The Dutch Publishers: Someren, van Dyck, and Boom

The publishers of Govard Bidloo's Latin and Dutch atlases are cited as "the widow of Joannes van Someren, the heirs of Joannes van Dyk, Henry Boom and widow of Theodore Boom. These three families worked together within a publishing house in Amsterdam throughout the late seventeenth century.

Joannes van Someren was a popular publisher in Amsterdam who died in November, 1678. He was responsible for the import and publishing of a large amount of religious texts from England, between the 1660s and 1670s. Some notable works produced from his publishing house include 12 volumes of Hendrik Adriaan Van Reed Tot Drakestein's Hortus Malabaricus,  After his passing, his widow inherited his publishing business, a common practice in the Dutch market.

Joannes (often referred to as Jan) van Dyk worked alongside Joannes van Someren in Amsterdam as a publisher. He died in October 1678, one month before van Someren. His heirs, who remain anonymous inherited his share on the publishing house that he, Someren, and Boom owned in Amsterdam.

Henry, or Hendrik, Boom, was born in 1644 and died in 1709. He was a bookseller in Amsterdam and is referenced throughout Govard Bidloo's pamphlet Gulielmus Cowper, Criminis Literarii Citatus, Coram Tribunali Nobiliss: Ampliss: Societatis Britanno-Regiae per Godefridum Bidloo. In this, Bidloo details Boom's control over the distribution and sale of the imprints of de Lairesse's 105 Copperplate engravings. Alongside Henry Boom, the widow of his brother, Theodore (Dirk) Boom worked together to publish and sell a variety of works in Amsterdam.

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