History of Limburg

Maastricht book printing began a century after Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press around 1450. The first known printer in Maastricht was Jacob Bathen, who was active in the city from 1551-1554. Over the past 450 years, dozens of printers were active in Maastricht. Sometimes they worked individually; other times they were members of a true printer's dynasty. Think of Dufour and Roux, Leiter-Nypels and Boosten and Stols, but also Ezechiël Boucher, Hendrik Landtmeter and Fanny Bury-Lefèbvre. In the past centuries, hundreds of thousands of books must be have been printed in Maastricht. About 7,500 unique titles are preserved in the closed stacks of the Maastricht University Library, Center Céramique, the Historical Centre Limburg and the Centre for the Social History of Limburg. More than 1100 of these are part of the Special Collections of Maastricht University. The selection of books gives an impression of Maastricht's printing history. In addition, a digitised version of Brother Edgard Heynen's 1947-1948 bibliography is included.