Rosa De Marco, Malcolm Walsby and Renaud Adam publish "Books and Prints at the Heart of the Catholic Reformation in the Low Countries (16th- 17th) centuries" (Brill). This book aims to refresh our knowledge of the use and impact of print in the promotion of the Catholic Reformation in the Habsburg Low Countries during the Early Modern period.

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ften considered the first mass media phenomenon in history, the Protestant use of books and prints has been widely studied and has generated a rich and extensive bibliography. In contrast, the production and use of these media by the supporters of the Counter-Reformation has not received the attention it deserves, especially in the context of the Netherlands. However, the Spanish monarchy and the local authorities, the Catholic Church, the universities of Douai and Louvain and the new religious orders in these territories did not fail to seize the opportunities offered by printers and booksellers to strengthen their missions: to restore Spanish authority, to ensure the dissemination of the decrees of the Council of Trent, to fight against all kinds of heresies and to contribute to pastoral and educational activities. Although there are studies on some central figures - such as Christopher Plantin or the Verdussen family - or on some important publishing undertakings - such as Plantin's Biblia Regia - it is clear that many other lesser-known cases have not received the attention they deserve.

Rosa De Marco (Bibliothèque universitaire de Nancy), Malcolm Walsby, professor at enssib (École nationale supérieure des sciences de l'information et des bibliothèques in Lyon) and Renaud Adam, head of the digitisation unit at the ULiège Library and scientific collaborator at the Modern History Department (Department of Historical Sciences / Faculty of Philosophy and Letters), have just published a volume that aims to refresh our knowledge of the use and impact of print in the promotion of the Catholic Reformation in the Habsburg Netherlands during the early modern period.

The main aim of this book, through its 14 essays, is to shed light on the scope, dynamism and underlying mechanisms of the processes that were put in place to support the Catholic Reformation. The complexity of this phenomenon has necessitated an interdisciplinary approach, combining religious history, book history, art history and cultural history. Overall, this volume offers new insights into the effectiveness of the book and print industry in supporting the Catholic strategy of the Spanish Netherlands and highlights the mutually beneficial relationship between the supporters of the Counter-Reformation and the world of typography. It is also an important contribution to our understanding of the socio-cultural and socio-economic context of the Catholic Netherlands.

Bibliographic reference

Renaud Adam, Rosa De Marco & Malcolm Walsby (éds), Books and Prints at the Heart of the Catholic Reformation in the Low Countries (16^th– 17^th centuries), Leyde : Brill, 2022 (Library of the Written Word – The Handpress World, Volume: 104).