Abraham and Bonaventura Elsevier

Abstract

The partnership of Bonaventura and Abraham, formed in 1622, endured until 1652, Abraham devoting his attention to the actual printing while Bonaventura directed the enterprise. During the thirty-year period the men published nearly half the books issued by the Leyden Elseviers in the one hundred and thirty-two years of the firm’s existence, and were easily the best typographers of the Elsevier dynasty. Their success was probably due to personal qualities, but external circumstances were in their favor. From the time the first Louis Elsevier arrived in Leyden in 1581 until the death of Bonaventura and Abraham in 1652, Leyden continued to increase in population and prosperity; but whereas before the time of Abraham and Bonaventura population growth, prices, and the cost of living shot up with great rapidity, during the period of the partnership the increases were less spectacular. This latter period of the city’s growth, a period of peace and gradually expanding economy, was a more congenial climate for publishing.