Het
geslacht Der Kinderen
Leneart der Kinderen is known of his famous ‘’silver letter’’ Bibles, brilliant illustrated and printed during the time where the
protestants had the flee of
the Spanish inquisition to England
and Germany. There is a lot of uncertaincy
about this Leneart as he had to work
underground where he
possible, like other
printers did, used a pseudonym.
Lenaert could also be the father of the first known Adam
der Kinderen.
On his search
to find out about this and other facts of the der Kinderen pedrigree, Timon and
Herman met on social media and they started to exchange kwnowledge and
conclusions. A lively
correspondance developped s concerning
the facts of Lenaert, family Adam der Kinderen, the Lenaert Bible and, of course, descendants of Adam der Kinderen
Documents, pro- and contra facts :
o
Anthony de Solempne:
attributions to his press
o
Genealogy door Frans der Kinderen uit de 1976 edition
van Amstelodamum
o
English
translation of the accompanying text of the pedigree by Frans
der Kinderen
The
Will of Adam der Kinderen (1572)
o
o The
Will of Adam der Kinderen (1572) Transcription by
Paul Der Kinderen
o The
secret activities of Plantin from Antwerp by Paul Valkema Blouw (mht file, firefox needs addon)
The
secret activities of Plantin from Antwerp by Paul Valkema Blouw (regular but no
pictures)
(original Dutch version, English excerpt and translation is under
construction)
o The famous Lenaert der Kinderen Bible.
o Family
Tayspil from Antwerpen. An
extraordinary parallel with family Der Kinderen
The famous Lenaert
der Kinderen Bible .
In 2013 this Bible
is in the possession of Tony and Susan der Kinderen
Including a
Valuation Certificate mentioning a pedigree from Tony (Timon
Hendrikus) up to Adam der Kinderen
who died at London in 1571.
The statement that Lenaert would be the father of Adam is disputable where the
information on this site might share some light.
Description
Den Bibel inhoudende dat Oude ende
Nieuwe Testament etc.
(Emden), Lenaert der Kinderen, 1563. Title vignette, [24] leaves, 1 - 376, 379 - 386,
377 – 516 [i.e.
524] leaves. 18 th
centuty full calf over five raised bands. Binding
split along front hinge and some loss of leather
to head of spine, else a very good
copy, with only some
very minimal browning and foxing.
Old manuscript entries on the endpaper
inlcude an entry by or relating
to “J G der
Kinderen”, dated 19 November 1832. This was almost certainly Johannes Gerard
der Kinderen (17 Oct 1795 – 13 Oct 1874), a great- great- great-grandfather of the
current owner. J G der Kinderen was also
almost certainly a direct
descendant of
the printer Lenaert der Kinderen (information
from mundia.com). It is conceivable
that this book was
the printer’s own copy and was handed down in the family to
the current owner. Another, earlier manuscript note on the endpaper (ca. 1700)
records that ‘Disse Druck is raar etc.’ (this printing/book is rare).
This is a very important Bible. It is the second printing of the so-called
Biestkens
Bible, the
first Dutch Mennonite Bible. It had originally been translated and printed
in 1560 by Nicolaus Biestkens. It
is said to be based on the 1554 Magdeburg Low
German translation of Martin Luther’s
High German translation of the Bible.
It is a very rare book. The last
copy at auction was sold by Sotheby’s London, ‘The
Property of The Society of Writers
To Her Majesty's Signet’,
on 13 April 1978, Lot
669 for GBP
1,900 = AUD3,065 at the time). The book was bought by Antiquariat
Wenner (antiquarian booksellers of Osnabrueck, near Emden). It had been
estimated to sell for GBP 100-200, thus far exceeding expectations.
There are 12 library holdings in Europe: 7 copies are held in Germany at the
Ostfriesische Bibliothek
Aurich/Emden (2), State Library of Bavaria, Herzog August
Bibliothek Wolfenbuettel, Heidelberg University, Wuerttembergische
Landesbibliothek Stuttgart, Greifswald University. 4 copies are held in
the UK at
the London
Library, Cambridge University (2), Manchester University. 1 copy is
held in the Netherlands
at the National Library of the Netherlands. American
Libraries only
hold microform versions of this book
Anthony de Solempne: attributions to his press
by David
Stoker
(Published in The Library: The
Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, 6th ser. Vol.3,
(1981), 17-32.)
During the summer of 1568 agents of
John Parkhurst bishop of Norwich conducted a census of the large community of
Dutch and Walloon refugees who had arrived in the city, particularly during the
preceding year.1 The ensuing document lists a large
number of tradesmen, the majority of whom were weavers, but also records the
presence of two printers.2 Two years later the Norwich
Corporation was employing one of these men, Anthony de Solempne,
to print bye-laws,3 and shortly afterwards permitted
him to purchase his full rights of citizenship as the first practitioner of
this trade in the city.4 For a number of years when printing
was severely restricted outside London, a press was therefore permitted to
operate in Norwich which apparently paid little or no regard to these
restrictions. Several items are known to have survived from the press of
Anthony de Solempne, but an even larger number have
at various times been incorrectly attributed to it. These mistaken attributions
may be directly related to the unusual circumstances in which the press was set
up and operated and to its slightly obscure relationship with other Dutch
refugee presses on the Continent.5
Anthony de Solempne
was apparently a spice merchant in Antwerp who was winding up his business
affairs in June 1567, prior to the arrival in the Netherlands of the Duke of
Alva and his army of Spanish veterans.6 He was a committed Calvinist who,
like large numbers of his co-religionists, could foresee the imminent and most
severe retribution that was going to he wrought on
the Dutch Protestants as a result of the preceding months of rebellion and
iconoclasm. The news of the mobilization of Alva's army was enough to cause
thousands of Protestants to leave their country and swell the ranks of the
existing Dutch refugee communities in Wesel, Emden, Aachen and London, and to
form new communities in the cities of Hamburg, Canterbury and, most notably,
Norwich.
Solempne arrived in Norwich in the late summer
or autumn of 1567 together with his wife and two sons. He became a
well-respected member of the Dutch congregation in Norwich and later served as
either an elder or deacon.7 Presumably he had managed to save
something of his fortune, for later Subsidy records show him to have been one
of the most wealthy members of the refugee community.8 Fairly soon after his arrival, he
was operating a printing press in the parish of St Andrew, close to the
commercial centre of the city.9 Two books in Dutch bearing Solempne's imprint from 1568 testify that this was an
unusually well-equipped and competently manned business. Later survivals were
less ambitious, but show that the press was not only serving the Dutch refugees
but also the native English population.
The last item which may, with
certainty, be attributed to Solempne's press dates
from 1571-72 and almost coincides with a change of accommodation which may also
mark a change of occupation for the printer. His grant of citizenship of 1570
in fact recorded two trades; printer, and vendor of Rhenish wine. At some time
in 1572 he moved to premises at the sign of the White Dove in the parish of St
John Maddermarket.10 (In succeeding centuries these premises
were always associated with the sale of liquor and no doubt served the same
purpose at this time.) Solempne remained at this
address until at least 1584 and possibly later.11
The first problem that requires an
answer in any investigation of Solempne's press is
where an apparently prosperous spice merchant obtained a wide range of printing
materials and the level of expertise that is associated with his early
productions. There is no evidence to suggest that he had any connection with
the printing or book trades prior to his arrival in Norwich. There were no
printers among the native population, and so Solempne's
connection with the printing trade probably resulted from an acquaintance ship
with other refugees. In this respect the reference to a second printer in the
census of 1568 probably provides a clue to the answer.
Unlike Solempne,
who came from the province of Brabant, Albert Christian the second printer
originated in Holland.12 He may be identified with Albert Christiaensz one of the well-known group of rebel printers
who were enabled to operate in the town of Vianen
under the protection of the leader of the Protestant faction Hendrik van
Brederode.13 Christiaensz
printed anonymous political and religious tracts and played a part in the
underground distribution of Protestant Bibles printed in Emden. Few works now
surviving may be positively associated with his press, but the
consider able trouble taken by the government in Brussels to bring about its
suppression bears witness to its importance.14 Vianen
finally fell to the forces of Margaret of Parma the Spanish regent on 3 May
1567, but this was no sudden or surprise defeat. It is known that the printer Augustijn van Hasselt was able to escape from the
threatened town taking some of his equipment, and make his way to the haven of
Wesel.15 In all probability Albert Christiaensz was able to do the same, and it would then
have been quite Possible for him to have travelled north to Emden and by sea to
Norwich.
There is no specific evidence to
show that Christiaensz worked for, or in Partnership
with Solempne, merely the single reference showing
that both men were working as printers within the city during the summer of
1568, having both arrived approximately twelve months beforehand. There is also
no further reference to Christiaensz in the surviving
Norwich records relating to the Dutch community, which is perhaps an indication
that he did not remain there for very long after this date. However, the most
likely explanation for the sudden acquisition by Solempne
of a wide range of typographical materials and a workforce with considerable
skill, must be in an association of some kind with Christiaensz.
This is not necessarily to suggest that Christianesz
arrived in the city with his printing materials, hut he may well have advised Solempne and been instrumental in obtaining his equipment.
The most interesting of the two
works known to have come from Solempne's press in
1568 was an edition of the psalms and some prayers in metre translated by
Petrus Dathenus together with a catechism for the use
of the Dutch Reformed Church (STC 2741). The work may have been printed
from an anonymously printed edition of these two titles dating from 1567
(British Library 3434.c.zi) which shared the same preface by Dathenus and was printed with virtually the same
combination of printing types. However, Solempne's
edition also included annotations to the psalms and a short introduction to the
fundamentals of psalm music; the layout of the text on the page was also quite
different. Solempne's psalter was very well printed
using five fairly common black letter types,16 a brevier roman, a pica italic,
individual sorts from an uncial type, and many examples of Granjon's
second music type-face.17 Two designs of printers' ornament
are also found together with one ornate woodcut initial letter 'U' which was
used to mark the opening word of the catechism.
The second work from 1568 was
apparently a reprint of a Dutch translation of the Confession of Faith drawn
up by the Swiss Reformed Church and subsequently studied by some of the Dutch
Calvinists (STC 23557). This book was printed using the same five black
letter types, the pica italic, and the woodcut initial 'U' which were used in the
psalter. The main point of interest in this work is that there are three
identifiable skeleton formes, the running titles of
which all make use of variant spellings of the word 'Switzerland'. Evidence
from running titles is notoriously unreliable as a guide to the organization of
a printing office18 but nevertheless the use of three
skeleton formes with variant spellings may be some
indication that the work was not printed by an extremely small or primitively
organized business.
Items surviving from the press which
were produced after 1568 differ from the two works mentioned above in a number
of ways. They were much smaller and less ambitious productions which were no
longer solely aimed at the refugee community or specifically related to the
Dutch Reformed Church. Three of the four remaining works which are undoubtedly
from Solempne's press were broadsheets and the fourth
consisted of only one octavo gathering, but from this meagre evidence it is
obvious that later standards of workmanship were lower. It also appears that
after 1568 this press had at its disposal smaller quantities of the range of
types that had been used and the Granjon music type
is not found again. There is no concrete evidence to explain these changes. Do
they illustrate the results of the end of a partnership between Solempne and Christiaensz and the
withdrawal of the assets of the latter in the form of typographical materials?
But this explanation perhaps makes too many assumptions about a business
arrangement for which there is no real evidence.
The next surviving works to bear Solempne's imprint were an execution broadside in English
and a perpetual calendar and almanac in Dutch, both dating from 1570. Certayne Versis writtene by Thomas Brooke (STC 3335) contained lines
purporting to have been written by one of the leaders of a minor conspiracy who
was hanged in Norwich in August 1570. This work displays three of the
above-mentioned black letter types together with a rather distinctively styled
woodcut initial 'I' quite different from the initial used in the two earlier
works. The broadsheet also carried the legend, 'Seane,
and allowyd, accordynge to
the Quenes Maiestyes Iniunction', showing that it conformed with the Injunction
of 1559 and had been licensed by the local ecclesiastical authorities.
The perpetual calendar was a rather
curious publication consisting of one octavo gathering and displaying all of Solempne's black letter and roman types together with an uncial
not found elsewhere (STC 401.6)19. This work was similar in content
to a number of perpetual calendars found in the preliminary matter of some
editions of the New Testament in Dutch (e.g. British Library 3041.a.7 and
3041.a.8) giving information relating to feast days, important fairs, solstices
and important historical dates. However Solempne's
edition also contained material that was clearly aimed specifically at the
Norwich refugee community.20 The title-page of this small work
contained a rather crude representation of the English Royal Arms together with
the loyal slogan, 'Godt bevvaer
de Coninginne Elizabeth'.
These two publications coincide with
two documentary references showing that the printer was undertaking commissions
for the English citizens. Brief reference has already been made to the
employment of Solempne to print bye-laws in May 1570,
but about the same time he was also paid four shillings by the overseers of the
poor for the parish of St Andrew for printing 'pclamacons'.21 Finally, there has recently been
discovered another broadsheet in English bearing Solempne's
imprint on this occasion hand-written - dating from 1572. A Prayer to be Sayd in the End of the Mornyng
Prayer Daily (through the Dioeces of Norwich) during
the Tyme of this Sharp Wether,
of Frost and Snow (STC 16510.5) was printed using three of Solempne's black letter type faces,
and there is no reason to doubt the authenticity of the hand-written statement,
'Imprinted at Norwich in ye parish of St Andrewe by Antho: de Solempne'. This work
was also 'seane and allowyd,
by the licensing authority.
These five titles represent the
complete output of this press surviving with Solempne's
imprint. They were markedly uncontroversial works; the two books in Dutch were
related to the worship of the Dutch Reformed Church which was tolerated in
England, and the remaining three pieces were ephemera which might have been
printed by any press in London. However there is evidence that on one occasion
at least Solempne did not attach his name to a work
which he printed and did not adhere to the legal requirement of having it
inspected by the ecclesiastical authorities prior to publication.
In July 1569 a wealthy merchant
commissioned Solempne to print one hundred copies of
a small broadsheet in French entitled Tableau de l'oeuure
de Dieu (STC 3792). The table was the work of
Antonio del Corro a Spanish Protestant minister who
had fled from Antwerp to London in 1567. Corro later
related that the printer was not conversant with the French language and so he
asked De la Forest, the minister of the Walloon church in Norwich, to correct
the proof of the broadsheet. The minister was so horrified by the doctrines
expressed in the table that he covered the margins with twenty-five 'censures',
claiming that it represented an attack on orthodox christology
and predestination.22 Despite this criticism the work was
produced but with no name of printer or place of publication, and it soon
became the cause of a major controversy between Corro
and the elders of his adopted Italian Protestant congregation in London. This
dispute came to the notice of Edmund Grindal, Bishop
of London, who specifically noted that the publication had not been submitted
for approval before it was printed.23 The bishop tried unsuccessfully to
resolve the dispute between the preacher and his elders but was eventually
forced to suspend Corro from preaching.
The author later claimed that his
table was printed in Norwich only because Solempne
could quote a lower price - one crown - and was willing to undertake such a
small job.24 However, the problems resulting from
the publication of this small work, and the fact that no attempt was made to
obtain authority to publish, makes it appear that there may have been other
factors in the decision to have the table printed in Norwich. Without doubt
there would have been considerably more difficulty in getting the work legally
printed in London. An examination of the sole surviving copy of the table
confirms the documentary evidence; four of Solempne's
black letter type-faces and two of his ornaments from the edition of the psalms
are found to have been used. The following year an extended and revised Latin
version (STC 3793) and a second French version (STC 3792.3) of
the table were published without imprint. The Latin version was given the
speculative imprint London? or Norwich? 1570?] in the first edition of STC, but
there appears to be no bibliographical or documentary evidence to associate
either work with Solempne's press.25
The dispute resulting from the
publication of the first French version of the Tableau de l'oeuure de Dieu in 1569
demonstrates - albeit in a small way -that Solempne
had not been working under the same constraints as English printers up to this
time and that he might find it convenient quietly to ignore the regulations
relating to the licensing of printed works. The subsequent controversy
certainly brought the Norwich press to the notice of the Bishop of London, and
may even have been instrumental in tightening the control over its operations.
There is no record of any action being taken against the printer for his part
in the misdemeanour, but it may be significant that subsequent broadsides carry
the legend 'seen and allowed'.
In the library of Trinity College
Dublin there was to be found an interesting volume which was probably once part
of the library of James Ussher, archbishop of Armagh (Trinity College Library
CC.h.7/7A, now rebound in two volumes). The book originally contained Solempne's edition of the psalms, his perpetual calendar,
and an anonymously printed octavo edition of the New Testament from the Dutch
translation of the Deus-aes Bible
incorporating the annotations of August Marlorat. On
the title-page of this New Testament is a very fine oval woodcut depicting a
man felling the barren fig tree from Matthew 3, and the date 1568. The work has
an editor's preface dated 29 October of the same year.
Henry Cotton, the nineteenth-century
bibliographer, was the first to describe the Trinity College volume in print
and had no doubt about the origins of the New Testament: 'when it is stated
that it is printed with the same types as those of the psalms, bears
the same date, is of the same size, and bound up in the same volume, there
cannot be the slightest doubt that this as well as the other two is the product
of Anthony de Solemne's press'.26 There are, in fact, examples of all
five of Solempne's black letter types found in the
New Testament as well as two others not found in any work by this printer. This
combination of type-faces might be thought to be conclusive evidence of Solempne's workmanship27 especially when it is taken with
the circumstantial, but nevertheless very significant, association with other
works from the press; an association which probably dates from the sixteenth
century. Furthermore one woodcut initial from this work (see Plate Tic), is a
very close copy of the initial used in Solempne's
execution broadside, and three others appear in a work by Reginald Gonsalvius Montanus intitled Der Heyliger Hispanischer Inquisitie (STC 12001)
which, although it was not known to Cotton, has nevertheless been attributed to
Solempne's press since the end of the nineteenth
century.
In spite of all this evidence Cotton
was wrong; the New Testament was almost certainly printed in Emden rather than
Norwich. It is one of a series of Dutch New Testaments including octavo and
duodecimo editions of 1567 and 1568 and a sextodecimo
of 1567, each of which has the same distinctive woodcut on the
title-page. The 1567 octavo differs slightly from the others by having no
annotations of Marlorat and having an imprint 'Ghedruckt by Lenaert der
Kinderen'.28 All the types and a large number of
the woodcut initials found in these works can also be found in books attributed
to the Emden presses of Steven Mierdman, Willem Gailliart and Lenaert Der Kinderen. The relationship between these men is obscure. Gailliart succeeded to the business and printing materials
of Mierdman in 1558, but Kinderen
may not have been a master printer in his own right.
H. F. Wijnman
has suggested that the name Kinderen may have been a
pseudonym for Willem Gailliart,29 but an alternative view is that he
may have been an itinerant publisher who employed several printers including
Gailliart.30 It may therefore be said that the
New Testament described by Cotton was printed using materials which were in use
in Emden and which were probably in the hands of Willem Gailliart
in 1568.
The same printer was probably
responsible for the 1569 edition of the account of the Spanish Inquisition by Reginaldus Gonsalvius Montanus referred to above. This work was first ascribed to
Solempne's press by a nineteenth-century owner
(probably Charles Rahlenbeck) on the basis of a
correspondence between the text type with that used in Solempne's
Belijdnenisse ende
eenuoudige wtlegghinge des gheloofs, 1568 (STC 23557), the translation of the Confession
of Faith. Both these books were purchased by Cambridge University Library
from the Rahlenbeck sale in 190431 and the attribution was thereafter
accepted by Sayle32 and the compilers of the first edition of STC. However
only three of the seven types found in Der Heyliger
Hispanischer Inquisitie may
be associated with Solempne whereas many of the
typo-graphical materials and woodcuts appear in works printed by Gailliart.33
These two mistaken attributions do
however highlight some coincidental connections between the presses of Solempne and Gailliart. All the
black letter type-faces owned by Solempne were also
owned by Gailliart. Of the two woodcut initials known
to have been owned by Solempne, the letter 'I' was a
copy of a cut belonging to Gailliart, and the letter
'U' was a good replica of a 'U' (see Plate lie) from a series of cuts owned by Mierdman many of which later passed to Gailliart.34 The perpetual calendars found in
the preliminary matter of the duodecimo and sextodecimo
New Testaments mentioned above clearly formed the basis of Solempne's
calendar of 1 70, and the Trinity College volume contains Solempne's
calendar bound before the anonymous New Testament in exactly the same way that
these perpetual calendars precede the text in the smaller formats.35
A second volume from the Library of
Trinity College Dublin (CC.h.22) which was also possibly from Ussher's
collection, has resulted in another wrongful attribution of a work to the
press. This volume contains a second copy of Solempne's
perpetual calendar and of his psalter, bound together with an anonymously
printed edition of Der Siecken Troost
dated 1566.36 This title was not seen by Cotton
but was noted by W. H. Alnutt;37 it contains examples of all five of
the black letter types owned by Solempne and no
others, but not one of the woodcut initials appears in books which have ever
been attributed to the press. Assuming that the date on the title-page is
genuine, the work could not possibly have been printed by Solempne
in Norwich and it also probably originates from Emden.
There are some indications,
therefore, that there was some contact between the refugee printers in Norwich
and those in Emden although there is insufficient evidence to be able to judge
exactly how extensive. It appears that Solempne's
typographical material originated from the same source as much of that
belonging to Gailliart. It is also quite likely that
items printed in Emden were fairly readily available to the Dutch refugees in
Norwich, perhaps through the agency of one or more of the four Dutch
booksellers listed on the 1568 census.38 Such contact is not surprising;
each of the refugee communities maintained its part in an elaborate system of
communication with one another and in particular with the mother churches of
London and Emden.39 (The Norwich community was larger
than that in London but was established later and was less influential.) In
some respects, and particularly in matters of religious doctrine, the Reformed
Congregation of Norwich was more closely akin to that of Emden.
An anonymous note in a
nineteenth-century journal suggests that Solempne's
press was set up as a part of the well-known network of refugee presses centred
on Emden which produced anti-Spanish propaganda and vernacular translations of
scripture with the intention that these should be smuggled back into occupied
areas of the Low Countries.40 Another nineteenth-century
commentator even went so far as to say that the press was responsible for some
editions of the Bible in Dutch printed c. 1575 which were to be found in
the Library of Trinity College Dublin.41 Unfortunately, it is not now
possible to trace these Bibles and it is open to real doubt whether they ever
existed for 1575 is at least seven years after the great period of refugee
Bible printing.42 These unsubstantiated claims,
(which perhaps come from the same source) give rise to the valid, if almost
unanswerable question why such a press should have been founded in Norwich at
that time. Solempne must have realized that it was
totally uneconomic for him to print books in Dutch for sale to a community of
at most 4,000 adults. The examples of printing in English after 1570 may be an
illustration of his trying to broaden the economic base of his business, but
there appears to be no satisfactory explanation why such a singularly
well-equipped venture was set up in the first place and how it survived during
the crucial early years from the end of 1567 to 1569.
Bearing in mind the heavy controls
on all English printing and the rather ambiguous foreign policy towards Spain
that was being pursued by Elizabeth's government during the early years of the
revolt in the Netherlands, it seems hardly conceivable that a press could have
existed in the English provinces during the late 1560s and early 1570s for
printing works to be smuggled abroad. But it might be argued that any kind of
press in Norwich would seem equally unlikely were it not that there is so much
evidence to prove that it existed. It is also intriguing to speculate by what
means Solempne was able to evade the terms of the
Royal Charter of the Stationers' Company of 1557, for he appears to have had no
recorded dealings with the company. By implication his actions were either
licensed43 or were quietly permitted by the
Crown in some way which is not recorded. It may be that this was done through
the influence of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, who was a patron and supporter
of the interests of the Norwich refugees before his fall from grace,44 but this must remain speculation.
These questions have been considered
because they have a bearing on other attributions which are frequently made to Solempne's press, the truth of which are yet to be
satisfactorily resolved. There are two books in particular which have been
attributed to Solempne on several occasions in print.
These give rise to many problems for they were both produced a decade after the
more substantial works from his press and at least six years after he appears
to have given up printing.
The first of these works is an
octavo edition of the second book of the so-called sermons of Brother Cornelis Adrians, a well-known
preacher and extremist leader of the Catholic party in Bruges (STC 151)
Paradoxically the two books of the sermons of Brother Cornelis
which were anonymously printed in 1569 and 1578 represented important pieces of
anti-Catholic propaganda. The sermons may be suppositious, or were perhaps
adapted for the use of the preacher's enemies, but together with a satirical
commentary, they depict him as a vindictive and immoral man.45 The imprint of the second book of
sermons has the ambiguous statement, 'Nu eerstmael in
Druck vuytgegeuen, buyten Noirdvvitz', and the last
two words have been variously translated as 'except in Norwegian'46 and, more convincingly, as 'outside
Norwich City Walls'.47 Cotton had no doubt that a copy of
this work in Trinity College Dublin was printed by Solempne,48 and this attribution was accepted
in the BMC and by the compilers of the first edition of STC. There
is, however, a body of opinion that believes this imprint is fictitious and
that the work was printed on the Continent.49 This judgement is wholly supported
by an examination of the type-faces and woodcut ornaments found in the book,
for not one can be found in any piece of Solempne's
printing or any other work that has been associated with his press.
Furthermore, there are a number of conventions used by the printer of these
sermons - such as pagination rather than foliation - which also decry any
connection with Solempne's press.
Although it is possible to state
with some certainty that the second book of the sermons of Cornelius Adrians is not the work of Solempne,
the matter is further complicated by a recent suggestion made by Herman de la
Fontaine Verwey that Solempne
might have been responsible for the first book of sermons, entitled Historie van B. Cornelis
Adnaensen van Dordrecht.50 The bibliographical evidence for such a suggestion is
fairly strong as this book contains four black letter types and one italic used
by Solempne as well as the same two type ornaments.
One roman type does not, however, correspond with those known to have belonged
to Solempne, and a woodcut initial 'N' came from the
same series as Solempne's 'U'. The publication date
of 1569 also fits neatly into the printer's known period of working. However,
unsupported typographical evidence of this kind does not provide a sufficiently
strong case finally to attribute the work to Solempne.
Professor de la Fontaine Verwey notes that the
typography of the Historie does not
exclude the previously accepted opinion that the work was printed by the Bruges
Catholic printer, Pieter de Clerck, although he
believes it very unlikely that such a book was printed in the Netherlands under
Alva's rule.
The second problematic attribution
concerns the Chronyc Historie
der Nederlandtscher Oorlogen
(STC 17450), which was printed about 1579 or 1580. This was a translation
of Adam Henricpetri's Niderlendischer
erster Kriegen Emporungen (Basle, 1575), to which was added additional
material, in itself more than the length of the original work, which brought
the story up to date. The new material, constituting book three of the Dutch
version, was apparently not by Henricpetri but by his
translator, a man signing himself 'Theophilus idiota'. There is no name of a printer given on the book,
merely the imprint 'Ghedruckt tot Noortwitz
na de Copie van Basel. Anno
1579'.
In this extended form, the Chronyc Historie is
of major importance to Dutch historiography, representing the most detailed
early work on the revolt in the Netherlands. Although violently anti-Catholic
in tone, the book nevertheless gives a reliable account of the early years of
the struggle and had considerable effect as a piece of anti-Spanish propaganda.
In 1581 the whole work was translated into French by the same man, this time
signing himself 'Theophile D.L.', and claiming the
authorship. In 1583 it was translated into English (STC 17450.3) and
also completely rewritten in a Pro-Spanish, second French version which was
published in order to deceive readers into thinking it the same work.
The importance of the Chronyc Historie has
caused a great deal of discussion about the identification of the
author/translator and the first printer.51 The author was once thought to be
Philips van Marnix, Lord of St Aldegonde,
but this attribution is no longer widely accepted.52 A more convincing case for the
authorship of Gilbert Roy or Regius has been made
recently on the basis of a note in a manuscript chronicle of the Antwerp
engraver, Phillips Galle, to the effect that he had borrowed much of his
material from documents put at the disposal of Roy so that he could write a
history of the wars in the Low Countries. This suggestion was made by B.A. Vermaseren who also claimed that the pseudonym, 'Theophilus idiota', was adopted
by Roy because he was frequently confused with the savant, Bonaventura
Vulcanius.53 Another widely accepted candidate
for the translator of the whole work, and thereby the authorship of the latter
part, is Carolus Ryckewaert, a Dutch refugee minister
who fled to Norwich. At the time of this publication Ryckewaert
was living in Thetford in Norfolk following a dispute with some of his
colleagues in Norwich.54 Throughout his career Ryckewaert used, and was known by, the pseudonym 'Theophilus' -and there are numerous contemporary references
to him by this name. The letters 'D.L.' following the French version are
ambiguous and have been interpreted in a number of ways to support the claims
of both Ryckewaert and Roy.
The identity of the printer of this
work was for many years assumed to be Anthony de Solempne,
largely on the basis of the word 'Noortwitz in the
imprint and the certainty that this printer knew Ryckewaert,
having been an elder of his church. This attribution is likewise not
universally accepted. Thus, Dr B. A. Vermaseren cited
the opinion of Dr Leon Voet, that on typographical
evidence the work might be ascribed to the press of Willem Silvius, who had
recently fled from Antwerp to Leiden.55 Dr Vermaseren
suggested that the word 'Noortwitz' was an allusion
to Silvius, being derived from 'Noordwijk', the manor
of his friend Janus Dousa. W. J. C. Moens, in an earlier work, suggested that the Chronyc Historie was
printed by Solempne, who used the form 'Noortwitz' rather than 'Nordwijck'
in an attempt partially to disguise the origin of the work.56 'Noortwitz'
was, however, a perfectly acceptable Dutch rendering of Norwich, very similar
to the form 'Noorwitz' used in Solempne's
imprints of 1568.
Although at least four of the five
black letter types found in the Chronyc Historie were owned by Willem Silvius,57 and the book had the same 'run
down' appearance of some of his productions of this period, all five of these
types were owned by Solempne. But this work also
contains small quantities of two roman types, an italic, and a type ornament
which are not found in Solempne's work. The evidence
of woodcut initials is inconclusive and rather confusing, but there are
apparently no woodcuts corresponding with those used by Silvius. The initials
used are similar in style to the set owned y Gailliart, a copy of one of which was owned by Solempne. An initial 'D' Is, however, either an excellent
copy of perhaps the same cut as one used eleven years earlier in the 1567
octavo New Testament mentioned above (compare Plates Ha and lib).
The circumstances surrounding the
production of the Chronyc Historie are still clothed in mystery and it is not
possible to make a definite judgement on whether or not Solempne
was the printer. On the basis of the evidence presented here it may be argued
that the case for Solempne having been the printer is
as strong as that for Silvius but the evidence is far from conclusive and it is
not even certain that these are the only possible candidates. The main
difficulty with an attribution to Solempne's press is
reconciling the date of 1578 with this printer's career. If he did begin
printing again after a gap of about seven years, it could only have been for
exceptional and non-commercial reasons. A second point is that even a cursory
examination of the Chronyc Historie shows that it was very badly produced, perhaps
using inexperienced workmen and certainly with type that was in very short
supply.58 It is impossible to reconcile this
production with the fairly high standards of the Dathenus
psalter of 1568 unless, perhaps, the hypothetical departure of Albert Christiaensz, taking with him a proportion of the types, is
taken into account.
Finally, there are two further
attributions to the press which may be dismissed with more certainty. The first
of these was an anti-Catholic pamphlet De Val der Roomscher
Kercken (STC 21307.5), which had already been
published in a number of editions in Dutch and English before the appearance of
another Dutch edition containing no imprint, no date, and no preliminary matter
of any kind which might give a clue to its origin. This edition was apparently
first attributed to the press of Solempne together
with the clearly incorrect speculative date of c. 1550, in a sale catalogue of
the library of M.-J. Six De Vromade published by Van
Stockum's Antiquaariat in 1925.59 Another copy of this edition was
acquired by the British Museum where it was attributed to the press of S. Mierdman, Antwerp C. 15 6o (British Library 3925.a.5) STC
does, however, include this copy with the provisional imprint [Norwich, A.
de Solempne? C. 1570]. Of the three types used, only
two were owned by Solempne, and there are no woodcut
initials or printers ornaments which might give a clue to the origin of the
work. In the absence of further evidence, the attribution of this work to Solempne's press should be rejected.
For the sake of completeness,
mention should also be made of one other title which has been ascribed to Solempne but which is probably a ghost, although it may
just possibly be a genuine edition which has been lost for a century. Writing
in 1862, Charles Rahlenbeck mentioned a duodecimo
edition of Bullinger's Somme der Christelyke Religie dated
1578 with the printer's imprint.60 If such a work did exist and the
date quoted is correct, much that has been written in this paper would be
invalid. However no subsequent commentator has mentioned this work, and the
note in which it is described also carries an extremely inaccurate description
of Solempne's Confession of Faith which
mistakes the date, the wording of the title, and the format.
Few sixteenth century printers have
suffered from such a relatively large number of works being wrongfully
attributed to them as Anthony de Solempne. This must
be partly due to the lack of any real knowledge about the true function of the
press, the reason why it was set up and the way it was run. It is also
noteworthy that Solempne had no lasting impact on the
history of the city of Norwich. The existence of his press was forgotten during
the seventeenth century and so the next printer - Francis Burges -was able to
state quite surely that he had introduced the trade to the city in 1701. A few
years later the antiquary, Thomas Hearne, discovered and published the
execution broadside,61 and Francis Blomefield
came across the entry for Solempne in the Register of
Freemen.62 But it was not until the
publication of Cotton's Typographical Gazetteer in the nineteenth
century that there was any published description of works from his press.
Reading, 1980
1 The census
was carried out in centres where refugees had settled. See J. Strype The Life and Acts of Matthew Parker (Oxford,
1821), I, 521-22.
2. 'Anthonius de la Solemme tipographus cum uxore et duobus pueris ex Brabantia huc venit
Anno 1567' and 'Albertus Christiani tipographus ex Hollandia venit huc Anno 1567'. A
contemporary copy of the return is preserved in the Norwich Dean and Chapter
Archive (unnumbered). It was published by Walter Rye in Norfolk Antiquarian
Miscellany (Norwich, 1877), III, 215.
3 Norfolk
Record Office, Clavors Book (1550-1601), 21st May
1570.
4 P. Millican The Register of the Freemen of Norwich
1548-1713, (Norwich, 1934), p. 111.
5 . I have been
assisted by a number of librarians and scholars who have answered my letters
about Solempne but I owe a particular debt to Miss
Katharine Pantzer of the Houghton Library, Mr Harry Carter of the Oxford
University Press, and Professor Herman de La Fontaine Verwey
of Amsterdam for their advice. Any errors are my own
6 Antwerpsch archievenblad, ii 434.
7 ' N.R.O.,
Mayors Court Book 10 (1576-1581), f. 298.
8 Public
Record Office, Lay Subsidy Rolls, 23 Eliz., St John's Parish, Wymer Ward Norwich (152/403 membrane 7).
9 . This
address is given on the imprint of T. Brooke Certayne
Versis (Norwich, 1570).
10 N.R.O.
Miscellaneous Military Documents (13A) iii-vi, 1572-1580 and Norfolk and
Norwich Notes and Queries, 1 ser. (1888), 34
11 See Norfolk
Archaeology 20, 231. A new building was erected on this site in 1586. Solempne's name does not appear on a number of lists of
Dutchmen living in Norwich compiled after 1584, but the churchwardens’ accounts
of St Stephen’s parish have one isolated entry for this name in the year
1606-07. This probably refers to one of the printer's sons.
12. Rye, 217.
13 . H. de La Fontaine Verwey, 'Hendrik
van Brederode en de drukkerijen van Vianen', Het Boek 30 (1949), 3. Vianen was a
sovereign fief held directly of the Emperor by the Brederodes
and therefore provided more security for Protestant Printers.
14 B. A. Vermaseren, 'The Mother-in-Law of Albert Christiaensz, Printer and Book Dealer at Vianen', Quaerendo 6
(1976), 195.
15 L. Voet, The Golden Compasses (Amsterdam, 1969~72), 1,
50.
16 Using the
nomenclature of H. Vervliet, Sixteenth-Century
Printing Types of the Low Countries (Amsterdam, 1968), these were T3, T52, T30,
T43, and T47. Other types have not been identified with certainty.
17 D. W. Krummel, English Music Printing 1553-1700
(1975), p. 51.
18 See D. F.
McKenzie, 'Printers of the mind', SB 22 (1969), 1.
19 Vervliet U7.
20 E. M. Beloe,
Anthony de Solempne’s Perpetual
Calendar, Norwich, 1570 (Kings Lynn, 1915), p.5.
21 F. Beecheno, St Andrew’s Church and Parish (Norwich, 5911),
p.15. The original is apparently now lost.
22 P. Hauben, Three Spanish Heretics and the Reformation
(Geneva, 1967), p. 46; W. McFadden The Life and Times of Antonio del Corro 1527-1591, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Queens
University Belfast, 1953; and E. Boehmer
Spanish Reformer of Two Centuries from 1520 (Strasbourg, 1904), III, 92.
See also D. Woodfield, Surreptitious printing in England 1550-1640 (New
York, 1973), p.2.
23 J Strype, The Life and Acts of... Edmund Grindal (1710), p.225.
24 Boehmer, p. 94.
25 These works
possibly came from the press of Henry Bynneman in
London - information from Miss K. Pantzer.
26 H. Cotton Typographical
Gazetteer (Oxford, 1831), p. 196. The name 'Deus-aes'
apparently comes from Luther's use of the metaphor of gaming dice to refer to
the lower classes, the nobility, and the middle classes, in a marginal note to
Nehemiah in 1534; 'Deus-aes has nothing, six-cinque
won't give anything, quater-dry helps greatly' (Cambridge
History of the Bible, 511, 122-25).
27 Vervliet (p. 17) suggests that the correspondence of four type faces will usually be sufficient evidence to ascribe
the work to a given printer, but the four larger sizes of black letter type
owned by Solempne were particularly common amongst
Dutch printers at this time. The two types found in this New Testament not
found elsewhere in works by Solempne were Vervliet T51 and an unidentified brevier schwabacher.
28 This edition was described by P. Vogel in 'Der Niederlindisebe
Bibeldruck in Emden 1556-1568', Gutenberg Jahrbuch (1961). 170 and 'Die Druckermarken in den Emdener Niederlindisehen
Bibeldrucken 1556-1568', Gutenberg Jahrbuch (1962), 456 with reservations about the likelihood
of its having
been printed in Emden.
29 H. F. Wijnman,
'Grepen uit de geschiedenis van de Nederlandse emigrantendrukkerijen te Emden',
Het Boek 36 (1963-64), 141' and 37 (1965-66),
121.
30 Information
from Professor H. de La Fontaine Verwey, Amsterdam.
31 Information
from Mr D. McKitterick, Cambridge University Library.
STC gives the title for 23557 as reproduced here; the title on the title-page
actually concludes: des waerachtighen gheloofs. "
32 C Sayle, Early English Printed Books in the University
Library Cambridge 1475-1640 (Cambridge, 1900-07) III, 1768 reprints a
manuscript note in the volume, 'Prob. imp s Norwich en
Angleterre par Antoine Solen
refugie flamand'.
33 The types
used in this work are Vervliet T30, T43, T47, R17,
1T3, IT10, and an unidentified pica roman. The information on Gailliart from Professor H. de la Fontaine Verwey.
34 The 'I' was
also used in a quarto Bible with the imprint Lenaert
Der Kinderen, 1563 (British Library 464.a.11). The
'U' appears in a folio Bible printed by Mierdman in
1568 (British Library 3040.e.4).
35 Even the
wording of the title-pages is very similar: 'Het nieuwe
Testament. . . Hier is oock byghenoecht: Eenen Kalendier Historiael met de Jaermerckten
van diuersche Landen / Steden ende Urijheden' (British Library 3041.a.7 and
3041.a.s) and 'Eenen Calendier Historiael / met den Jaermercten van diuersche Landen
Steden ende Urijheden' (STC 401.6).
36 Der Siecken Troost has been
given a provisional number in the STC revision as 5600.5 but the new entry will
carry a note to the effect that the work was probably printed abroad -
information from Miss Pantzer.
37 W. H. Alnutt, 'English provincial presses', Bibliographia,
2 (1896), 153.
38 These were
Cornelius van Hille, Joannes
Paetz, Anthonius Rabat and Petrus Jason.
39 G. Parker, The
Dutch Revolt ('977), pp. 118-19.
40 Norfolk and
Norwich Notes and Queries, I ser. (1888), 308.
41 J H Van Lennep published a note to this effect in De Narvorscher 10 (I860), 132-33 on the basis of
information from an unnamed correspondent in England.
42 . See the table in L. Hahn, Die Ansbreitung der neuhochdeutschen Schrift sprache in Ostfriesland (Leipzig, 1952), pp. 122-23.
43 C. Rahlenbeck, 'Notes sur les auteurs, les imprimeurs
et les distributeurs des pamphlets politiques et religieux du xvie
siecle - Theophile', Bulletin
du bibliophile Belge, 18 (1862), 419 states that Solempne received a patent from Elizabeth in 1570 as a
printer and bookseller. He cited British Library Add. MS 5151 'Collections by
Joseph Ames' as a source for this information, but I have been unable to trace
this reference in the manuscript.
44 A. H.
Smith, County and Court' (Oxford, 1974). p.31.
45 H. de la
Fontaine Verwey, 'The first private press in the Low
Countries. Marcus Laurinus and the Officina Goltziana', Quaerendo 2 (1972), 294.
46 Beloe, p. 61.
47 L. Forster Janus
Gruter's English Years (Oxford, 1967), p.32.
There are a number of instances of 'buiten' in the
imprints of clandestine books and the idea was evidently to tease the censor.
The wording probably means 'outside Norwich' although perhaps nothing so
literal as 'outside the walls' - information from Mr H. Carter.
48 Cotton,
p.597.
49 Nieaw
Nederlandsch woordenboek (Leiden, 1915-37) iv, 451.
50 H. de la Fontaine Verwey, Quaerendo 2 (1972), 294-310.
51 Rahlenbeck,
pp.416 if.; F. van Ottroy 'Contribution a 1'histoire des imprimeurs
et des libraires Belges, etablis a l'etranger', Revue
des bibliotheques 36 (1926), 295; P. J. Blok, 'Theophilus Henricpetri',
Bijdragen voor vaderlandsche gesehiedenis
en oudheidkunde 4 (1908), 195; W. J. C. Moens, 'Bibliography
of "Chronyc historie der Nederlandtscher
oorlogen etc.", Archaeologia 51 (1888),
205.
52 See Moens, 235 and the note accompanying the STC 17450.
53 B. A. Vermaseren, 'Gilb. Roy, alias Theophilus, auteur van de anonieme
"Chronyc historie"
. of "Histoire des troubles . . . des Pays-bas" (1582)', De Gulden
Passer (I958), p.91.
54 Nieuw Nederlandsch woordenboek,
313, 1114.
55 Vermaseren,
p. 100.
56 Moens, p.206.
57 Vervliet T3, T52, T30, and T43. This
statement is based only on an examination of those books printed by Silvius in
the British Library.
58 Two of the
founts used were foul. The book was printed using a single skeleton forme and there is considerable loss of register between
the printed matter on each side of many of the sheets. This may have been the
result of the sheets being perfected some time after
the first forme was printed, the paper having shrunk
slightly in the meantime.
59 Woodfleld, p.140.
60 Rahlenbeck, p.
61 T. Hearne, Joannis Lelandi Antiquarii du rebus Britannicis collectanea (1770), VI, 41.
62
62 F. Blomefield, An Essay towards a Topographical History of Norfolk
(Fersfield, Norwich and Lynn, 1739-73), II, 210.
Family
Tayspil from Antwerpen. An extraordinary
parallel with family Der Kinderen
An
article in one of the publications of the Dutch genealogic community “Gens
Nostra” of oktober 2014 describes the story of
the Tayspil family who also fled from Antwerp after
the Spanish army besieged the city. As the Kinderen
family, they moved to England, Emden in
Germany, Kampen Delft and Leiden in Holland ending up
in Amsterdam where they also connected with a Frisian family.