Militant Printers’ Marks across the Southern Low Countries (1561–1640)
Résumé
The publisher’s device is a distinctive sign of manufacture and often a very refined ornament which has so far stirred bibliophilic curiosity more than historical analysis. It is however the direct expression of the convictions and commercial goals of the publisher who invented it through complex and varied literary and iconographic sources. Adopted to authenticate and promote production, the publisher’s device is a sign which may show the ideological apprehensions and tastes of printers and booksellers who spread ideas. This study identifies emblematic sources used for the invention of publishers’ devices between the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries in the southern Netherlands, and especially those from Douai. As an imago-textual composition related to the emblematic genre, the publisher’s device is analysed in relation to the message it conveys, while considering the reading practices specific to the scholarly milieu targeted by its inventor.