Brill

Founding by Luchtmans, 1683–1848

On 17 May 1683, the Leiden booksellers' guild registered Jordaan Luchtmans (1652–1708) as a bookseller. He combined his bookselling business with publishing, primarily in biblical studies, theology, Asian languages, and ethnography. He established close ties with the University of Leiden, then a major center of study in those areas of research in the Netherlands. The business would stay in the Luchtmans family until 1848, when the last surviving heir preferred academia to academic publishing.

From Luchtmans to Brill, 1848–1896

In 1848, ownership of the business transferred from the Luchtmans family to former employee E.J. (Evert Jan) Brill. Brill's father, Johannes, had been the steward of the company for several decades after the founder's last direct descendant died. In order to cover the financial obligations that he inherited, Brill liquidated the entirety of the Luchtmans's book inventory in a series of auctions that took place between 1848 and 1850. Brill continued to publish in the traditional core areas of the company, with occasional excursions into other fields. Thus, in 1882, the firm brought out a two-volume Leerboek der Stoomwerktuigkunde ("Handbook of Steam Engineering"). More programmatically, however, in 1855 Het Gebed des Heeren in veertien talen ("The Lord's Prayer in Fourteen Languages") was meant to publicize Brill's ability to typeset non-Latin alphabets, including Hebrew, Aramaic, Samaritan, Sanskrit, Coptic, Syriac, and Arabic, among others.

Public limited company and World War II, 1896–1945

In 1896, Brill became a public limited company following the deaths of E.J. Brill's successors, A. P. M. van Oordt and Frans de Stoppelaar, both businessmen with academic backgrounds and interests. A series of directors followed until Theunis Folkers took over the reins in 1934. At the time, the annual turnover was 132,000 guilders. His directorship marked a period of unprecedented growth in the history of the company, due to a large extent to Folkers's cooperation with the German occupying forces during World War II. For the Germans, Brill printed foreign-language textbooks so that they could manage the territories they occupied, but also military manuals, such as "a manual which trained German officers to distinguish the insignias of the Russian army". By 1943, the company's turnover had reached 579,000 guilders.

Post-war Brill, 1945–present

After the war, the Dutch denazification committee determined the presence of "enemy money" in Brill's accounts. Folkers was arrested in September 1946, and deprived of the right to hold a managerial post. The company itself, however, escaped the aftermath of the war relatively unscathed; after some negotiation its fines were fixed at 57,000 guilders.

Brill's path in the post-war years was again marked by ups and downs, though the company remained faithful in its commitment to scholarly publishing. The late 1980s saw an acute crisis due to over-expansion, poor management, as well as general changes in the publishing industry. Thus, in 1988–1991 under new management the company underwent a major restructuring, in the course of which it closed some of its foreign offices, including Cologne. Its London branch was already closed by then. Brill, moreover, sold its printing business, which amounted "to amputat[ing] its own limb". This was considered painful, but 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 was publishing around 600 books and 100 journals each year, with a turnover of 26 million euros.

In October 2023, it was announced that the German publisher De Gruyter would acquire Brill for €51.1 million, forming the new company De Gruyter Brill, by the second quarter of 2024.