ARCHIVE OF THE AMSTERDAM BOOKSELLERS GUILD, 1662-1812
On microfiche
Background
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Amsterdam was the publishing and bookselling capital of Europe. In no other city in the Dutch Republic or in Europe for that matter, were there more members of the various branches of the book trade. The growth of the business of printing and selling books made the formation of a separate guild for these occupations desirable and so it was that in January 1662 the booksellers and binders left the painters' guild to establish their own together with the printers, who had not had a guild until then. Art and print dealers making use of presses could choose which of the two they would join, while letter founders and makers of playing cards were not under obligation to become a member. In keeping with the general atmosphere of toleration in the Republic Jews could also be admitted.
The guild kept office at a number of locations in Amsterdam in the course of the years and began consciously ordering its archive from the seventeenth century on. In the eighteenth century many loose pieces were bound into folio volumes and extensive indexes were made. Through a series of circumstances the archive was split in the nineteenth century after the different types of works can be researched with the use of these documents. The products of European culture in the Golden Age and Age of Enlightenment can be found here from obscure local authors to the literary and cultural giants of the period, such as Voltaire.
Also of interest is a virtually complete run of nearly 100 years of a popular Dutch almanac (Stichter's Comptoir Almanach) that the guild kept in its offices for making annotations year in, year out concerning book auctions, sales of printing companies and type foundries and the names of booksellers who failed to attend guild meetings.
The almanac is in itself a valuable source for popular culture, containing for example, representations of the four seasons and other prints, prognostications and chronicles, as well as practical information such as the dates and places of markets and the schedules of postal and public transportation services.
Also available
INTERNATIONAL BOOK TRADE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Booksellers' accounts, 1697-1803, from the Luchtmans Archive
The archive
The Luchtmans archive is unique in the Dutch Republic and one of the rare survivors for this period in all Europe. The family goes back to the mid-seventeenth century when Jordaen Luchtmans was a publisher of Pierre Bayle (Dictionnaire historique et critique). The firm became famous for its "auctores classici" and as an academic and city printer. In 1845 the firm was completely incorporated into E.J. Brill in Leiden, until then only a printer. It marked the rise of Brill as a scholarly publishing house that exists to this day.
Luchtmans had contacts with booksellers throughout the Dutch Republic and with many abroad, so that national and international channels of communication in this trade can be traced through the material. The most important series within the archive is the Booksellers' Accounts (Boekverkopers boeken), where these contacts are inventoried in a balancesheet format. Virtually all booksellers of any importance in the Dutch Republic can be followed through these accounts, as well as colleagues in other countries.
Possibilities for research
The collection can furnish many types of data for research on a host of subjects, for example
— Bibliographic information on book titles, dates and places of publication, print runs, types of books; the firm was especially well known for its series of classical authors and other serious publications of various kinds.
— Information on prices of books in various currencies and monies of account;
— Business relations with other book dealers and the exchanges of books between dealers. Countries where the firm had contacts include: Germany, Italy, France, England, Switzerland, and Portugal.
— Relations with paper merchants and manufacturers.
— Relations with printers.
— The reception of various works in various places and times.
Specifications
Location: University Library Amsterdam, Library of the Netherlands Book Trade Association
Order no.: M310
Size: 346 positive silver microfiches
Finding aids: printed indexes and guide
Price: € 2,355