Culture
Words by Michel Wlassikoff
John Baskerville (1706–1775)
John Baskerville spent seven years perfecting his first book, an edition of Virgil, developing vellum paper with James Whatman, creating a special ink, and refining paper satinizing processes. Though underappreciated in Britain, his work impressed European figures like Bodoni and Voltaire; after his death, his widow sold his equipment to Beaumarchais, who used it to publish Voltaire's works and supplied several Parisian printers.
John Baskerville spent seven years perfecting his first book, an edition of Virgil, developing vellum paper with James Whatman, creating a special ink, and refining paper satinizing processes. Though underappreciated in Britain, his work impressed European figures like Bodoni and Voltaire; after his death, his widow sold his equipment to Beaumarchais, who used it to publish Voltaire's works and supplied several Parisian printers.
John Baskerville (1706-1775) took seven years to complete his first book, an edition of Virgil. A perfectionist, he invented, with the stationer James Whatman, vellum paper, better suited to printing his fonts, finer than those used at the time. He also created a special ink and developed a process for satinizing paper to eliminate fulling. Baskerville stands out in terms of layout by avoiding any form of ornamentation in favor of a subtle distribution of whitespace. His work was little appreciated in Great Britain, but had conquered Europe: Bodoni admired him and sought to meet him, Voltaire congratulated him for his work with a letter in which he asked him for a specimen page for a publishing project. Despite his prestige, his printing business declined and he tried to sell his equipment, without success. Four years after his death, his widow managed to interest Caron de Beaumarchais who planned to publish the complete works of Voltaire. The edition took place in Kehl; then Beaumarchais repatriated the punches and part of the equipment from Baskerville to Paris to set up a printing house and a foundry, the latter operated from 1790 and supplied several Parisian printers. Panckoucke, who had been at the origin of the project to publish the works of Voltaire, before selling his rights to Beaumarchais, equipped himself with Baskerville characters for his Universal Monitor. The Cercle Social did the same for La Bouche de fer and L’Ami de la Constitution. From this moment, we also find numerous posters set in Baskerville founts.
Documents:
- Baskerville, Monotype, 1927.
- Baskerville, Fonderie Bertrand, 1929.
- Baskerville, Deberny & Peignot, 1954.
