Willem Lesteens

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

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

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
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.