BASKERVILLE, JOHN (1706-1775)

This article appears in Volume V03, Page 481 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BAR-BEC

BASKERVILLE, JOHN (1706-1775) , English printer, was born at Wolverley in Worcestershire on the 28th of January 1706. About 1726 he became a writing master at Birmingham, and he seems to have had a great talent for calligraphy and for cutting

inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS (from Lat. inscribere, to write upon)

in stone. While at Birmingham he made some important improvements in the process of japanning, and gained a considerable fortune. About the year 1950 he began to make experiments in type-founding, producing types much superior in distinctness and elegance to any that had hitherto been employed. He set up a printing-

house

HOUSE
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
Gothic
- GOTHIC
it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)

, and in 1757 published his first

work

WORK

, a Virgil in royal quarto, followed, in 1758, by his famous edition of Milton. In that year he was appointed printer to the university of

Cambridge

, and undertook editions of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. The

Horace

HORACE [QuINTus HORATIUS FLACCUS] (65-8 B.C.)

, published in 1762, is distinguished even among the productions of the Baskerville press for its correctness and for the beauty of the

paper

PAPER
PAPER (Fr. papier, from Lat. papyrus)

and type. ' A second

Horace

HORACE [QuINTus HORATIUS FLACCUS] (65-8 B.C.)

appeared in 1770 in quarto, and its success encouraged Baskerville to publish a

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of quarto editions of Latin authors, which included Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, Lucretius, Terence, Sallust and Florus. This

list

LIST (O.E.
lisle
- LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614-1685)
, a Teutonic word, cf. Dut. lust, Ger. Leiste, adapted in Ital. lista and Fr.
lisle
- LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614-1685)
)
LIST, FRIEDRICH (1789-1846)

of books issued by Baskerville from his press lends some irony to the allegation that he was a person of no education. These books are admirable specimens of typography; and Baskerville is deservedly ranked among the foremost of those who have advanced the art of printing. His contemporaries asserted that his books owed more to the quality of the

paper

PAPER
PAPER (Fr. papier, from Lat. papyrus)

and ink than to the type itself, but the difficulty in obtaining specimens from the Baskerville press shows the estimation in which they are now held. His wife, Sarah Baskerville, carried on the business for some time after his death, which took place on the 8th of January 1775.

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