The Topographies of a Typographer

The chapter considers the ways in which Baskerville has been interpreted since the eighteenth century. Celebrated as a genius by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century historians of Birmingham, he was, however, criticised by others for his allegedly lowly origins, lack of education and unconventional morality and beliefs. The revival of interest in the quality of his typeface design at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries led to biographies and bibliographical studies which added to our knowledge of his work as a ‘complete printer’. These were important studies, but they resulted in a narrowing of our appreciation of Baskerville. He became, almost entirely, the subject of students of printing and book design and was largely ignored by economic, social and cultural historians. Baskerville’s importance as an industrialist, contributor to the Enlightenment and the significance of his books as cultural artefacts provide new ways of seeing the man and his works.