Reinier van Persijn

Reinier van Persijn
Titlepage of "Den singende swaen", a book of songs by Willem de Swaen of Gouda.
Born	Reinier van Persijn 1615 Alkmaar
Died	1668 (aged 52–53) Gouda
Nationality	Netherlands
Known for	Engraving
Movement	Baroque

Reinier van Persijn (1615 – 23 November 1668) was a Dutch Golden Age engraver of portraits and bookplates.

Biography

According to Houbraken, who called him Reynier van Parzyn, he was married to the granddaughter of the stained glass painter Wouter Crabeth I, whose son Wouter Crabeth II he probably knew from his time in Rome, where they were both members of the Bentvueghels.^[1] His bent or nickname was Narcissus (Daffodil). He settled in 1645 in Gouda, where his wife was born. He was a student of Cornelis Bloemaert and learned the art of publishing book title pages from Theodor Matham, son of Jacob Matham.^[2] According to an old Dutch Who's Who, while in Italy he engraved pieces from the Justiani gallery, made a famous engraving of Baldassare Castiglione and had a motto, Het moet al in een pers zijn, meaning It must already be in print, which was a play on words, because Pers-zijn was his name.^[3]

References

1. (Dutch) Dirk en Wouter Crabeth biography in De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen (1718) by Arnold Houbraken, courtesy of the Digital library for Dutch literature
2. RKD entry on Reinier van Persijn
3. (Dutch) Reinier van Persijn biography in Biographisch woordenboek der Nederlanden. Deel 15 (1872) by A.J. van der Aa, courtesy of the Digital library for Dutch literature