Old Paper Collector

More gambling monks. (Pieter van der Heyden ~1580).

Happy #WorldBookDay!

The Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp. In the 16th c. this was the most important and largest printing business in Europe. The museum still holds the oldest still existing printing presses in the world.

A copy of the New Testament, printed in 1526 by Willem Vorsterman in Europe’ printing capital Antwerp. The book was still in use in the 1790s. Photo: Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp.

Epiphany 2026. 👑👑👑

The Adoration of the Magi, from the magnificent 1583 Biblia Sacra.
🖨️ Printed by Christoffel Plantin, Antwerp.
🎨 Artist: Crispijn van den Broeck.

Epiphany #Antwerp #Bookhistory #Plantin

Open spine of an archival ledger showing its ribs and fragments of printed binder’s waste

Upper cover of the ledger with a medieval manuscript in a gothic hand together with a decorated initial letter D

Lower cover of the ledger with a medieval manuscript in a gothic hand together with a decorated initial letter Q and a large ink stain

The Plantin archives: the gift that keeps on giving.

An #earlymodern ledger for expenses on ‘white paper’ for the printing office with printed binder’s waste on its spine & a #medieval Vulgate Bible fragment as its cover. 😍

Happy holidays everybody!

#rarebooks #bookhistory 💙📚📜

Early modern TypEx.

#bookhistory
#lithurgy

"Meet the Lada of my book collection. 🚙💨

Exterior: A tragic, low-budget 20th-century rebinding. 📦
Under the hood: Precision 1642 engineering by Balthasar Moretus. 💎

It’s ugly, it’s boring, and it has zero aerodynamics... but the engine is world-class. 😤📚

#RareBooks #BookCollecting #PlantinMoretus

16th-century recycling. ♻️

This 1524 edition in my collection hides a secret: 13th-century canon law used as flyleaves. The binder clearly didn't care about the text anymore, placing the lovely blue initial upside down.

#BookSky #BookHistory

In one of my books (Tirini - JP Verdussen 1688) I found this printer mark. It is signed with the monogram DMP. Does anyone know who this engraver is?

Thanks in advance!

#bookhistory
#antwerpen
#verdussen

A student at the University of Leuven was bored in 1613 and decided to draw a weird figure. Photo shared by Zanna van Loon (Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp)

Infographic to explain so called “frisket sheets”. Generated by Google’s Nano Banana Pro. Impressive!

The example is from my collection.

#bookhistory
#fragmentology
#recycling

Nothing about the price?? As a collector I rather buy an original book from the age. These books were not published for simple collectors.

#Middelnederlands @fragmentarium.bsky.social #fragmentology

Yes, it is what it is. All these 14 volumes contain this ugly stamp.

These 16th-century Antwerp volumes still carry inked titles on their fore-edges—a reminder that they once stood the other way around on the shelf. A small detail, but a wonderful glimpse into how early readers organised their libraries. #BookHistory #OldBooks

The source is here: www.google.nl/books/editio... (Page 17/18)

Just identified a fragment in my collection as a leaf from the Šaraknocʿ (Amsterdam, 1664) — the first Armenian hymnal ever printed in Europe.

It features a woodcut of the Virgin & Child by Christoffel van Sichem II, reused by Voskan Yerevantsi in Amsterdam.

#bookhistory
#Armenia
#Amsterdam

A wonderful page from a Parisian Book of Hours (Horae Beatae Mariae Virgine, 1490-1510) with and unusual floral border in the style of Bruges-Ghent. I love it!

😍

#bookhistory

Ohh look at this:

This frontispiece of Hubert Goltzius’ “Les Images de tous les empereurs” (Antwerpen, 1557) is an early form of multi color printing (Chiaroscuro woodcuts), here shown in 3 and 2 colors. What an artist!

#bookhistory

Colophon in red ink from a recycled unidentified MS by Johannes Gredinger, completed on the “feria vi” after the feast of S. John “ad portam Latinam” (12 May?). The exact year is masked by the book’s spine label (@stabiberlin.bsky.social, Cs 6738)
resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB000157260...

Jan Luyken’s The Plate Printer (1694) from Het Menselyk Bedryf shows the heart of an early modern copperplate workshop.
The pressman strains at the rolling press while fresh prints hang to dry — a perfect tribute to human skill and ink.

#PrintHistory #Luyken #CopperplatePrinting #BookHistory

It is great to see how the same woodcut was used in folio (as shown before ), quarto and octavo missals. The same woodcut in a quarto missal (Plantin, Antwerp - 1605).

Happy All Saints!

Woodcut designed by Pieter van de Borcht and cut by Antonie van Leest. From a Missale Romanum (Plantin, Antwerp -1574).

#bookhistory
#plantin

Close up of a very small book bound in a fragment of a medieval liturgical manuscript on parchment

Yellow-black pencil for scale next to the miniature book which is with a parchment cover of medieval manuscript fragments

Close-up of the title page of the book: a Gregorian calendar printed in red and black.

Spilled my coffee travel mug in my backpack this morning - can you imagine the horror - so let’s just say some time with these wonderful #earlymodern miniature books was very much needed!

1) Gregorian Calendar (1585)

#rarebooks #bookhistory 💙📚📜

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Not only MSS were used in early book bindings, incunabula leaves were recycled, too. Here is a short anthology! First, from the Corpus iuris civilis printed in Rom, 1476 (GW 7678). Only 15 copies are known! (@stabiberlin.bsky.social, Dq 8880)
resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB0001655D0...

A selection of Froben’s decorative initials (1537)
#bookhistory #typography #bookdesign