Who was John Baskerville?
Master Printer.
Date and Place of Birth:
28th January 1706, Sion Hill, Wolverley, near
Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England.
Family Background:
Unknown but probably of yeoman stock.
Education:
Unknown but probably local schools.
Chronology/Biography of JohnBaskerville:
1723: Originally
he worked as a footman but by the age of seventeen he had become
a writing master and engraver of headstones for graves.
1738: Started a
successful japanning (varnishing) business in Birmingham which over
the next ten years made him a wealthy businessman.
1750: Began to experiment
with papermaking, type founding, printing and the manufacture of
printer's inks. One of his typefaces bears his name.
1754: Produced his
first new typeface with the help of his assistant cutter John Handy.
1757: Published
his first printed work, an edition of the poems of Virgil at his
house at Easy Hill. He went on to produce many more volumes of the
classics such as those by Milton and an
edition of the Bible.
Baskerville Monument, Centenary Square,
Birmingham
(© A Blagg)
1758: Became printer
to Cambridge University and printed a copy of the Bible. This was
unusual for a freethinker but many think it his finest work. His
last great work of printing was "Orlando Furioso" by Lodovico
Ariosto which was commissioned by French booksellers. Baskerville's
Easy Hill press worked or only 20 years but made Birmingham into
an undisputed centre of book printing in Europe.
Marriage:
1764 to Sarah Eaves.
Places of Interest:
BIRMINGHAM:
A memorial to him, forming the word Virgil in
single large letters of his typeface, has been set up in Centenary
Square outside Baskerville House.
Date and Place of Death:
8th January 1775, Birmingham, England.
Age at Death:
69.
Site of Grave:
Originally buried standing up (as he was
an atheist) in his own garden inside a conical mausoleum. This land
was cut through by the major canal building in the area and In 1820
his body was dug up and used at a local peepshow. It was finally
transferred to land adjoining the Cradley Chapel, Birmingham, England.
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