Dirk Martens

Dirk Martens from Ghent. Here Martens learned the art of printing.

Work He published many humanistic works, including over fifty books by Erasmus and the very first edition of Thomas More's Utopia in 1516.

The first edition of Utopia appeared in late December 1516.

Martens was a friend of some of the most famous humanists of his time. Desiderius Erasmus, who fell ill after a trip to Basel in 1518, spent four weeks in the house of Martens to recover, even though he had been diagnosed with the plague by two doctors.

The importance of Martens' work, especially his publications in Antwerp and Leuven, his role in the humanistic movement, and his contributions to the study of Greek and Hebrew, has been compared to the role Christoffel Plantijn played in Antwerp at the end of the 16th century.