‘A Woman of Great Courage’: Women in the Printing Trades in Early Modern Europe

Martina Plantin (The widow of Jan Moretus)

Martina Plantin (1550-1616) was the daughter of Christophe Plantin, who ran a printing business in Antwerp. Like many daughters of printers, she learned to read and write, probably in French, Dutch, Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Christophe expected his daughters to work in his shop, and by the age of 5, Martina was correcting printed texts. In 1570, she married Jan Moretus, who worked for her father. Moretus and the elder Plantin ran their business on an almost industrial scale, with 80 employees and 22 printing presses at its peak in the mid-1570s. After the deaths of her father and husband, Martina became the head of the business, and worked in it until 1614. Martina and her husband established a printing dynasty that lasted for more than three hundred years.

Although not always identified by her own name, Martina is identified in many imprints and colophons as the widow of Jan Moretus; in other cases, based on publication dates, we can attribute the publication of certain books to the time that Martina was at the helm of the business.
 

This page has paths:

This page references: