Reinier van Persijn (1615 – 23 November 1668) was a

Dutch Golden Age The Dutch Golden Age ( ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands which roughly lasted from 1588, when the Dutch Republic was established, to 1672, when the '' Rampjaar'' occurred. During this period, Dutch trade, scientific development ...

engraver of portraits and

bookplate An , also known as a bookplate (or book-plate, as it was commonly styled until the early 20th century), is a printed or decorative label pasted into a book, often on the front endpaper, to indicate ownership. Simple typographical bookplates are ...

Biography

According to Houbraken, who called him ''Reynier van Parzyn'', he was married to the granddaughter of the stained glass painter Wouter Crabeth I, whose son Wouter Crabeth II he probably knew from his time in Rome, where they were both members of the

Bentvueghels The Bentvueghels (Dutch for "Birds of a Feather") were a society of mostly Dutch and Flemish artists active in Rome from about 1620 to 1720. They are also known as the Schildersbent ("painters' clique"). Activities The members, which incl ...

. His ''bent'' or nickname was ''Narcissus'' (Daffodil). He settled in 1645 in Gouda, where his wife was born. He was a student of Cornelis Bloemaert and learned the art of publishing book title pages from Theodor Matham, son of Jacob Matham.RKD entry on Reinier van Persijn
/ref> According to an old Dutch ''Who's Who'', while in Italy he engraved pieces from ''the Justiani gallery'', made a famous engraving of

Baldassare Castiglione Baldassare Castiglione, Count of Casatico (; 6 December 1478 – 2 February 1529),Dates of birth and death, and cause of the latter, fro, ''Italica'', Rai International online. was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissan ...

and had a motto, ''Het moet al in een pers zijn'', meaning ''It must already be in print'', which was a play on words, because Pers-zijn was his name.