Historedia
EuropeEvent

Publication of First Volumes of Acta Sanctorum

When
1643
Where
Antwerp
Episodes
1

In 1643, Jean Bolland published the first two volumes of the Acta Sanctorum in Antwerp. This marked the completion of fourteen years of work on the January saints, establishing the foundation for the Bollandist project.

Episodes

  1. 1643 · AntwerpPublication of January Volumes

    The first two volumes of the Acta Sanctorum, covering January saints, were printed in Antwerp in 1643 after fourteen years of work.

Background and detail

Background. Jean Bolland, a Flemish Jesuit and hagiographer, was transferred to Antwerp to prepare the Acta Sanctorum for publication. He organized documents relating to the saints of January and secured a publisher, Jan van Meurs, to facilitate the printing process.

Publication. After fourteen years of labor, the two volumes covering the saints of January were printed in Antwerp in 1643. This initial release constituted the first part of the Acta Sanctorum, an encyclopedic text organized by feast days.

People involved

Sources

  1. Jean Bolland Wikipedia, revision of 2026-06-16
  2. Acta Sanctorum Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-28

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.