pope of Rome to go and direct printing-offices under the patronage of the State, and with handsome emoluments and desirable privileges and distinctions attached in Paris, Turin, and the Eternal City. He received an honourable burial in the cathedral at Antwerp, and by way of monument his friend De Bakker painted a "Last Judgment," with portraits of the Plantin family, while Justus Lipsius composed the Latin inscription on his tombstone; and above that of his son-in-law and_ successor, Jean Moretus, the great Rubens depicted the Resurrection, with a medallion portrait of the deceased painter above. Entering the mansion from the Marche Vendredi, you pass from a spacious vestibule into the first saloon unon the ground floor, with a massive chimneypiece, oak furniture, a beautiful table inlaid with tortoiseshell, and four windows— in the centre of which are coloured panes recording the births and deaths of four members of the family. In the next room are eight family portraits— four of them by Rubens— and a large glass case fulLof original designs and autograph letters and documents by that artist and his contemporaries, including his receipt for 600 florins (paid to him for painting the picture over the monument of Jean Moretus the First, previously referred to) and a score or two of drawings, for book illustrations, by Rubens and others. The third saloon contains 34 paintings (four of them by Rubens) and a case in which are nearly 40 specimen volumes printed by Plantin, including the first work he issued, entitled "La Institutione di una famciulla Bator nobilmente." It is in French and Italian, on opposite pages and bears date 1555 There is also a copy on vellum of the " Biblia Regia " in five volumes folio, with the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin texts, upon which Plantin was engaged for six years, and which is a really magnificent specimen of typography. But the same may be said of most of the volumes, and of a folio edition of Dionysius Areopagita more particularly. Indeed, whether as regards the beauty of the type, the quality of the paper, or the clearness and evenness of the working, it would be difficult to find anything printed anywhere in 1882 superior to this book printed by Balthazar Moretus in 1634. Among the autographs preserved in this room is a letter from Plantin, setting forth the hardships he has suffered from the King of Spain, who has employed him for 15 years without paying his bills the whole time ! The printer naturally objects to such "unremitting " patronage. Passing from hence into the little shop, opening out into the Rue dv St. Esprit, you find the shelves filled with the books— mostly liturgical— which Plantin kept on sale, his office desk, a pair of scales for weighing money, a sheet almanac of the year 1595, a broadside containing a list of works forbidden by the Due d'Alba to be printed (including two — "The Psalms of Clement Marot," and the "Colloquies of Erasmus" — issued from the Plantin presses), and the prices-current of the celebrated printingoffice of the Aldi, in Venice, a.b. 1592. On the counter is a parcel of sheets tied up, ready for sale, and the Bhop, with its quaint casements composed of " quarries " framed in lead looks so ancient and businesslike that if old Christopher Plantin were to walk in, with his black furred houppclande and fair white collar and ask you whs.t was your business with him' you would scarcely feel surprised. The back shop is smaller than the front one, and, passing it by, you enter a chamber hung with Flemish tapestry. The high chimneypiece is of marble, faced by an antique cabinet. The furniture is of oak, the chairs having leather seats and backs, and there is a Flemish buffet adorned with choice old china. Then comes the room of the proof-readers, which has

been occupied by many men of high literary repute ; for the correction of the press at that time demanded a competent knowledge of languages and literature. And thence we enter the office of the bookkeepers, which adjoins what is known as the room of Justus Lipsius, which is hung with dark Cordova leather enriched with gold arabesques. In the passage contiguous are 26 frames containing as many alphabets of ornamental capitals, designed, for the most part, by artists of eminence ; and this leads to the Salle dcs Caracteres, containing the compositors' cases, full of letter, of which Plantin possessed 73 varieties, the type weighing altogether 38,1211b. Contiguous to it is the printing-office, with its seven _ handpresses (two of which date from the time of ] Plantin), the inktables, &c, &c. On the walls are handbills "pulled "by Leopold the First and Second, and by their queens, by the Queen of the French (wife of Louis Philippe), and by the Prince and Princess Imperial of Germany. In the upper storey are 19 rooms, of the contents of which it is impossible to give more than a general idea. They include precious examples of the most celebrated books printed in the early times, the oldest being a Latin Bible, in three volumes folio, of the year 1460; the wood blocks and copper plates engraved for the illustration of the various works issued by Plantin; the "privileges" accorded to him by various sovereigns and high dignitaries of the Church ; and, rarest of all, the whole of the numbers, for the first half-year of 1622, of the NieuweTijdinghe of Abraham Verhdeven, the oldest newspaper in Europe. Then there is the small library of the firm, containing many curious books and documents ; Plantin's bedchamber, with its carved oak bedstead, ime-dieu, and toilette-table ; the typefoundry ; the large library, containing 12,000 volumes, and where the workmen used to assemble to hear mass before commencing their daily labours ; the smaller bookroom, dedicated to the reception of copies of the works printed by the house ; and the Salle dcs Archives, in which are preserved the account-books, inventories, catalogues, letter-books, and correspondence of the firm from its establishment in 1555 down to the end of the year 1864. It will be seen from this necessarily meagre sketch of this museum and its contents that both are something altogether unique, and that even if Antwerp possessed nothing else to attract the tourist, this remarkable relic of the middle ages, so wisely purchased, so carefully preserved, and so liberally thrown open to free inspection by the city, would amply repay the trouble and expense of a visit.