Jan Moretus

Jan Moretus, also known as Jan Moerentorf, was born in Antwerp to a merchant family that moved from Lille some time before 1537. His father died in 1558 and it was also around this time that he started to work for Christopher Plantin, head of the publishing firm Officina Plantiniana. During the early 1560s Moretus was in Venice, probably working for Plantin’s partners. By 1565 he was back in Antwerp working for Plantin. By 1570 he was Plantin’s right hand-man, and on 4 June 1570 he also became his son-in-low by marrying his daughter Martine.

From the 1570s Moretus was responsible for all business matters of the book trade and for the representation of the Plantin Press at the Frankfurt book fair, at the time the most important book fair in Europe. Impressed by Moretus’s loyalty, business and language skills (he was fluent in Latin, Spanish, Italian, French, and Dutch), which turned out to be very useful in their daily contacts with book dealers from all over Europe, Plantin decided in his will in 1588 that Moretus will inherit the Officina Plantiniana. Moretus successfully ran Officina from 1589 till 1610, when the business was taken over by his sons Balthasar and Jan.