Dirk Martens

Dirk Martens (1446 or 1447 – 28 May 1534) was a printer and editor in the County of Flanders. He published over fifty books by Erasmus and the very first edition of Thomas More's Utopia. He was the first to print Greek and Hebrew characters in the Netherlands. In 1856 a statue of Martens was erected on the main square of the town of his birth, Aalst. Biography Dirk Martens was born in Aalst to Joos Martens and Johanna de Proost. He had two sisters, Johanna and Margaretha. His family had long lived in Aalst. He was also related to the family of Pieter Coecke van Aalst, artist and member of one of the most prominent families of Aalst. While the date of birth of Martens is not known, it is presumed to be in 1446 or 1447. Most information on Martens was lost in 1582, when the Aalst monastery of the Hermits of Saint William, which had received the library of Martens after his death, burned down. It was here that he presumably received his education, and here as well that he spent his last years. At an unknown date, probably around 1471, he went to Venice, where he worked with the humanist Gerardus de Lisa, from Ghent. Here Martens learned the art of printing. In 1473 he returned to Aalst and together with Johan van Westfalen started a printing press. The partnership ended in May 1474, when Martens became the only printer working in Aalst. He printed a book on the two lovers of Enea Piccolomini who later became Pope Pius II. Shortly thereafter there is a gap in the biography of Martens, lasting until 1486. It has been postulated that he went to Spain and may be the same as a certain Teodorico Aleman, a printer in Sevilla in 1477 and in Murcia in 1478. By 1486 or 1487 Martens was again active as a printer of religious works in Aalst, where he remained active until 1492. His 1491 edition of the Doctrinale by Alexander de Villa Dei was the first printed book in the Netherlands to include Greek characters.