The First of the Elseviers

Abstract

There are difficulties in tracing the history of a printer not encountered in following the career of kings or statesmen.The printer is not praised by courtly chroniclers, or slandered by troublesome democrats. His activities are dimly glimpsed in baptismal and marriage registers, in commercial and legal records. From such sources it has been learned that Louis Elsevier, the first of the name to achieve fame as publisher and bookseller, was born at Louvain (where his ancestors had lived for centuries) in 1546 or 1547, the son of ‘Hans of Louvain,’ a printer. All known facts of his early life are derived from similar barren entries in official records. A narrative based on such data has the verve and suspense of a telephone directory. It is only when the facts are viewed in conjunction with the course of history in general that they possess vitality and interest.