Low countries

Main (Thompson) Library location: South wing -- Second window. Albertus Pafraet (c.14-- – c. 155-) was born in Deventer to Richard Pafraet, one of the first printers in the city. By 1511 he took over his father's press and continued to work on similar types of commissions, mainly religious texts and

Main (Thompson) Library location: South wing -- Second window. Christopher Plantin (c.1520 – 1589) was born circa 1520 in the region of Touraine, France where he was raised in the home of a clergyman and received a classical education. He was apprenticed to bookbinder Robert Macé and later began to

Main (Thompson) Library location: South wing -- Third window. Gerard Leeu (c.1445/50 – 1492) was born in Gouda and operated two small printing presses there until 1484, when he relocated his practice to Antwerp. Documents indicate that he was a master printer at the prominent Guild of St. Luke in

Main (Thompson) Library location: South wing -- Second window. Hendrik van den Keere (c.15-- – 1580) was born in Ghent at the beginning of the sixteenth century and succeeded the printing press of Jan Cauweel in 1556. Before becoming a printer, however, van den Keere was a professor of French, as

Main (Thompson) Library location: South wing -- Second window. Jacob van Liesvelt (c.1489 – c.1545/6) was born to printer Adriaen van Liesvelt circa 1489 in Antwerp, where he eventually began his own career as a printer and bookseller in 1513. The oeuvre of van Liesvelt consists of both Catholic and

Main (Thompson) Library location: South wing -- Third window. Early records first locate Johannes Veldener (v) in the diocese of Würzburg. By 1473 he moved to Louvain, where he matriculated at the University to study medicine. Scholars believe that he studied printing in Cologne, but the timeline

Main (Thompson) Library location: South wing -- Third window. Thierry Martens (c. 1446 - 1534) was born in Aalst, Belgium in 1446 and received his early education from the Guillelmites. Various manuscript colophons indicate that he probably studied under Girardus de Lisa in Venice. In 1473, Martens