Jan van Doesborch

Little is known of the life of Jan van Doesborch or Doesborgh, a Dutch bookseller, printer, illustrator, publisher and translator. He was probably born in Doesborgh in the Netherlands, a small place not far from Arnhem, at the junction of the Oude and Nieuwe Ijssel. In around 1502 he succeeded to the business of Roelant van den Dorpe, in Antwerp, the printer of the Brabant Chronicle of 1497, who died in 1500. His widow carried on the business (which was apparently ‘by the Cammerpoorte’) for only a short time, as there are no know books printer by her after 1501. Doesborgh was one of the printers in Antwerp who printed letters describing voyages to the East, some of which were illustrated with woodcuts. He was also acquainted with the German accounts of the India fleet of 1505 for he utilised them in the preparation of the Latin, English, and Flemish versions of his Of the newe landes which he published around 1511. He printed over sixty titles, and like other Antwerp printers, he prepared cheap, popular books in English, for sale in a country where the art of printing was less advanced at this time. The main type he employed was that which with little varation was used by Henrik de Lettersnider, Jocobus de Breda, R. van den Dorpe, and Henrik Eckert in the 15th century and by almost every printer in the Netherlands in the 16th century. Doesborgh borrowed from France and Germany for both his textual and illustrative material. He appears to have been fluent in English and French, and had some knowledge of Latin and Greek. He went to England in 1523, and moved to Utrecht in the Netherlands in 1531.

Titles printed in Antwerp:

1. Vijfthien vreesselijke teekenen (ca. 1502)

2. Valuacyon of golde and sylver of 1499 (ca. 1503)

3. The fifteen tokens (ca. 1503)

4. [Van den leven ende voerganc des […] Antekerst (ca. 1504)]

5. Die historie van Buevijne van Austoen (1504)

6. Van pape Jans landen (ca. 1506)

7. Van den ghedinghe tusschen eenen coopman ende eenen jode (ca. 1505-1510)

8. Van der nieuwer werelt (ca. 1507)

9. Distructie van Troyen (before dec. 1508)

10. Die reyse van Lissebone (1508)

11. Long accidence (ca. 1509)

12. Of the newe landes (ca. 1510-1511)

13. A Gest of Robyn Hode (ca. 1510-1515)?

14. Dat regiment der ghesontheyt (ca. 1510)

15. Die […] cronijke van Brabant, Hollant, Seelant, Vlaenderen (oct. 1512)

16. [Ulenspiegel (1511-1516)]

17. [Howleglas (1511-1518)]

18. [Merlijn (1511-1515)]

19. Historie van den ridder metter swane (ca. 1512-1515)

20. [Historie van Mariken van Nieumeghen (before 1515)]

21. Pronosticacion of the yere 1516 (1515)

22. Short accidence (ca. 1515)

23. [Broeder Russche (ca. 1516)]

24. [Friar Rusch (ca. 1516)]

25. [Alexander van Mets (ca. 1516)]

26. Tghevecht van minnen (1516)

27. Den oorspronck onser salicheyt (1517)

28. Causes that be proponed in a consultacyon of a journey to be made agaynst the Turkes (1517)

29. Van Floris ende Blancefleur (ca. 1517)

30. [De negen dronkaards (1517-1523)]

31. Thuys der fortunen ende dat huys der doot (1518)

32. Die […] cronike van Brabant, Vlaenderen, Hollant, Zeelant (1518)

33. [Frederick van Jenuen (1518)]

34. Story of Lorde Frederycke of Jennen (1518)

35. Letter of B. de Clereville (1518)

36. [Een nyeu seer schoon ende profitelijck plantboecxken (ca. 1518)]

37. [Virgilius, Van zijn leven ende doot (ca. 1518)]

38. Virgilius. Of the lyfe of Virgilius and of his deth (ca. 1518)

39. Story of Mary of Nemmegen (ca. 1518)

40. Die bibele int corte (ca. 1518-1519)

41. [Den groten herbarius (ca. 1518-1520)]

42. Der dieren palleys (1520)

43. The noble lyfe and natures of man (ca. 1521)

44. [De pastoor van Kalenberg (ca. 1521)]

45. The parson of Kalenborowe (ca. 1521)

46. [Profetie sibille van Tiburtina (ca. 1521-1522)]

47. Van Jason ende Hercules (1521)

48. Die historie van den stercken Hercules (1521)

49. Warachtighe prognosticatie […] totten jare 1524 (1522)

50. [Dat hantwerck der cirurgien (before 1525)]

51. [Die distellacien ende virtuyten der wateren (before 1527)

52. Der .ix. quaesten (1528)

53. Tdal sonder wederkeeren (1528)

54. [Dat bedroch der vrouwen (ca. 1528-1530)]

55. [The deceyte of women (ca. 1528-1530)]

56. [Het bedrog der mannen (ca 1528)]

57. Refreynen (ca. 1529)

58. Van Brabant die excellente cronike (1530)

59. Cronycke van Hollandt, Zeeland, ende Vrieslant (1530)

 Titles printed in Utrecht:

60. [Van den .x. esels (ca. 1531)]

61. Der vrouwen natuere ende complexie (1531)

62. Den groten herbarlus (1532)

63. Int paradijs van Venus (ca. 1532)

This page contains information found in Jan van Doesborgh, Printer at Antwerp, an Essay in Bibliography, Robert Proctor, London, 1894;  Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume II: A Century of Wonder, Book 2, p. 353, Donald F. Lach, 1977; PJA Franssen, between text and audience. Jan van Doesborch, printer-publisher and man of letters in Antwerp and Utrecht in the first half of the sixteenth century, Amsterdam, 1990.