Book Description

J.W. Holtrop's Monuments typographiques des Pays-Bas au quinzieme siecle appeared in 1868, and were followed in 1874 by M.F.A.G. Campbell's Annales de la typographie nierlandaise au XVe siecle, · both works were published by Martinus Nijhoff at The Hague. These two books marked an epoch at a time when incunabula were only beginning to be considered worthy objects of study. With some help from older bibliographies and catalogues, but mostly by person al inspection of the early editions, Campbell built up his Annales from the very foundations. Since then incunabula have attracted more and more attention, and thanks to international cooperation successful researches have been made about their printers, their contents and the location of copies. Consequently some hundreds of Low Country editions of the XVth century have been added to those listed by Campbell, and a new edition of his Annales is needed. Who will undertake this task? Were I twenty years . younger, I would certainly do so myself, and thus, after having been occupied with the Low Country post-incunabula for nearly forty years, return to the starting point of my bibliographical career.