Three Future Cologne Publishers as Apprentices in Antwerp: Bernhard Wolters, Johann Kinckius and Cornelis van Egmont

At the end of the sixteenth and the start of the seventeenth century, the Antwerp Plantin-Moretus Press of Antwerp took on several apprentices. Three of these apprentices subsequently became independent publishers in Cologne: Bernhard Wolters, Johann Kinckius, and Cornelis van Egmont. At a time when the trade with booksellers in Cologne and at the Frankfurt Fair was very important for the Plantin-Moretus Press, these apprenticeships were a way to forge future alliances between publishing houses in Cologne and Antwerp. In the case of Wolters and Kinckius, this strategy resulted in outstanding relations and co-operation between the former apprentices and the Moretuses. However, their relative Cornelis van Egmont caused many problems when he associated himself with Willem Blaeu who contested Moretus's dominant position in the market for catholic books.