This 1959 bibliography lists and describes everything that came from the press of John Baskerville of Birmingham, who was appointed Printer to the University of Cambridge in 1758. After an introduction in which Dr Gaskell describes the methods that he has adopted and the conclusions that he has drawn from the investigation, there are two main parts: Specimens, Proposals and other Ephemera, and Books. Each entry contains a quasi-facsimile transcription of the title page, and gives details of formula contents amongst several other things. This, which was the first full bibliography of Baskerville's work, will be an essential tool for Baskerville collectors and for historians of printing and typography as well as for bibliographers. There are twelve collotype plates, most of which illustrate unique copies of Baskerville's ephemera; and there is in addition a full-size facsimile of Baskerville's last type specimen.

The eighteenth-century typographer, printer, industrialist and Enlightenment figure, John Baskerville (1707-75) was an inventor, entrepreneur and artist with a worldwide reputation who made eighteenth-century Birmingham a city without typographic equal, by changing the course of type design. This publication explores Baskerville in his social and economic context and evaluates his impact.

A compact and charming history of the classic Enlightenment font by the New York Times best-selling author of Just My Type. When Baskerville was first created in 1757, there was concern that it would damage readers’ eyes with its combination of thin and thick strokes and tapering serifs. Yet 250 years later, it remains one of the most commonly used typefaces in books of all kinds. As best-selling author Simon Garfield tells it, the tale of this elegant typeface is one of painstaking dedication. The font’s creator, John Baskerville, was a maverick lacquer maker and master printer who made it his life’s mission to achieve the font’s perfection. His efforts culminated in his magnificent Bible, acclaimed as the finest ever made. Garfield explores why Baskerville’s own body was dug up and buried many times before finally being allowed to rest in peace, and examines his legacy through the work of his wife, Sarah Baskerville—one of the first powerful women in the printing world—and the archivists and enthusiasts working to preserve the font’s original steel punches today.

Designed for the literary student, the student librarian and the beginning book collector, this manual assumes nothing but interest at the outset. In clear language, it serves to take readers to the point at which they are prepared to turn to advanced texts to develop specialized interests.

The Useful Knowledge of William Hutton shows the rapid rise of a self-taught workman and the growing prominence of the city of Birmingham during the two major events of the eighteenth-century - the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment. Hutton achieved wealth, land, status, and literary fame, but later became a victim of violent riots. The book boldly claims that an understanding of the Industrial Revolution requires engagement with the figure of the 'rough diamond', a person of worth and character, but lacking in manners, education, and refinement. A cast of unpolished entrepreneurs is brought to life as they drive economic and social change, and improve their towns and themselves. The book also contends that the rise of Birmingham cannot be understood without accepting that its vibrant cultural life was a crucial factor that spurred economic growth. Readers are plunged into a hidden provincial world marked by literacy, bookshops, printing, authorship, and the spread of useful knowledge. We see that ordinary people read history and wrote poetry, whilst they grappled with the effects of industrial change. Newly discovered memoirs reveal social conflict and relationships in rare detail. They also address the problems of social mobility, income inequality, and breath-taking technological change that continue to perplex us today.

This volume attempts to throw fresh light on two areas of Benjamin Franklin’s intellectual world, namely: his self-fashioning and his political thought. It is an odd thing that for all of Franklin’s voluminous writings—a fantastically well-documented correspondence over many years, scientific treatises that made his name amongst the brightest minds of Europe, newspaper articles, satires, and of course his signature on the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution—and yet scholars debate how to get at his political thought, indeed, if he had any political philosophy at all. It could be argued, that he is perhaps the American Founder most closely associated with the Enlightenment. Similarly, for a man who left so much evidence about his life as a printer, bookseller, postmaster, inventor, diplomat, politician, scientist, among other professions, one who wrote an autobiography that has become a piece of American national literature and, indeed, a contribution to world culture, the question of who Ben Franklin continues to engage scholars and those who read about his life. His identity seems so stable that we associate it with certain virtues that apply to the way we live our lives, time management, for example. The image of the stable figure of Franklin is applied to create a sense of trust in everything from financial institutions to plumbers. His constant drive to improve and fashion himself reveal, however, a man whose identity was not static and fixed, but was focused on growth, on bettering his understanding of himself and the world he lived in and attempted to influence and improve.