Brill Publishers

• 1. The Bookseller's Guild

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  On the 17th of May 1683, the Leiden booksellers' guild registered Jordaan Luchtmans as a bookseller. He combined his bookselling business with publishing, primarily in biblical studies and theology. The young man established close ties with the University of Leiden, then a major center of study in those areas of research in the Netherlands. His family would run the business for three centuries until 1848. The last surviving heir preferred academia to academic publishing. This decision triggered a transfer of ownership from the Luchtmans family to former employee E.J. Brill.

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• 2. Auctioning The Past

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  In 1848, the business transferred ownership from the Luchtmans family to former employee Evert Jan Brill. His father Johannes had been the steward of the company for several decades after the founder's last direct descendant died. In order to cover financial obligations he inherited, Brill liquidated the entirety of the Luchtmans book inventory. A series of auctions took place between 1848 and 1850. He continued to publish in traditional core areas like Asian languages and ethnography. The firm brought out a two-volume Handbook of Steam Engineering in 1882. More programmatically, they published The Lord's Prayer in Fourteen Languages in 1855. That work publicized their ability to typeset non-Latin alphabets including Hebrew, Aramaic, Samaritan, Sanskrit, Coptic, Syriac, and Arabic.

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• 3. Occupied Press

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  Theunis Folkers took over the reins of the company in 1934 when annual turnover was 132,000 guilders. His directorship marked a period of unprecedented growth due largely to cooperation with German occupying forces during World War II. For the Germans, Brill printed foreign-language textbooks so that they could manage territories they occupied. They also produced military manuals such as a manual which trained German officers to distinguish insignias of the Russian army. By 1943, the company's turnover had reached 579,000 guilders. After the war, the Dutch denazification committee determined presence of enemy money in accounts. Folkers was arrested in September 1946 and deprived of right to hold managerial post. Fines were fixed at 57,000 guilders after negotiation.

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• 4. Amputating A Limb

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  The late 1980s saw an acute crisis due to over-expansion and poor management within the publishing industry. Under new management from 1988 to 1991, the company underwent major restructuring. It closed some foreign offices including Cologne while London branch was already shut down. Brill sold its printing business which amounted to amputating its own limb. This painful decision was necessary to save the company as a whole. No jobs were lost in the process. The reorganization saved the company which has since expanded. As of 2008, Brill published around 600 books and 100 journals each year with turnover of 26 million euros.

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• 5. Imprints And Fields

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  Brill publishes in subject areas such as Oriental studies, classics, religious studies, Jewish studies, Islamic studies, Asian studies, international law, and human rights. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers founded in 1853 became an imprint called Brill-Nijhoff in 2013. Its portfolio focuses on public international law, human rights, humanitarian law, and increasingly international relations. Rodopi founded in 1966 in Amsterdam took name from mountain range in Bulgaria bordering northern Greece. On the 1st of January 2014, Rodopi taken over by Brill acquired around 3,000 book titles at time of sale. Wageningen Academic Publishers gained full ownership in April 2022.

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• 6. Digital Frontiers

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  In recent decades, Brill expanded to digital publishing with ebooks and online resources including databases and specialty collections varying by discipline. It participates in Knowledge Unlatched pilot, a global library consortium approach to funding open access books. In 2013, Brill created IFLA/Brill Open Access Award for initiatives in area of open access monograph publishing together with International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. The company is member of Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association. In October 2023, German publisher De Gruyter announced acquisition of Brill for 51.1 million euros forming new company De Gruyter Brill by second quarter of 2024.

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