Louis Elsevier

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Louis Elsevier (actually Lodewijk Elzeverius; the family name is also written Elsevier or Elzevier ; * 1540 in Leuven ; † February 4, 1617 in Leiden ) was a Dutch bookbinder , bookseller and the founder of the Elsevier family of publishers and booksellers .

Live and act

Elsevier, who was a Calvinist , fled the southern, Spanish Netherlands in 1580 for religious reasons and to avoid massive interference by state and church censorship and settled in Leiden. Since he could not raise capital for his own printing company, he opened a book shop where he published scientific - mainly Latin - books for academic teaching purposes. A branch in Amsterdam followed in 1638. The family business primarily sold scientific books, among others by Galileo Galilei , René Descartes and Joseph Justus Scaliger (all of whom he knew personally), in various languages. Eutropius from 1592, published by the Dutch legal scholar and historian Paulus Merula (1558–1607), was long regarded as his first work; Meanwhile, however, a volume with the title Drusii Ebraicarum quaestionum ac responsionum libri duo, Lugdunensi, MDLXXXIII from 1583 is considered to be his first work. In total, he published around 150 works.

In 1586 Elsevier was given the post of pedel at Leiden University and in 1594 acquired citizenship.

family

On his death Elsevier left seven sons, all of whom followed in their father's professional footsteps and worked as bookbinders, booksellers and publishers in their parents' business. Between 1583 and 1712, at least 14 family members worked as booksellers, bookbinders or publishers. They benefited from the good relations established by their father with Leiden University and with numerous authors. His sons Mathijs and Bonaventura became booksellers, Louis the Younger took over the branch in The Hague and Joost the one in Utrecht. A few years later , after he had married richly , grandson Isaac Elsevier (1596–1651) founded a university printing company in Leiden. The printing house quickly became very successful, but went under in the early 18th century (whereas the The Hague and Utrecht branches of the family later gave rise to other printing houses that have kept the name known to this day).

See also

literature

personal data
SURNAME Elsevier, Louis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Elzeverius, Lodewijk (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch bookbinder and bookseller
DATE OF BIRTH 1540
PLACE OF BIRTH Lions
DATE OF DEATH February 4, 1617
Place of death Suffer