Printer's marks

Printers' marks were identifying symbols used by early modern printers to sign their work. Often found on title pages, they combined imagery with initials or mottos. These marks served as a guarantee of quality and helped establish a printer's identity in a growing book market. Today, they offer valuable insights for book historical research.
coat of arms of Leuven2

Ludovicus van Raveschot

1468 -

Opus [...] respo[n]siuu[m] ad ep[isto]lam apologetica[m] M. pauli de middelburgo de an[n]o die et feria dominice passionis by Petrus de Rivo (1488-1491), MPM M 306 (2) (f. f7 verso): Printer's device.

Johan Veldener

- 1529

KUL-BC Inc.129 (f. [h]8 recto): Printer's device

  • 1475
  • monogramcoat of arms of Leuven
  • bio

    Johann Veldener (born in Würzburg, died in Leuven between 1486 and 1496), also known as Jan Veldener or Johan Veldenaer; was an early printer in Flanders. He worked as a punchcutter and printer in Cologne, together with William Caxton, who may have financed his first books. They both left for Flanders in 1472. Evidence indicates that Veldener assisted Caxton in setting up his printing office in Bruges and helped printing his first work there, the 1472-1473 Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye by Raoul Lefèvre. Afterwards, Veldener went to Leuven and set up his printing company there, becoming the second printer in Leuven after John of Westphalia, and the third or fourth in the Netherlands. He entered the Leuven University on 30 July 1473 in the faculty of Medicine. He left Leuven in 1477, after the death of Charles the Bold caused unrest in the city, and went to Utrecht. When that city also became troubled, he left for Culemborg, and finally returned to Leuven in 1484. Veldener was also known for creating typefaces, both for his own work and for others, and Caxton is believed to have taken one of Veldener's typefaces with him to England and used it among others on his first edition of the Canterbury Tales. It is probable that he later bought a number of other typefaces from Veldener as well. While in Utrecht, Veldener also supposedly wrote a Chronyck van Hollandt, Zeelandt, ende Westvrieslandt (a Chronicle of Holland, Sealand, and Western Friesland), which was reprinted in 1650 in Utrecht. Other works attributed to him are the Cronijcken van Enghelant (a chronicle of the English kings until 1460), Cronijcken van Utrecht (a history of the Bishopric of Utrecht), Cronijcken van Gelre, Cronijcken van Cleve and the Cronijcken van Brabant. Currently it is believed that these works were anonymous and printed by him, and that the later attributions to him as writer are erroneous. wikipedia

The printers listed on this page come from the Short Title Catalogus Vlaanderen (STCV), a retrospective bibliography of books printed before 1801 in what is now Flanders, including Brussels. All other data comes from Wikidata and Wikipedia. This website is a project by the Flemish Heritage Libraries. There are 249 printers on this page. This page was last updated on 2026-08-04.