Franciscus Raphelengius

Printer and bookseller
Franciscus Raphelengius, born Frans van Ravelingen, was a Flemish-born Dutch scholar, printer and bookseller, based in Leiden. He was born on 27 January 1539 in Lannoy, French Flanders, near Lille. Franciscus had studied Latin, Greek, and oriental languages in Ghent, Cologne and Paris. In 1564 he came to Antwerp and started to work as a proof reader for one of the most important printer of his day, Christophe Plantin. In the next year he married Plantin’s daughter Margaretha.

In 1583 his father-in-law opened a printing press in Leiden, mostly to facilitate the needs of the Leiden University, while Franciscus was left in charge of the business in Antwerp. In 1585 Plantin and Raphelengius decided to change places, and in 1586 Raphelengius was running the press in Leiden and was appointed Printer to the university in March. In June of the same year he was appointed as extraordinary professor of Hebrew, and the next year he became ordinary professor and held his office until his death in July 1597. The printing office was succeeded by his son Chrisopher who died in 1600, after what the office passed to Franciscus younger son Franciscus. Franciscus the younger.

Among the most important works of Raphelengius were his contribution to Biblia Regalia published in eight volumes in 1572-1573, his Arabic-Latin dictionary Lexicon arabicum, and a number of Hebrew books which were the first Hebrew books printed in Northern Netherlands.