“Plantiniana” in the National Library of Belarus

This year marks the 500th anniversary of the famous European printer Christophe Plantin. Many libraries around the world have been planning various events to celebrate his anniversary. While most of the celebrations have been postponed, the National Library of Belarus commemorates the great printer and his magnificent books from our collection on the occasion of the anniversary.

In 1555, Christophe Plantin founded a small print shop in Antwerp, which he eventually turned into one of the best publishing houses in Europe. The publications enjoyed a success thanks to the excellent design. The fonts were created by the best artisans of the time and the most outstanding painters and engravers produced magnificent engravings. Plantin took care of the repertoire of books and kept in touch with well-known scientists in Europe. After the death of Christophe Plantin in 1589, his legacy was continued by his family. Plantin's family business lasted more than 300 years. In 1865 the publishing house was closed, and in 1875 the building was acquired by the Belgian government. Since 1877, the fully preserved publishing house with printing equipment has served as a museum. In 2005, the museum became the first museum institution to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The National Library of Belarus keeps and studies the books of the Plantin-Moretus printing house. "The Plantiniana" collection includes early printed books from 1564 to 1774.

It is quite easy to recognize Plantin's editions due to the printing mark "The Golden Compass", which became widely known and has been preserved by descendants until the last days of "The House of Plantin". The brand changed, but its content and meaning remained the same. There is a hand reaching out from the clouds and holding a compass in the central part, and the inscription "Labore et constantia" ("Labor and Constancy"). The straight and still compass leg embodies constancy, the moving one is for labour.

The famous “Peregrination” by Mikołaj Radziwiłł "The Orphan" was printed in the famous publishing house Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp in 1614 during the author's lifetime. The book was in high demand, withstood a large number of reprints, translations and handwritten lists. Details of the publishing house were specified on the front page and in the colophon. An engraved publishing brand mark of Plantin was placed on the last page. The specific nature of the copy at the National Library of Belarus is in that it comes from the Nyasvizh Library of Radziwiłł, restored in the 2nd half of the 19th century by Marie de Castellane, wife of Prince Antoine Radziwill. This is evidenced by the seal “Ordynacja Nieświeska Biblioteka”. The book contains many engravings, including an image of a ship during the storm. It was during the storm that Radziwiłł "the Orphan" threw the acquired mummies into the sea, succumbing to prejudices that linked the mummies on board with a shipwreck. Radziwiłł had wanted to show valuable exhibits from Egypt in his native Nyasvizh.

The copy located in the State Register of Book Monuments is available here.

The Library houses a book of 1632 with an engraved front page (chalcography) based on a sketch by Pieter Paul Rubens. Cornelis Galle was the engraver. Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski (1595–1640), a poet, philosopher, and literary theorist, wrote the book. He was a teacher at the Jesuit College in Polotsk, the Nyasvizh Jesuit College and the Vilnius Jesuit Gymnasium. Sarbiewski was known as an outstanding Latin-language poet. For a long time, his poems were studied in European educational institutions of the XVII-XIX century as a perfect example of New Latin Poetry. Five thousand copies of his most famous edition, “Lyricorum libri IV”, were printed in the Plantin publishing house in 1632.

A copy in the electronic catalogue of the NLB is available here.