Brepols

Formerly well known for its missalen, the company is now better known for its specialization in historical studies and editions of classical authors, including the Corpus Christianorum.

In 1795, Pieter Corbeels, a printer from Leuven, moved to Turnhout together with his assistant Philippus Jacobus Brepols, possibly to flee the French army, which occupied Belgium at that time.

Corbeels rapidly became the town printer, and he printed passports and pamphlets for the city of Turnhout.

Because of Corbeels' fight against the French, his apprentice, Philippus Jacobus Brepols, had to take over responsibility for the printing company.

In 1817, Brepols acquired the company Le Tellier in Lier, from which he had bought comics for children for a long time.

On 5 July 1834 the company started the first magazine of the Kempen (E: Campine), the ‘’Algemeen Aenkondigingsblad’’, which was printed by Brepols up to 1875.

In 1860, the son of Antoinette, Jan Willem Dierckx, married Josephina Frederika Dessauer, the daughter of an industrialist from Aschaffenburg (Germany).

At the beginning of the twentieth century, their son, baron François du Four took over the family business from his mother.

In 1967, this business activity was taken over by the newly established company N.V Turpa, together with the departments for colored paper of Biermans, Van Genechten and Copa.

In academic circles Brepols is particularly well known as the publisher of Greek patristic and medieval Latin works (in the Continuatio Mediaevalis) in the Corpus Christianorum series, which is in some respects seen as the successor to Migne's Patrologiae cursus completus.