John Baskerville

Baskerville

Baskerville is a 1757 serif typeface designed by John Baskerville in Birmingham and cut by John Handy. It is transitional — a refinement of Caslon’s old-style forms — with higher stroke contrast, sharper serifs, vertical axis shift, more circular curves, and greater character regularity. Its success depended on wove paper (co-developed with James Whatman), custom ink, and precise presswork. The 1757 Virgil edition demonstrated its capabilities and secured Baskerville’s 1758 appointment as University Printer to Cambridge. It set formal precedents for Bodoni and Didot, but its legibility limits at small sizes and material dependencies remain unaddressed.