What's in a word?

Webster"s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 (added May 2003)
defines ELZEVIR as an adjective "applied to books or editions (esp. of the Greek New Testament  and the classics) printed and published by the Elzevir family at Amsterdam, Leyden, etc., from about 1592 to 1680; also, applied to a round open type introduced by them."
http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/Elzevir

Roget's Thesaurus (amended May 2003) 
lists "Elzevir edition" as one of the synonyms for "littleness".  Follow the link and type in "littleness" (amended May 2003):
http://www.bartleby.com/110/

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (amended May 2003)
defines (an) ELZEVIR as "an edition of a classical author, published and printed by the family of ELZEVIR, and said to be immaculate" (but goes on to make an acid remark about inaccuracies in the ELZEVIR VIRGIL).  Follow the link and type in "Elzevir":
http://www.bartleby.com/81/

The ELZEVIRs are credited with giving their name to a typeface which is still listed in the catalogues of some type foundries to this day and is defined by some as a variation of Garamond.  The ELZEVIRs' biographer WILLEMS deduced that the types used by the ELZEVIRs - aside from those purchased from ERPENIUS - were cut by Christoffel (sometimes known as Christopher) VAN DYCK, whose foundry was bought by Daniel ELZEVIR and later sold by his widow.  But scholarly opinions differ as to whether a true ELZEVIR typeface can be identified or definitively attributed to  VAN DYCK; and bearing in mind  that many of the books sold under their imprint were produced for them by other Dutch printers it is hard to say what distinguishes an ELZEVIR edition typographically from its contemporaries.  Nevertheless, well into the 20th century many foundries continued to stock this type and it was commonplace in some countries to refer to a(ny) standard Roman type as "Elzevir". 

ELZEVIR entries in MyFonts.com (added 13 February 2000)
Isaac ELZEVIR: http://www.myfonts.com/Person?id=140
Abraham I ELZEVIR: http://www.myfonts.com/Person?id=141
Bonaventura ELZEVIR: http://www.myfonts.com/Person?id=142
Louis ELZEVIR: http://www.myfonts.com/Person?id=657

Columbia Encyclopedia entry for Christopher (sic) VAN DYCK (amended May 2003)
http://www.bartleby.com/65/dy/Dyck-Chr.html

For a contemporary interpretation of the ELZEVIR typeface, see:

Textism: 20 Faces:  Elzevir (added May 2003)
http://www.textism.com/textfaces/?id=4

In Victor HUGO's Les Miserables (Part 4 Chapter 3) Monsieur MABEUF, who "...had never succeeded in loving any woman as much as a tulip bulb, nor any man so much as an Elzevir", falls on hard times and is forced to sell his library volume by volume.  He is given an introduction to the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce to help him back on his feet, but on his arrival at the Minister's home after "...he had sold an Elzevir to pay for a carriage" he is not received, and has to walk back home in torrential rain.
http://www.bookrags.com/books/lesms4/PART43.htm

Samuel JOHNSON's opinion

The writer Samuel JOHNSON, who had an opinion about almost everything, mentioned ELZEVIR among "the most accurate, likewise, and beautiful" editions of Greek and Roman literature in the account in his Works of books at the Harleian Library (amended May 2003).
http://newark.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/harleian.html

Printers' marks in the Reference Room of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library...
Twenty-seven tinted glass printers’ marks, colored primarily in soft grays, browns, and yellows and representing printers of France, Scotland, England, Switzerland, Italy, and the Netherlands, embellish the eight-by-sixteen foot windows of the Reference Room of the University Library.  They include Caxton, Plantain, Estienne...and Louis ELZEVIR.  Click on number 22.
http://gateway.library.uiuc.edu/administration/planningbudget/printers_marks_windows.htm

...and at the Library of Congress
The ELZEVIR Non Solus is among the printers' marks which embellish the upper walls of all four corridors on the second floor of the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress.
http://lcweb.loc.gov/loc/walls/jeff2.html

The Final Report on the Provenance of De Doctrina Christiana
Although Daniel ELZEVIR had earlier published John MILTON's work Pro Populo, the English writer (1608-1674) received a posthumous letter of rejection from the ELZEVIRs. A manuscript entitled De Doctrina Christiana was discovered in a British State Department cupboard, wrapped in ELZEVIR proofs. Researchers learned from letters written by Daniel ELZEVIR that this manuscript had been offered to him for publication following MILTON's death, but after taking advice, Daniel ELZEVIR  declined it because, as he wrote, he believed it contained many things "...better suppressed than divulged".   The authenticity of this particular manuscript has been the subject of study by Milton scholars recently. Was the manuscript genuinely a work of Milton? Was it original, or was he rewriting the work of another scholar?  Was it complete, or a "work in progress"?  To find out what present-day Milton experts make of all this, you'll have to read the fascinating account for yourself.
http://www.bangor.ac.uk/english/publicat/ddc/ddc.htm

"The Printing of a Valerius Maximus dated 1671" by Curt F. Buhler, Studies in Bibliography Vol 7 (1955)
The discovery of unbound sheets of a work by Valerius MAXIMUS dating from 1671, which were discovered while liquidating the stock in a bookseller's warehouse in Amsterdam,  made it possible to draw certain conclusions about the ELZEVIRS' printing technique.  One set of these sheets is to be found in the Pierpont Morgan Library. 
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/bsuva/sb/toc/sib07toc.htm

History of William H. Allen, Bookseller, 1918-1997, by George Allen
While present-day collectors may be prepared to pay several thousand US dollars  for a particularly fine or scarce ELZEVIR, in Berks County, Philadelphia in the early part of the 20th century "seventeenth century editions were still very cheap" according to George Allen in his memoir of his father, the bookseller William H. Allen.  An ELZEVIR printing  "might bring as little as $4".
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~traister/george.html

From "Books and Bookmen" by Andrew Lang (added May 2003)
In a chapter devoted to ELZEVIRS, Lang tries to define the difference between the rare and the commonplace, the good, bad and merely ELZEVIR, and  describes the most famous and expensive of all  - the cookery book, Le Pastissier Francois.

http://www.bookrags.com/books/bkbkm/PART2.htm

"Elzevirs and Divers Other Matters" by Eugene Field (added May 2003) 
 "I recall that upon one occasion, having lost an Elzevir at a book auction, I was
afflicted with melancholia to such a degree that I had to take to my bed..." writes Eugene Field in his "Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac". NB - copy and paste the following URL into your browser window as the line is too long to click through.
http://www.amherst.edu/~rjyanco/literature/eugenefield/prose/loveaffairsof
abibliomaniac/elzevirsanddiversothermatters.html

Virtual Museum Printing Press - Personalities (added May 2003)
http://www.imultimedia.pt/museuvirtpress/ing/persona/e-f.html

"Surreptitious printing in early modern Amsterdam : A survey and analysis from the University of Illinois' collections" by Barbara Jones (Chair, Special Collections Division) (added May 2003)
Paper presented at the 64th IFLA General Conference 16-21 August 1998.
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla64/051-132e.htm