House of Elzevir

The family ceased printing in 1712, but a contemporary publisher, Elsevier (founded in 1880), took over, for marketing purposes, the name and logo of this early modern business, but without having any real historical connections to it.

An edition of Eutropius, which appeared in 1592, was long regarded as the earliest Elzevir publication, but the first is now known to be Drusii Ebraicarum quaestionum ac responsionum libri duo, which was produced in 1583.

[3] In 1617 Isaac Elzevir (1596–1651), Matthijs' second son, was the first in the family to acquire printing equipment, which then passed into the hands of the partnership of Bonaventura and Abraham in 1626 when he decided to exit the business.

Their Greek and Hebrew impressions are considered inferior to those of the Aldines and the Estiennes, but their small editions in 12mo, 16mo and 24mo, for elegance of design, neatness, clearness and regularity of type, and beauty of paper, cannot be surpassed.

Between 1626 and 1649, Bonaventure and Abraham Elzevir published a bestselling series titled the Respublicae (commonly known as the Republics or Petites Républiques), the ancestor of the modern travel guide.

[3] From 1655 to 1666 they published a series of Latin classics in 8vo, cum notis variorum; Cicero in 4to; the Etymologicon linguae Latinae; and in 1663 a magnificent Corpus Juris Civilis in folio in two volumes.

Louis Elzevir, the founder of the family, usually adopted the arms of the United Provinces, but with the lion swapped for an eagle on a cippus holding in its claws a sheaf of seven arrows, adorned with the motto Concordia res parvae crescunt.

[6] About 1620 the Leiden Elzevirs adopted a new device, known as le Solitaire, or the Hermit, and consisting of an elm tree, a fruitful vine and a man alone, with a motto Non solus (not alone).