Brepols
Brepols is a Belgian publishing house. Once, it was one of the largest printing companies in the world and one of the main employers in Turnhout (Belgium). Besides its printing business, Brepols is also active as a publisher.
Also recorded as Brepols & Dierckx Zoon · Brepols en Dierckx zoon · Brepols Naamlooze Vennootschap · Brepols Publishers NV
Brepols

Philippus Jacobus Brepols · Public domain
- Name
- Brepols
- Founded
- 1796
- Headquarters
- Turnhout
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Documentary summary
Brepols is a Belgian publishing house. Once, it was one of the largest printing companies in the world and one of the main employers in Turnhout (Belgium). Besides its printing business, Brepols is also active as a publisher.
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Authority files
bnf · gnd · loc · wikidata · Q981917 · wikipedia · Brepols
In this article
Overview
Overview
Formerly well known for its missals, the company is now better known for its specialization in historical studies and editions of classical authors, including the Corpus Christianorum.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Brepols • Founded — 1795 • Founder — Pieter Corbeels and Philippus Jacobus Brepols • Country — Belgium • Headquarters — Turnhout • Distribution — Licap (Belgium) Sofédis (France) Marston Book Services (UK) ISD (United States) • Publications — Books, journals, databases • Imprints — Harvey Miller Publishers • Url — http: www.brepols.net (publisher)
History
History
• Illustration — Zeeuwse Bibliotheek: Bied my wat meerder op de koe, dan sla ik u het koopje toe • Illustration — "Het nieuw arlequinspel", number 7 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. In the summer of 1798, Corbeels went to fight against the French as one of the leaders of the ‘’Boerenkrijg’’. He was caught and executed. Because of Corbeels' fight against the French, his apprentice, Philippus Jacobus Brepols, had to take over responsibility for the printing company. Corbeels' widow managed the business for a short while, but from 1800 onwards P. J. Brepols gradually took over the house and the business. Soon the printing business was expanded with bookbinding, and a shop and paper trade were added to the business as well. Initially, P. J. Brepols traded the most diverse goods, from leatherware to hats. Religious works and schoolbooks were printed, especially in the first few years. In 1817, Brepols acquired the company Le Tellier in Lier, from which he had bought comics for children for a long time. Between 1817 and 1930, Brepols published about 623 comics for children. Playing cards, at the time, were printed in Antwerp, Brussels, and mainly in Dinant, but as of 1826, Brepols started printing playing cards and soon became the most important producer of them. Brepols also started to produce special types of paper. The then still rather new method of lithography was introduced at Brepols in 1829. When Belgium became independent in 1830, the business to the Netherlands was lost. 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. On 3 January 1845, P. J. Brepols died and the company was continued by his only daughter, Antoinette Brepols, who had married Jan Jozef Dierckx, a merchant, in 1820. On 4 May 1835 P.J. Brepols had announced that his son-in-law would enter the family business, which would then become Brepols & Dierckx Son. When P. J. Brepols died in 1845, his daughter was already a widow. She was assisted by Stefan Splichal, who mainly managed the publication of the ’Algemeen Aenkondigingsblad’’. In 1853 the first steam engine was introduced in the company. In 1860, the son of Antoinette, Jan Willem Dierckx, married Josephina Frederika Dessauer, the daughter of an industrialist from Aschaffenburg (Germany). When Jan Willem died in 1866, his widow Josephina became the head of the Brepols Company. In 1868 she remarried with Arthur Dufour, an engineer, who did not involve himself very much in the business of his wife. At the beginning of the twentieth century, their son, baron François du Four took over the family business from his mother. In the meantime the company had grown to become the biggest of its kind in Belgium and had about 1000 employees. In 1911, the company was incorporated into the N.V etablissementen Brepols and François du Four became President of the Management Council of Brepols. In 1913, and 1930, the buildings of the company were enlarged, while previously already new buildings had been built in 1887 and 1890, in the Papenstraat in Turnhout. At the beginning of 1921 a new department was established for the printing of wallpaper. In 1929, the production of wallpaper by Brepols had already amounted to six millions rolls. To overcome the trade restrictions imposed by the customs authorities of the United Kingdom and France in 1932, in Halluin (France) the Société Française des Papiers Brepols was created, in order not to lose this important market. In 1945, baron François du Four died and his son Jean du Four succeeded him as President of the Management Council of the company. The special paper production were grouped, in 1960, in a new company, the N.V Copa, in which three companies of Turnhout merged their business. 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 1970, Brepols, Biermans and Van Genechten brought together their playing card business and created the company Carta Mundi as a joint venture, a world leader in the production of playing cards. More and more the company printed and bound books for other companies, due to the large decline of the need for church books caused by the Second Vatican Council. When the location of an industrial building in the centre of the city of Turnhout could no longer be justified, an area of 7 hectares was bought in an industrial area outside the city and the first construction phase of the new building started in June 1969. In 1971, baron Louis de Cartier de Marchienne took over as the President of the Management Council. Under his leadership, the second phase of the work was completed in 1973, so that in 1974 the company moved to its new location. The site was further extended in 1989 for the expansion of the company. But the tide turned and the company, which employed at its heyday some 2200 people, was split up in 4 separate smaller companies. In 2003, two companies of the group filed for bankruptcy. The publisher and a part of the book binding activity continue to exist. At present it employs still about 200 people. 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. Brepols has also published the third (of five) sub-series of the bilingual German patristic and medieval collection Fontes Christiani; the other four sub-series are published by Herder
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
- Belgium
Catalogued output
Works
These are texts written by the subject, distinct both from writings about the subject and from printed editions of other people's work. 65 works carry dates between 1800 and 1919. A selection is set out below and the complete run may be opened beneath it.
The run opens with Customs and habits of the main peoples of the world and closes with 1357
The World's Wage
Catalogued output
Paintings, prints and other visual works
These are objects catalogued as visual works, each held or recorded by the institution named against it. 24 works carry dates between 1833 and 1911. The 1910s are the densest part of the run, with 21 titles, and that concentration is a fact about what the registers have catalogued rather than a judgement on the work itself.
The run opens with 231
Plate of birds and animals. And closes with 56
History of Cartouche
Primary material
Documents and archives
institutional register
- Bibliothèque nationale de France authority file 13509589k
Unverified · Bibliothèque nationale de France
- GND (German National Library) authority file 4430452-3
Unverified · GND (German National Library)
- IdRef (French universities) authority file 07647481X
Unverified · IdRef (French universities)
- Internet Archive holdings naming Brepols
Unverified · Internet Archive
- ISNI authority file 0000000115080400
Unverified · ISNI
- Library of Congress authority file no97009024
Unverified · Library of Congress
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q981917: Brepols
Unverified · Wikidata
reference work
- “Brepols”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Authority records
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
institutional register
Bibliothèque nationale de France authority file 13509589kBibliothèque nationale de France
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
GND (German National Library) authority file 4430452-3GND (German National Library)
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
IdRef (French universities) authority file 07647481XIdRef (French universities)
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
Internet Archive holdings naming BrepolsInternet Archive
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
Library of Congress authority file no97009024Library of Congress
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
Partially resolvedinstitutional register
Partially resolved
Every cited source · 10
- 01
Bibliothèque nationale de France authority file 13509589k
institutional register · Unverified · Bibliothèque nationale de France
Consult the source - 02
GND (German National Library) authority file 4430452-3
institutional register · Unverified · GND (German National Library)
Consult the source - 03
IdRef (French universities) authority file 07647481X
institutional register · Unverified · IdRef (French universities)
Consult the source - 04
Internet Archive holdings naming Brepols
institutional register · Unverified · Internet Archive
Consult the source - 05
- 06
Library of Congress authority file no97009024
institutional register · Unverified · Library of Congress
Consult the source - 07
- 08
- 09
Wikidata, structured authority record Q981917: Brepols
authority record · Unverified · Wikidata
Consult the source - 10
“Brepols”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
reference work · Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Consult the source
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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Best supported in this field
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