Often considered the advent of mass media, the use of books and prints by Protestants has been widely studied and has generated a rich and plentiful bibliography. In contrast, the production and use of the same media by the proponents of the Counter-Reformation have not received the attention they deserve, especially in the context of the Low Countries. The twelve chapters in this volume provide new perspectives on the efficacy of the handpress book industry to support the Catholic strategy in the Spanish Low Countries and underline the mutually beneficial relationship between the Counter-Reformation and the typographic world. This volume represents an important contribution to our understanding of the sociocultural and socioeconomic background of the Catholic Netherlands.
Rosa De Marco, Ph.D. (2014), is in charge of the heritage of the University of Lorraine Libraries. In addition to articles on baroque ceremonies and emblematics, she recently coedited Eliciting Wonder: The Emblem on the Stage (GES-Droz, 2021).
List of Figures List of Tables List of Abbreviations Notes on Contributors
1 Books and Prints at the Heart of the Catholic Reformation in the Low Countries (16thâ17th Centuries)
âRenaud Adam, Rosa De Marco and Malcolm Walsby
Part 1: Book Production and Book Business
2 A Window of Opportunity: Framing Female Owner-Managers of Printing Houses in Sixteenth-Century Antwerp
âHeleen Wyffels
3 The Printing Industry and the Counter-Reformation in Brussels under Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella (1598â1633)
âRenaud Adam
4 Successful Strategies for Creating a Devotional Best Seller: Canisiusâs Manuale Catholicorum Published by the Plantin Press
âDirk Imhof
5 International Sales of Tridentine Emblems Books by the Antwerp Officina Plantiniana: The Case of Father Joannes David at the Beginning of the Seventeenth Century
âRenaud Milazzo
This collection will appeal to anyone interested in book production, prints and images, trade and circulation, printmaking, princely power, Catholicism, and reading practices in the early modern Low Countries.