Whilst Baskerville is known for the roman typeface that now bears his name–and is the subject of the Small Performances project–he was also responsible for cutting a Greek typeface for Oxford University Press, for which he is less well-known.
In June 1761 the university authorised the printing of two edition of the Novum Testamentum: 500 copies of a quarto edition and an octavo in 2,000 copies for which Baskerville was invited to cut the types and which were published in 1763. At the time the printing of Greek texts was central to scholarship but these two editions are the only know examples of Baskerville’s Greek in use. As Gerry Leonidas has noted, whilst Baskerville’s Greek is arguably the first that can be described as fully typographic it received a lukewarm reception from contemporary scholars and printers, and was never used again.
Baskerville’s Greek is, however, of interest to the Small Performances team, as some of the punches and matrices are extant and are housed in at Oxford University Press. They therefore present an opportunity for comparison with Baskerville’s roman punches held in Cambridge, and the matrices provide a missing bit of the production puzzle.
In February several members of the team paid a visit to the OUP Library and Archive which houses a large collection of typographical equipment from OUP’s printing house including the Fell Type collection of punches, matrices, and wooden initials obtained by John Fell from Holland in the seventeenth century. Our interest, of course, was in Baskerville’s Greek material. We were pleased to find 24 punches of Two-Line Great Primer (36 pt) and 141 matrices of Great-Primer (18 pt). The punches were instantly recognisable as being Baskerville’s as they had the same crisp cut and high burnishing as their roman counterparts. The matrices were the first examples we had seen from Baskerville’s workshop, and were particularly exciting to encounter. An unexpected find amongst the material was a packet of Baskerville matrices of Brevier (8 pt) figures 1-0 and Baskerville Brevier italic h and t and we are curious to compare these matrices with out punches.
The visit was facilitated by OUP archivist, Martin Maw, who kindly gave us a free run of the type cabinets. We are looking forward to a return visit and more discoveries in the archives.