Willem Lesteens

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Willem Lesteens (1590–1661) was a printer and publisher in Antwerp, then part of the Spanish Netherlands. He was born on April 19, 1590, to Gaspard Lesteens and Catherine Jauwens. In 1612 he married Maria Verdussen, the eldest daughter of his godfather, Hieronymus Verdussen, and he started his own printing business. His shop on Hoogstraat carried the sign Gulden Pelicaen, or Golden Pelican. His printer’s mark showed a pelican feeding its young, and in later versions it was shown with horns of plenty.

From June 26, 1625, he shared the privilege of printing coin decrees with his brother-in-law, Hieronymus Verdussen the Younger, until Verdussen’s death in 1653. In 1641 he served as dean of De Olijftak, a chamber of rhetoric, and from 1642 to 1644 he had two terms as dean of the Guild of St Luke. In the 1640s he led an association of Antwerp printers, the sociorum typographum Antverpiensium, to share costs and risks for expensive editions.

In 1650 his daughter Claire married Engelbert Gymnicus. After Willem’s death in 1661, Gymnicus took over the family business in 1662.