Spinoza’s De Nagelate Schriften

Printing the books of Benedictus de Spinoza (1632-1677) was not without risk. His ideas, with which he laid the groundwork for the later Enlightenment, were too radical for publication - even in the tolerant Dutch Republic. As a precaution to avoid prosecution, Spinoza’s books were printed anonymously; thus they never bear the name of author, and lack the (real) name of the publisher and printer. The identity of the printer who dared to print the books even remained unknown for centuries.

However, his identity lay hidden within the books itself. Books were decorated with initials - large letters at the beginning of a text. Each print shop had several of these. Using them year after year, the material became damaged. These small cracks are so unique that they can serve as the fingerprint of a seventeenth century print shop. And thus we are able to link to a printers name to anonymously printed books. It was the Amsterdam-based printer Israel de Paull (Tuinstraat) who turned out to be the printer of Spinoza’s Tractatus theologico-politicus and Opera posthuma/ De Nagelate Schriften van B.d.S.

The biggest challenge is to present two old books in a new and innovative way.

 

Written by:  Rindert Jagersma, PHD-student