John Baskerville
John Baskerville ( born January 28, 1706 Wolverley, † January 8, 1775 in Birmingham ) was an English typographer, writing master, printer and member of the Royal Society of Arts.
John Baskerville lived since 1726 as a writing master and stone cutters in Birmingham. A specialized on Japanese lacquer varnishing, which he ran from 1738, made him financially independent and put him in a position to deal with letterpress and type casting. Since his time standard fonts that had hardly changed in England since William Caslon, not pledged, he began in 1750 in order to cut their own writings. 1754 handwriting samples were published by him for the first time; From 1757 he worked until his death as engraver and printer in London.
One of his first major publications was an edition of the works of Virgil (1757 ). Baskervilles new writings soon found public acclaim, already in 1758 he was appointed Director of the Cambridge University Press, what an extraordinary honor office showed. Some of his next major works are more editions of Latin classics; famous were the double edition of Juvenal and Persius (1761 ) and the two editions of Horace (1762, again in 1770 ). While under the Baskervilles contemporaries especially these classics spending excited Europe stir and represented a significant stimulus for the completer of classical Antiqua Firmin Didot and Giambattista Bodoni, today Baskervilles English-language prints are more popular, especially the Book of Common Prayer (1760 /62) and the New Testament ( 1763).
Financial difficulties led Baskerville 1762-1767 to negotiate the sale of its foundry and his printing. Of the brothers Molini 1771 he received an order to print an edition of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, which appeared in 1773. The fonts he designed were often imitated in his lifetime and life continues to this day under the name of Baskerville. After his death, acquired a Parisian literary society, the Beaumarchais board, Baskervilles entire print types estate of the widow for the enormous price of 3,700 pounds or (according to other sources) 92,000 francs. Beaumarchais was so in Kehl, a deluxe edition of the works of Voltaire print.
John Baskerville was an atheist and was buried at his own request after his death (1775 ) in " unconsecrated ground " on his property. After the death of his wife, Sarah, the property changed hands several times owners. As one 1821 on this property docked a channel Baskervilles coffin was unearthed and opened. Because several priest refused the burial, the mummified corpse of John Baskerville in the two large department stores of Birmingham was put on display. Only a few years later, he was buried in the crypt of Christ Church of Birmingham and was only in 1899 his final resting place on the Warstone Lane Cemetery.