Theodoricus Martinus Typographus (Erasmus House Museum, 23 October-6 December 2009)

One would think that by now scholars would have unearthed everything about the origin of printing. Not quite. For more than three centuries, Paul Needham wrote in The Invention and the Early Spread of European Printing As Represented in the Scheide Library (2007), antiquaries and scholars have been trying to identify and pin down the earliest survival of printing. An attempt Needham still defined as "not banal."

Two Belgian scholars have placed themselves in that tradition: Renaud Adam and Alexandre Vanautgaerden, with their recent study "Thierry Martens et la figure de l'imprimeur humaniste. (Une nouvelle biographie)," Brepols, 2009, ISBN 978-2-503-53112-0. Theodoricus Martinus or Dirk Martens is none other that Belgium's first printer: every child is taught at school that Martens printed the first book at Aalst (Alost).

When the Low Countries -Belgium and Holland- celebrated the 500th anniversary of printing in 1973 -with a catalogue from Belgium's Royal Library that became an instant classic- the prototypographi were, as was admitted, chosen by convention, and differently so along national borders, with Martens as first printer for Belgium. Streamlining festivities even more, both countries were letting printing begin in 1473.

As Adam & Vanautgaerden write, a partnership between Dirk Martens and the German Joannes van Westfalen comes closer to the truth of the first printed book at Alost. Already in 1474, Joannes van Westfalen would be a very succesful printer in the city of Leuven, and the first activity of Martens at Alost was short-lived. Whether both men actually did meet in Venice, as their first printing material seems to betray, and who was actually printing at Alost, are just two of many questions laden with mystery.

Still, the new census by Adam & Vanautgaerden of 269 editions attributed to Dirk Martens also reveals that there is a good reason to shed light anew on our first printer: more so than Joannes van Westfalen, Martens was successful at experimenting with and introducing new language and character sets, and therefore deserves to be celebrated as first typographer.

The exhibition "Theodoricus Martinus Typographus" looks at Martens as graphic designer. It also puts ancient and contemporary typography in juxtaposition. The exhibition is in the hands of a graphic design studio from Brussels, Sign, which has signed every card or web page of the Erasmus House Museum in the last 15 years.

Details: Theodoricus Martinus Typographus. Exhibition. Erasmus House Museum, Anderlecht (Brussels). 23 October - 6 December, 2009.