Pye takes us on a tour of sixteenth century Antwerp, its glory years. In this fascinating book you will learn much about the importance of the city for trade and the spread of intellectual ideas, and the way everything became an industry with funeral monuments being sent out as kits to be assembled and painters creating advanced forms of paint by numbers for others in their workshops to work up. He talks also of how difficult it is to piece together Antwerp’s history with huge gaps in the records available in the city itself. Instead, researchers are forced to visit cities in other countries to find snippets of information in order to cobble together a picture of this remarkable city. You are left with the sense of its success having been transitory, riotous, and important far beyond its walls.
Antwerp was a hub of trade but also of intellectual exchange, with their printing presses putting out books for countries across Europe. Indeed, they printed the controversial edition of the Bible in English, but Pye assures us this doesn’t mean the printers were taking sides. The same books could very well have been burned the following week. There were also newsletters printed and made readily available at booksellers which encouraged the exchange of ideas in the city in a very accessible form. Antwerp was a city that was looked to as a source of knowledge. It had impressive botanic gardens when they were quite rare elsewhere and knowledge was sought from them, even from enquirers from countries where the plant in question was native.
It was a market for luxury but also mass production. There was a notable shift away from the commissioning of artists directly to going through a dealer, buying paintings that the artist was going to paint anyway. Some worked hard at ensuring their style matched the national style of the purchaser. As things progressed a process more akin to a production line emerged. Drawings for paintings would be reused and instructions given so that assistants could paint them, with the artist checking the final piece with the customer and making any final adjustments. By 1515 there were more than 100 workshops in full production in the city.
As with many growing cities, day to day life wasn’t always pleasant. Crime was rife and the growing population encouraged the spread of disease. Locals didn’t fully take advantage of the boom, investing in property with the expectation that it would remain desirable. Once traders moved on to Amsterdam they were left with investments that were worth very little. Water quality was poor which meant the beer was not good, but the Emperor was determined that local beer should still be the main ones consumed, bringing in punishments for anyone found to be drinking foreign beer within a three and a half mile radius of the city walls.
As someone who knew very little of the city’s history before reading this book, I found it fascinating. When visiting Antwerp I spent a happy few hours in the Plantin-Moretus Museum, and so I was interested to see what an important role Plantin played in Antwerp’s status. As with any history of a European city, other countries on the continent play a role and so we see famous figures from abroad, such as William Tyndale, make an appearance. Having recently read Wolf Hall I noted the frequency with which Antwerp is mentioned, and it was good to fill in the gaps about why it was such a notable city. A great read if you’re planning a trip to Antwerp or have an interest in the history of arts, culture, and trade.
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