How were books published in the Baroque age and what debt do we owe to that era today? An exhibition in Antwerp

On view from September 28, 2018 to January 6, 2019, at the Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp, Belgium, is the exhibition Baroque Book Design. A tale of friendship and cooperation, dedicated topublishing in the Baroque age. How did book publishing transform in the Baroque age? Why did a great publisher like Balthasar Moretus (Antwerp, 1574 - 1641) decide to work hand in hand with the great artists of the time? How do today’s innovators view publishing activities around the book and how are they still affected by the influences of those times? These are some of the questions the exhibition seeks to answer, starting with the events of the Plantin-Moretus family, which went in constant search of new ways to spread knowledge, ideas, and information. These ways also went through book design, from the formatting of titles to the relationship between text and images: books as we know them today owe much to the work that was done in seventeenth-century Flanders.

Balthasar Moretus, moreover, enlisted the help of great artists, first and foremost Pieter Paul Rubens, but also other names (such as Erasmus Quellinus, Karel del Mallery, Peeter de Jode, and Abraham van Diepenbeeck) who provided their illustrations to the publisher. The exhibition focuses on the publisher’s passion for his business, emphasizing how he inspired and motivated artists, printers, and illustrators to create a new, striking product whose influence is still felt today. Indeed, there are similarities between Moretus’s approach and that of today’s publishers.The exhibition also aims to explore this, highlighting how today’s leading publishers approach book publishing by reinventing it and still working with artists.

The exhibition is open every day except Mondays (the museum’s closing day) and holidays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets: full price 8 euros, reduced for over 65, children 12 to 25 and groups of at least 12 people 6 euros, free for children under 12. For info you can go to the Visit Flanders website (in Italian).

How were books published in the Baroque age and what debt do we owe to that era today? An exhibition in Antwerp

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