Steven Mierdman (c.1510–1559) was among the most important Dutch printers of
Reformation books.
Mierdman, also known as Stephen Mierdman, Steven Mierdmans, Stephen Myerdmann, and Steven Mierman, was born in
Hooge Mierde. He first printed in
Antwerp from 1542 to about 1546, becoming a freeman of the city in November 1543. Some time after 1546, to escape proceedings for having printed
heretical books, he went to
England. In July 1550, Mierdman, who had already taken out letters of denization, was granted a royal licence for five years "to print various books hitherto unprinted" and to "employ printers, English and foreign." While printing in
London from 1549 to 1553, he printed a number of books in
Latin,
English,
French,
Italian and
Dutch, the majority being
Protestant tracts, many of them by members of the
Dutch Reformed Church.
On the accession of
Queen Mary, Mierdman had to uproot himself once again. He settled in
Emden, printing there from 1554 to 1558. In Emden he met
Willem Gailliart, who would take over his printing shop after Mierdman's death, at Emden in 1559.
The number of books which bear Mierdman's imprint on the title page or
colophon are but a small part of his extremely large output; he worked for a number of stationers and printed many books bearing fictitious imprints, such as "Niclaes van Oldenborch."
References
Nijhoff, W. and Kronenberg, M. E., Nederlandsche Bibliographie van 1500 tot 1540, 3 vols in 8 parts (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1923–71)
Pollard, A. W. and Redgrave, G. R., A Short-Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland and Ireland and of English Books Printed Abroad, 1475–1640, 3 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1976–1991)
Rouzet, Anne, Dictionnaire des imprimeurs, libraires et éditeurs des XVe et XVIe siècles dans les limites géographiques de la Belgique actuelle (Nieuwkoop: B. de Graaf, 1965)
Clair, Colin, 'On the Printing of Certain Reformation Books', The Library (Oxford Bibliographical Society), Fifth Series, 18 (1963), pp. 275–287.
Heijting, W. ‘Early Reformation Literature from the Printing Shop of Mattheus Crom and Steven Mierdmans’, Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis, 74 (1994), pp 143–161
Valkema Blouw, Paul, 'The Van Oldenborch and Vanden Merberghe pseudonyms, or, Why Frans Fraet had to die’, Quaerendo, 22/3, 22/4 (1992), pp. 165–190, 245–72.
Wijnman, H. F., 'The mysterious sixteenth-century printer Niclaes van Oldenborch: Antwerp or Emden?', in Studia Bibliographica in Honorem Herman de la Fontaine Verwey (Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger, 1968), pp. 448–478
Hofman, Bert, 'Liedekens vol gheestich confoort: een bijdrage tot de kennis van de zestiende-eeuwse Shriftuurlijke lyriek' (Doctoral thesis, Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht, 1993)