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Musée Plantin. ANTWERP. 13. Route. 183
“Musée Plantin - Moretus (Pl. B, 4), established in the house
of the celebrated printer Christopher Plantin, born near Tours in
4514 (2), who set up his printing-office at Antwerp in 1549 and
died there in 1589. From 1576 down to the present day the business
was carried on in this building, at first by Plantin himself, and
afterwards by the family of his son-in-law Moretus or Moerentorf
(d. 1610). After the middle of the {7th cent. the operations of the
firm were confined to the printing of missals and prayer-books, for
which Plantin had received a monopoly in 1570 from Philip Il. for
the dominions of the Spanish crown. When this privilege was
withdrawn in 1800 the printing-office was temporarily closed, and
afterwards it was used only at intervals down to 4876, when the
pbuilding, with its antique furniture, tapestry, paintings (90 por-
traits: 15 by Rubens, mostly school-piec and other collections,
was purchased by the city of Antwerp. The house therefore now
presents a unique picture of the dwelling and contiguous business-
premises of a Flemish patrician of the end of the 16th century.
Adm., see p. 168. Catalogue by Max Rooses (1908), 4 fr.
Ground Floor. Above the entrance of the front building, which was
altered in 1761-63, are the arms of Plantin, carved by A. Quellin the Elder,
with his motto bore et constantia’. Within we turn to the right at
the foot of the stairc and enter RoomI, which contains some fine old
‘lemish tapestry and tortoise-shell table. — Room II. contains several
irable family-portraits. To the right, above the modern mantelpiece
yle, hangs (No. 5) a portrait of Plantin (1584), which
for (42) the other portrait, by Rubens, to the left of
door of exit. Rubens also painted the portraits of: 15. Martina Plantin,
wife of John Moretus (by the window of the entrance-wall); 151. John
5 us (d. Adriana Gras, wife of the last;
8 4, Abraham Ortelius (1527-98),
the geographer; 6. P 6-1614) of Louvain; 7. Justus
Lipsius; 411. Jeanne re, Plantin’s wife. On the exit-wall: 10, 13.
Two by Rubens. In the centre, under glass: Drawings, Title
Pages, Vignettes, partly by Rubens, who, as app from receipts which
eserved (in the middle of the window-wall), frequently drew
yr the firm; others by Z. Quellin the Younger, A. van Noort, Jan
van Orley, Marten de Vos, etc. On the right wall, two fine cabinets of
the 17th century. — Room III also contains numerous portraits. On the
e ll: 3. Balthasar MoretusI. on his death-bed, by Zh. Willeboirts
(A644) ; . Magdalena Plantin and her husband, Gillis Beys, by an
unknown painter (1571). Among the other portraits are six (5-7, 9-41) of
lebrated men of the 15th and 46th cent. by Rubens, including (6) Pope
Leo X. In the centre: Manuscripts (9-{9th cent.); letters and documents.
Quitting this room we pass a staircase added in 1624 and enter the
medival-looking Court, which is embellished with busts of Plantin and
the Moretus family. One side is entirely covered by the branches of aged
vines, d to have been planted by Plantin himself. Below the arcades,
to the right, is the Sarz Room (1V), built in 1638, with a separate entrance
from the street; adjoining are a smaller sale-room (VY) and a spacious
apartment (VI) containing old Flemish tapestry and a painted spinet of
1735 (within, St. Cecilia, after Rubens). The oaken panelling is partly
restored, — Adjoining is Room VII, containing specimens of printing from
Germany (Nos. 1-3, the 35-line Bible formerly ribed to Gutenberg),
Italy, Flanders, France, Holland, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal, dating
from the middle of the 15th to the end of the 4%th century. — Room VIII:
Views of old Antwerp, chiefly by Jos. Linnig (1815-91). Above the fire-
place, Panorama by J. B. Vrients (1610); in the frame to the right of it, |
