Elzevier Volumes of the 16th - 17th Centuries

The stocks contain more than 6 000 volumes printed by the celebrated seventeenth-century Dutch firm run by the Elsevier family. Holland played the leading role in Western European book-printing in that period and the work of the Dutch printers was markedly international in character. The Elseviers produced not sumptuous editions but utilitarian books intended for daily reading or scholarly work. They published almost all the prominent authors of the day as well as many important works from the past.

The majority of the copies in the National Library have come from the collections of bibliophiles. That is why, nearly all of them are notable for their excellent state of preservation and magnificent bindings.