On 4 March, almost two years to the day since the Project was launch in the Library of Birmingham in 2024, the team took a pause from their work and gathered once again at LoB for ‘Small Performances: an interlude’. This half-day event aimed to provide an update on the project, its research, discoveries, outputs and impact and its aims and activities over the coming year. We were pleased to welcome around 60 guests not only from Birmingham but also the wider region and further afield, many of whom have supported Baskerville research since the establishment of the Baskerville Society in 2012 and were keen to hear what we had been up to.
Marcos Martinón-Tores opened proceedings with an introduction to the project, its people, and the achievements so far. Michele Patané closed the event with an exciting presentation on the production of the forthcoming historical digital revival of Baskerville’s typeface. In between Caroline Archer-Parré gave a potted history of the punches whilst Liam Sims presented Baskerville as represented in the Cambridge archives, particularly in the Dreyfus collection. We are delighted that Julia Montes Landa joined the event albeit virtually from Granada with a presentation on the manufacture of the Baskerville punches and the versatile chaîne opératoire of Baskerville’s printing workshop. Ann-Marie Carey and Keith Adcock gave a joint presentation which looked at both the craftsmanship revealed in the punches and the 3D modelling that is being conducted to help understand their production. Mark Box demonstrated how the project is revolutionising image capture and analysis whilst Maciej Pawlikowski showed how work is being done to make the Baskerville collection accessible. Emily Watt gave a fascinating explanation of how she is exploring the shape of Baskerville’s letterforms using geometric morphometric analysis of both the punches and textual characters.
The audience reaction to the work was gratifying with comments such as ‘an amazing project’ and ‘absolutely brilliant!’ and ‘I am full of admiration for the work’. The creativity of the project ‘in terms of presentations, events and materials’ was particularly noted. And if we were concerned that the audience might not enjoy the nitty gritty of the work we needn’t have worried, as one guest commented ‘not knowing much about typography, I came along thinking that much of it might be too technical for me; but it really was very informative in all the right and accessible ways’.
All-in-all the afternoon was a great success and we thank the audience for coming, for their questions and positive feedback.
Thanks too must go to Advisory Board member Dr Malcolm Dick (University of Birmingham) who chaired the afternoon and kept us all to time; and refreshments were provided courtesy of the Baskerville Society. Thanks must also go to the Library of Birmingham and Birmingham City Council for their continued generous support of Baskerville research.