B ASK ER VILL
T H E M A K I N G O F BASKERVILLE
b a s k e r v i l l e
TRANSITIONAL SERIF an early neoclassical typeface that is seen as one of the first types that was really designed.
L P U Z 1 A F L P
Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz ? ! “ , * & @ 1234567890 Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt
thinnest part of the letter
thickest part of the letter
extends 2% above the cap-height
the “O� has a high contrast; the thick to thin ratio is 5:1
49%
optical center
51%
extends 2% below the cap-height
1706 - 1775
J O H N BASKERVILLE JOHN BASKERVILLE, (BORN JAN. 28, 1706, WOLVER-
BASKERVILLE, WITH ITS WELL-CONSIDERED ‘PROPORTIONS AND DESIGN, ITS
ley, Worcestershire, Eng. – died Jan. 8, 1775, Birmingham,
methods of thickening or thinning parts of a letter, and its sharper and more horizontal
Warwickshire), English printer and creator of a typeface
treatment of serifs’, is one of the world’s most widely used, enduring and influential type-
of great distinction bearing his name, whose works are
faces. It was created by John Baskerville (1707 – 75), a printer, entrepreneur and artist who
among the finest examples of the art of printing. Baskerville
changed the course of type design and made eighteenth-century Birmingham a town with-
became a writing master at Birmingham but in 1740
out typographic equal. Baskerville was the ‘complete printer’, who considered all aspects
established a japanning (varnishing) business, whose profits
of the craft by experimenting with casting and setting type, improving the construction of
enabled him to experiment in typefounding. He set up
the printing press, developing a new kind of paper and refining the quality of inks. His did
a printing house and in 1757 published his first work, an
much to enhance the printing and publishing industries of his day in Britain and beyond.
edition of Virgil, followed in 1758 by an edition of John
The books he created – from an edition of Virgil’s poetry in 1757 to his final publication,
Milton. Appointed printer to the University of Cambridge,
William Hunter’s magisterial, the anatomy of the gravid uterus of 1774 – are recognized by
he undertook an edition of the Bible (1763), which is
printing historians, librarians and bibliophiles as masterpieces of the art and technology of
considered his masterpiece. He published a particularly
book design and production.
beautiful edition of Horace in 1762; the success of a second edition (1770) encouraged him to issue a series of
A FEW WORDS ARE IN ORDER ABOUT MRS. EAVES AND JOHN BASKERVILLE.
editions of Latin authors. The bold quality of Baskerville’s
Sarah Eaves was born Sarah Ruston in 1708, two years before Baskerville. At age 16, she
print derived from his use of a highly glossed paper and a
married Richard Eaves, who, after lathering five children, abandoned her in 1745. Three
truly black ink that he had invented. His typography was
years later, Sarah Eaves became Baskerville’s housekeeper – and mistress – at his new home,
much criticized in England, and after his death his types
Easy Hill, in Birmingham. In 1764, Richard Eaves died, having returned to Birmingham two
were purchased by the French dramatist Pierre-Augustin
years before. That year, Baskerville married Sarah Eaves. They remained together until
Caron de Beaumarchais. Their subsequent history is
Baskerville’s death in 1775, and Sarah continued to oversee his press until her own death in
uncertain, but in 1917 the surviving punches and matrices
1778. Baskerville’s relationship with Sarah Eaves, along with his opposition to established re-
were recognized, and in 1953 they were presented to the
ligion, shocked Birmingham society. Mark Noble, a contemporary of Baskerville’s, described
University of Cambridge. Baskerville type has been revived,
the situation thus: “She lived in adultery with him many years. She was originally a servant.
its clarity and balance making it a good and appreciate
Such a pair one rarely met with.” Beyond its titillation value, Baskerville’s relationship with
type for continuous reading.
Sarah Eaves is important for its possible impact on the reputation of Baskerville’s typefaces.
B pointed
34 points
32 points
35 points
rounded
THE FONT THAT “BLINDS ITS READERS” THE FORMER WRITING MASTER JOHN BASKERVILLE DECIDED LATE IN LIFE THAT he wanted to be a printer, but he did not want to be a regular printer, he wanted complete control of the ink, the paper and the typefaces of his productions. By combining the readability of the Old Style faces with an elegance and sharpness inspired by the copperplate engravings of the neoclassical writing hands, Baskerville took his type to a level that is still a source of inspiration for many present-day type designers. Like the first printers, he transferred a calligraphic writing style to the medium of punchcutting. Baskerville’s type was less radical in the stroke contrast. To a certain degree, he adhered to the norms of the printing industry by maintaining a level of contrast similar to the works of his contemporary William Caslon, whose foundry at the time was still producing types of the historical tradition today known as Old Style. Baskerville was nonetheless moving away from the deep-rooted Old Style types of his peers. The style was not new, however; he was simply following the fashion of the popular writing hands. The esteemed type historian Beatrice Warde later described the matter as follows: “This, then, was what we owe to Baskerville: that at a time when abstract rules still were applied to works of beauty, due to over-respectful study since the renaissance of didactic Roman text-books on Greek art forms, he was sensible enough to base his design on the living pen-form which will always remain as a check and inspiration to type founders, rather than to following either the sterile pronouncements of archaeologists on the one hand or the traditional rules of the punch-cutter on the other.”
PRINTER AND SCHOLAR DANIEL BERKELEY UPDIKE WAS NOT EQUALLY COMPLImentary. In his influential book Printing Types of 1922, Updike argued that in Baskerville’s type designs, “the hand of the writing-master betrayed itself, in making them too even, too perfect, to ‘genteel’,” a view that was further supported by type designer Frederic W. Goudy, who found the contrast between the thick and thin strokes too pronounced; he felt that “they properly belong to plate engraving rather than to metal types,” and, he argued, they make the page appear restless and spotty. In spite of this criticism, the Baskerville style is still highly popular. Although the widely applied Vox-ATylp classification system of typefaces defines the works of Baskerville as Transitional, there can be no question that his work stands strongly on its own merits. Baskerville Original Pro was a revival published by Storm Type in 2010. The typeface has two versions: one that follows the original fonts with a small x-height and high stroke contrast and one that is adjusted to modern needs with a
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larger x-height and less stroke contrast.
THE WRITING HAND THAT INSPIRED BASKERVILLE WAS AN ENGLISH WRITING MASTER GEORGE SHELLEY PUBLISHED THE BOOK ALPHABETS IN ALL HANDS, WHICH DEMONSTRATED EXAMPLES OF THE NEW WRITING HAND. THE FONT DATES BACK TO THE 1730S, WHEN BASKERVILLE BEGAN WORKING ON engravings for tombstones using a style of writing that would later resemble the lettering of his eponymous typeface. In the 1750s, Baskerville set out to design a thinner version of Caslon, the de facto typeface at the time. By 1757, he settled on a design he used to print an edition of Virgil’s work, and Baskerville was born. At first, the font’s success overshadowed the use of Caslon, causing a rift between the two designs – the practical stalwart and the elegant alternative.
WITH MORE ELABORATE FINISHING STROKES (AKA SERIFS) THAN TIMES NEW Roman, it’s readable but ornate, and therefore a popular option that designers use for midlength texts, such as sections of poetry, book titles, old-fashioned-looking company logos and, occasionally, the interiors of the books themselves. Zuzana Licko has designed Mrs. Eaves as a response to Baskerville. In comparing Mrs. Eaves to Monotype Baskerville, the most accurate of the Baskerville revivals available today, several differences are immediately noticeable. Mrs. Eaves has wider characters, stronger hairlines, heavier serifs, and, in the case of the italic, truncated entry and exit strokes (“pothooks”). The wider character proportion is Licko’s means of retaining a sense of “over all openness and lightness” despite the reduced stroke contrast. However, “[i]n order to avoid increasing the set-width” as a result of this wider character proportion, Licko “reduced the x-height, relative to the cap-height.” Consequently, Mrs. Eaves has the appearance of setting about one point smaller than the
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average typeface.
BASKERVILLE HAS LESS CALLIGRAPHIC FLOW THAN MOST EARLIER TYPEFACES, AND THIS CAN BE SAID OF JUST ABOUT ALL THE TRANSITIONAL STYLE TYPES. WHEREAS THE EARLIER HUMANIST AND OLD STYLE TYPES OWED A LOT TO THE handwritten letter form, the pen’s influence has all but disappeared in the Transitional types. During Baskerville’s lifetime his types had little influence in his home country. However, In 1758 Baskerville met Benjamin Franklin who returned to the US with some of Baskerville’s type, popularising it through its adoption as one of the standard typefaces employed in the federal government publishing. Franklin was a huge fan of Baskerville’s work, and in a letter to Baskerville (1760) he enthusiastically defends Baskerville’s types, recounting a discussion he had with an English gentleman who claimed that Baskerville’s ‘ultra-thin’ serifs and narrow strokes would blind its readers. Franklin mischievously tore off the top of a Caslon specimen (to remove any mention of Caslon, of course), and showed it to the gentleman, claiming that it was the work of Baskerville. The gentleman examined the specimen, and thinking that it was indeed a Baskerville specimen, started to point out the worst features of ‘Baskeville’s’ type. Some characteristics are vertical or almost stress in the bowls of lowercase letters, greater contrast between thick and thin (sub-) strokes, and head serifs almost horizontal or more horizontional. Jacques Jaugeon made what is now considered to be the first Transitional (or Neoclassical) style typeface, the Romain du Roi or King’s Roman, commissioned by Louis XIV for the Imprimerie Royale in 1692.
1706
1740
1757
1763
1775
1778
John Baskerville is born
Baskerville publishes his first work
Baskerville creates Baskerville the font
Undertakes an edition of the bible at the University of Cambridge
John Baskerville dies
Sarah Eaves dies
B upper counter is smaller than the lower counter
cupped waist
finishing serif width is roughly equal to vertical thickness and horizontal thickness of the “E�
high contrast
bowl is slightly lowered on the left side
90 degree serif
serif is not straight at the end
slightly rounded
the “F” upper serif is longer than the “E” long serifs
cupped serif the arm on the “F” is lowered
serifs at an angle
curved bracket
short arm
Sydney Deitz FALL 2018