WIERIX, Jan

Flemish engraver, draughtsman and publisher, part of a family of artists. Presumably as part of his early training, in 1563 and 1565 he made copies of engravings after Dürer and other artists. His first dated prints were published as early as 1568. By the following year he was employed by Christoph Plantin, to whom he introduced his brother Hieronymus Wierix in 1570. At the time Jan was living in the Lombaardevest, amid many other booksellers and engravers. He worked for Plantin’s publishing house, the Officina Plantiniana, more often than Hieronymus, and already in 1570 and 1571 Plantin paid Jan’s drinking debts. From then onwards Jan’s name appears regularly in Plantin’s accounts and letters.