The ‘St. James's Chronicle’ for 5 Sept. 1758 announces that ‘the university of Oxford have lately contracted with Mr. Baskerville of Birmingham for a complete alphabet of Greek types, of the great primer size; and it is not doubted but that ingenious artist will excel in that character, as he has already done in the Roman and Italic in his elegant edition of “Virgil.”’ The Greek New Testament did not, however, appear until five years later.
In the preface to Milton, Baskerville informs us the extent of his ambition was ‘a power to print an octavo Common Prayer Book and a folio Bible.’ He was elected printer to the university of Cambridge for ten years from 16 Dec. 1758, according to articles of agreement dated 15 Dec., and began at once to prepare for editions of the Bible and Common Prayer. He wrote from Birmingham to Dr. Caryll, vice-chancellor, on 31 May 1759: ‘I have at last sent everything requisite to begin the Prayer Book at Cambridge. … I propose printing off 2,000 the first impression, but only 1,000 of the State Holidays, &c., which the patentee has left out. The paper is very good, and stands me in 27 or 28 shillings the ream. I am taking great pains in order to produce a striking title-page and specimen of the Bible, which I hope will be ready in about six weeks. The importance of the work demands all my attention, not only for my own (eternal) reputation, but to convince the world that the university’ had not misplaced its favours. He asked for the names of some gentlemen who might be engaged as correctors of the press, and procured a ‘sealed copy’ of the Prayer Book (1662) ‘with much trouble and expense from the cathedral of Lichfield, but found it the most inaccurate and ill-printed work’ he had ever seen, and returned it.
In May 1760 he circulated proposals for his subsequently published Bible (1763). In the summer of the same year Baskerville was visited by Samuel Derrick [q. v.], who writes about him to the Earl of Cork. Baskerville is described as living in a handsome house; he manufactures his own paper, types, and ink, and ‘carries on a great trade in the japan way’ (Letters, 1767, i. 2–3). Four different editions of the Prayer Book were issued by Baskerville in 1760, ‘all lovely specimens of press-work,’ says Dibdin. In 1761 he brought out a quarto ‘Juvenal,’ editions of Congreve and Addison (the three ranking with his best productions), and two octavo prayer-books. On 3 July articles of agreement were entered into between him and the university of Cambridge, alluded to in his subsequent letter to Horace Walpole. On 27 Dec. of the same year Bishop Warburton wrote to Hurd: ‘I think the booksellers have an intention of employing Baskerville to print Pope in quarto’ (Letters, 1809, 335). This was Warburton's own scheme apparently (see Walpole's Letters, 1857, i. lxxii). The project came to nothing. In 1762 appeared two more prayer-books, and the lovely 12mo ‘Horace,’ which Harwood calls ‘the most beautiful book, both in regard to type and paper, I ever beheld. It is also the most correct of all Baskerville's editions of the classics; for every sheet was carefully revised by Mr. Livie, who was an elegant scholar’ (Editions of the Classics, p. 226). Shenstone had some share in bringing it out; the engravings especially were under his supervision (Letter to Graves in Works, 1791, iii. 334).
Baskerville made small profit; the booksellers did not encourage the printer-publisher. He was also in trouble over a lawsuit, and at last wrote on 2 Nov. 1762 to Horace Walpole, as a patron of the arts, sending him a folio sheet with border, being ‘specimens’ of his various types, and asking for his support. The terms granted by Cambridge were extremely onerous; the success of his Bible, which had cost him 2,000l., was doubtful, and he was anxious to sell his ‘whole scheme’ to the Russian or Danish courts, to whom he had sent specimens, unless he could obtain a subsidy from the English government.
In 1763 was published the book on which he had bestowed so much pains and money, one of the finest English bibles ever produced. Its beauty ‘has caused the volume to find its way into almost every public and private library where fine and curious books are appreciated’ (Cotton, Editions of the Bible, 1852, p. 96). In some respects Dibdin considered it inferior to the impressions of Field and Baskett, although he also styles it ‘one of the most beautifully printed books in the world’ (Ædes Althorpianæ, 1822, p. 81). Subscribers were requested to send for the volumes ‘to Mr. Baskerville's Printing Office, at Mr. Paterson's at Essex House, in Essex Street in the Strand.’ In the same year he produced at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, a quarto and an octavo Greek New Testament, following the text of Mill, with some variations. The type, without contractions, is a large and beautiful letter. The verses are numbered in the margin. Reuss points out that the two are really separate editions. We are told that the young king, George III, and his mother, the Princess Dowager of Wales, ‘most graciously received’ copies of his octavo Prayer Book in 1764. For the next three or
