Page:Historic printing types, a lecture read before the Grolier club of New York, January 25, 1885, with additions and new illustrations; by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914; Grolier Club.djvu/67

STYLES OF CASLON AND BASKEKVILLE. 63 John Baskerville, of Birmingham, England, was another ' . Died 1775. amateur who made more serious innovations in the fashion of Roman letter. 1 His first types were influenced by the style of Caslon, but as he gained skill and experience, he developed a style of his own. His matured form of letters Baskerville's appears to best advantage in his folio Bible, and Book of best works. Common Prayer, in which he shows types of round, open form, without excess of angles, and with positive hair lines. Baskerville's types have been warmly praised but inex- actly described by Dr. Dibdin. According to modern no- tions, they were not at all " slender and delicate," but have The features quite enough of firmness. The peculiarity of his Roman, as of MS types. compared with other types of his time, is its superior round- ness, openness, and clearness. His Italic, on the contrary, is unusually condensed, and shows in many letters the graces of the professional writing-master. 1 In 172 6 Baskerville kept a writing- was greatly in advance of his rivals; school at Birmingham; in 1745 he he made his presses; mixed his inks; engaged in the japanning business, and hot-pressed his printed sheets, Soon after he attempted type-found- which were either of carefully selected ing, in which he "sunk 600 before Dutch manufacture, or English papers he could produce one letter to please made under his own direction. His himself, and some thousands before printing was not profitable. In a letter the shallow stream of profit began to to Walpole, Nov. 2, 1762, he writes, flow." Upon the types he made he " This business of printing I am heart- printed many books of great merit, ily tired of, and repent I ever at- the Bible, in imperial folio ; Paradise tempted." After his death his foundry Lost, in 4to and 8vo ; Virgil, in 4to was sold in 1779 to a literary society and 12mo; the Book of Common of Paris, and his types were used by Prayer, in 8vo, and an edition of Hor- Beaumarchais in a great edition of the ace, in 12mo. As a printer, Baskerville works of Voltaire.