Akademik

   Since the middle of the 15th century, books have been printed, published, and sold in the northern Netherlands. During the period of the Republic in the 17th century, the publishing houses of Elsevier in Leiden and Blaeu in Amsterdam were famous. The Haguewas famous as a center of publishing for French learned jour nals such as the Histoire des ouvrages des savants and the Biblio theque universelle et historique. Because of the country’s relatively tolerant policies, books that could not be published abroad often ap peared in the Netherlands, including books of Enlightenment schol ars such as Voltaire against the ancien regimein France or elsewhere. Even today the book trade remains very vigorous, with books being published in many languages other than Dutch.