Introduction: John Baskerville: Art and Industry of the Enlightenment

Summary

BASKERVILLE, with its well-considered ‘proportions and design, its methods of thickening or thinning parts of a letter, and its sharper and more horizontal treatment of serifs’, is one of the world's most widely used, enduring and influential typefaces. It was created by John Baskerville (1707–75), a printer, entrepreneur and artist who changed the course of type design and made eighteenth-century Birmingham a town without typographic equal. Baskerville gained wealth and distinction as a manufacturer of japanware but it was only in the 1750s that he turned his attention to creating the typeface that bears his name. Baskerville was the ‘complete printer’, who considered all aspects of the craft by experimenting with casting and setting type, improving the construction of the printing press, developing a new kind of paper and refining the quality of inks. His did much to enhance the printing and publishing industries of his day in Britain and beyond. The books he created—from an edition of Virgil's poetry in 1757 to his final publication, William Hunter's magisterial, The anatomy of the gravid uterusof 1774—are recognised by printing historians, librarians and bibliophiles as masterpieces of the art and technology of book design and production.

Yet, despite his importance, reputation and influence, Baskerville's work and life remain underexplored and his significance beyond printing is unrecognised. To address this oversight, the Baskerville Society was founded in 2011 to promote further research, public awareness and understanding of Baskerville's contribution not only to printing but also to the wider social, cultural and industrial landscape of the Enlightenment. The work undertaken by the Society, with the assistance of its international membership, is cross-disciplinary and involves many fields including printing and typographic history, the history of the book, design, social and industrial history, metals and materials and bibliography. Its work is disseminated via a newsletter and through public lectures, exhibitions, visits, publications and scholarly conferences. Its work operates within the wider framework of the joint Birmingham City University and University of Birmingham Centre for Printing History and Culture.

The first conference was organised in Birmingham in 2013.6 Over the course of two days an international community of academics and independent researchers, printers and designers, librarians, curators and archivists, scientists, artists and collectors gathered to hear scholars present their research into various aspects of Baskerville's life and work.