Aldis, M.A.
Cambridge: at the University Press 1916
some time previously most of the best type in use in England
came from Holland, the country which at that time held pride
of place in the printing world. When Richard Bentley was
reorganizing the University Press at Cambridge towards the
end of the seventeenth century, it was to Holland that he
sent for new type, and a Dutchman, Cornelius Crownfield,
was engaged to superintend the work. In 1667 Dr John Fell
established a type foundry for the Oxford University Press,
and for several years afterwards some of the best printing in
this country was done at Oxford. Good examples may be
seen in Anthony Wood's Historia Universitatis Oxoniensis
(1674) and George Hickes's Thesaurus (1705), which came
from the University press, and the magnificent Bible printed
by John Baskett in 1716-7, which, from the numerous
typography were being made, and in 1722 William Caslon, who had experimented in type cutting, designed for William
Bowyer, an excellent printer, a new and handsome fount of roman and italic letter which was used for the folio edition
of Selden's works printed in 1726. The beauty of the Caslon letter soon caused it to come into favor, and up to nearly
the end of the century his types were almost exclusively used by those who made any pretence to fine printing.
Printing had now spread throughout the provinces, and every town of importance could boast its printing press. The
greater number of these presses were connected with the publication of newspapers, and very few places produced.
books of any note. An outstanding exception is the work of John Baskerville at Birmingham. Baskerville, who was a
skilled penman and cutter of monumental inscriptions, having turned his attention to type founding, issued, in 1757, a
quarto edition of Virgil as his first book. He conceived the ambition of printing a Prayer-book and a Bible in a handsome
manner, and to enable him to do this he secured the appointment of printer to the University of Cambridge for a
period of ten years from 1758. Four editions of the Prayer-book were issued by him in 1760, and three years later
came his chefd' Q3uvre, a folio Bible upon which he had lavished much care and which has been described as 'the
finest English Bible ever produced.' Lack of support caused him much discouragement.
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