The name of Louis Elzevir is chronicled for the first time, in 1595, in the list of publishers offering books at the Fair in Frankfort. From the year 1602 he appears to have made regular annual sojourns in Paris. In the _Journal_ of Pierre de Lestoile, under date of August, 1609, is a reference to a purchase made by him from Elvisier (_sic_) of Leyden, of a treatise (by Grotius) entitled _Mare Liberum_, together with certain orations of Heinsius and of Baudius. Lestoile goes on to say that the said Elvisier had described to him the bequest recently made by Baudius to the public library of Leyden of his collection of books, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldaic, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopian, Persian, and Armenian, a collection estimated by said Elvisier as worth not less than three thousand crowns. It would appear from this reference that the scholars and the publishers of Leyden must have had available for their use an exceptionally comprehensive reference library. The more distinctive work of the Elzevirs began, however, only after the death of Louis, which occurred in 1617. He left six sons, two of whom were carrying on book-shops in Utrecht and The Hague, in affiliation with the present concern in Leyden. One was in the service of the Dutch East India Company, and a fourth had adopted the profession of an artist. The eldest and the youngest, Matthew and Bonaventure, joined hands to carry on the business of their father, a business which they were able very largely to extend and develop. The form of imprint, _ex officina Elzeviriana_, dates from the year 1617, when the two young men assumed the direction of the concern.