Willem Lesteens

Guiliam or Willem Lesteens (1590–1661), Latinized Gulielmus Lesteenius, was a printer and publisher in the city of Antwerp, in the Spanish Netherlands.

Printer's mark of Willem Lesteens from the title page of Metamorphosis (1619)
Printer's mark of Willem Lesteens from the title page of Aubert Miraeus, Rerum Belgicarum Chronicon (1636)
Printer's mark of Willem Lesteens from the title page of Massaeus Potvliet, Soete bemerckinghen (1656)

Life

Lesteens was born in Antwerp on 19 April 1590, the son of Gaspard Lesteens and Catherine Jauwens.[1] In 1612 he married Maria Verdussen, the eldest daughter of his godfather, Hieronymus Verdussen, and set up in business as an independent printer.[2] His shop in the Hoogstraat bore the sign of the Gulden Pelicaen (Golden pelican).[3] His printer's mark was a pelican with spread wings feeding its young; in later versions flanked by horns of plenty.

He shared the privilege of printing decrees on coinage with his brother-in-law, Hieronymus Verdussen the Younger, from 26 June 1625 until Verdussen's death in 1653.[4]

In 1641 he served a term as dean of De Olijftak, a chamber of rhetoric, and in 1642–1644 two terms as dean of the Guild of St Luke.[5] In the 1640s he was also the leading figure in an association of Antwerp printers (sociorum typographum Antverpiensium) that clubbed together to share the costs (and risks) of producing expensive editions.[6]

In 1650 Lesteens' daughter, Claire, married Engelbert Gymnicus. After Lesteens' death in 1661, Gymnicus took over the running of the family business in 1662.

Publications

1617
1618
1619
1620
  • Luca Pinelli, De cracht ende Misterie der H. Misse, translated by Nicolaus Burenus
  • Robert Bellarmine, De conste om wel te sterven, translated by Jacobus Stratius (available on Google Books)
1622
1626
1628
1631
  • Pierre Marchant, Expositio litteralis in Regulam S. Francisci – an exposition of the Rule of St Francis
1635
1636
1639
1644
1651
1654
1656
  • with Engelbert Gymnicus: Massaeus Potvliet, Soete bemerckinghen op het Synode der Ghereformeerde ghehouden binnen Dordrecht inde Iaren 1618 ende 1619 (available on Google Books)

References

  1. Fernand Donnet, Het jonstich versaem der Violieren: geschiedenis der rederijkkamer De Olijftak sedert 1480 (Antwerp, 1907), p. 240.
  2. Stijn Van Rossem, Het gevecht met de boeken. De uitgeversstrategieën van de familie Verdussen (1589-1689) (doctoral dissertation, Antwerp, 2014), pp. 44-45.
  3. Stijn Van Rossem, Het gevecht met de boeken. De uitgeversstrategieën van de familie Verdussen (1589-1689) (doctoral dissertation, Antwerp, 2014), p. 40
  4. Stijn Van Rossem, Het gevecht met de boeken. De uitgeversstrategieën van de familie Verdussen (1589-1689) (doctoral dissertation, Antwerp, 2014), pp. 33, 46.
  5. Fernand Donnet, Het jonstich versaem der Violieren: geschiedenis der rederijkkamer De Olijftak sedert 1480 (Antwerp, 1907), p. 240.
  6. Stijn Van Rossem, Het gevecht met de boeken. De uitgeversstrategieën van de familie Verdussen (1589-1689) (doctoral dissertation, Antwerp, 2014), p. 45.
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