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Research Codice — The Makers

Officina Plantiniana

Museum Plantin-Moretus · Plantin Press

Founded
1555
Seat
Antwerp · Belgium
Status
extant
Sub-discipline
printers_publishers

The MakersThe Archivers

The printing office of the Officina Plantiniana in Antwerp, photographed about 1892
Photomechanical print, circa 1892, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The press Christophe Plantin founded in 1555 passed by marriage to Jan Moretus and stayed in the family for three centuries, printing continuously on the same site. When the city of Antwerp bought the house in 1876 it acquired the workshop entire — presses, punches, matrices, ledgers — making it the rare Maker whose survival converted it whole into an Archiver. The two oldest surviving printing presses in the world stand in its great room.

The two oldest surviving printing presses in the world, sixteenth century, in the Plantin-Moretus printing office
Photograph by Riopelle. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sources

  1. archiveUNESCO Memory of the World Register: Business Archives of the Officina Plantinianaunesco.orgPrimary source
  2. publicationMuseum Plantin-Moretus, official history of the Officina Plantinianamuseumplantinmoretus.be

Researched by LIBRO. Research Desk · First published 26 July 2026 · Last revised 26 July 2026

A revision history of this entry is maintained.

Authority records

Officina Plantiniana · LIBRO