IV

Spanish book printing in Flanders has to be situated within the context of the whole range of political and commercial links which increased in strength under Maximilian and the Catholic Kings and reached their climax when the two states were united in the person of Emperor Charles and his successors.


The masterpiece of the Plantin press was the new polyglot Bible, which was made with the intention of outdoing the Complutensian Bible. This work was under the academic leadership of Arias Montano, one of the great European humanists.

The Poliglota Regia, the Bible of Arias, of Plantin and of Antwerp -these four names are all in current use-was published in the conviction that spirituality was the only thing with the individual and social power to overcome the conflicts in contemporary society: this is put into words in an illustration inside the work with the caption:

"aut gladio, aut verbo"


-by the sword or by the word...