Plantin, the Moretus and their work / by Maurits Sabbe.

  • Maurits Sabbe
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Plantin, the Moretus and their work / by Maurits Sabbe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/124 (page 9)
    In the slumbering rooms of the Plantin-Moretus 4 Museum the mind calls up quite easily the memory of the founder of the house, and of those who, in the course of ages, completed his work. All that surrounds us is conducive to this. The style of the building and its organization are descriptive of the people. The smallest stone of the building bears the stamp of Plan- tin’s way of living and of that of the first Moretus. The House of Plantin has, less than any other Museum in the world, the character of a didactic catalogue for bookmen and critics. It is a place to work in, a home, a refuge for the student, where the life of old has simply been interrupted, and it needs only a slight spur of the imagination to see it resume its course. And yet here Fancy is not allowed to fol¬ low her own free will, for all around her speaks of discipline and keeps her strictly within the lines drawn by strong personalities such as those of Plantin and Balthasar Moretus I. It is chiefly of these two great ancestors that the house speaks to us. Here we find Plantin who in spite of his mystical