Description

Christopher Plantin’s decision to illustrate Lodovico Guicciardini’s description of the Low Countries with copperplates instead of woodcuts contributed significantly to the success of these renewed editions of the Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi (published in Italian in 1581 and 1588) and in French (published in 1582). Because copperplates could not be printed on a letterpress, the illustrations had to be added separately to the sheets with printed text. Consequently, Guicciardini’s work offers an interesting case study of how the plates were printed many years after the original printing of the text. Plantin’s successor, Jan I Moretus, periodically acquired copies of the book without the illustrations and had new impressions made. Even in 1633, half a century later, Plantin’s grandson Balthasar I Moretus, still had a number of impressions made at a time when copies of the Antwerp editions were not readily available and clients preferred the new editions of this book from Amsterdam.