Baskerville Books at the Cadbury Research Library and the 'Great Baskerville Bible Crisis of 2020'

Archer-Parre, Caroline (2025) Baskerville Books at the Cadbury Research Library and the 'Great Baskerville Bible Crisis of 2020'. The Book Collector, 74 (2). ISSN 0006-7237

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Abstract

This year is the 250th anniversary of the death of John Baskerville (1707–75), a Birmingham industrialist and Enlightenment figure who made his fortune through the manufacture of fashionable japanware whilst forging a worldwide reputation as a printer. Baskerville is probably best known for the typeface which now bears his name. His typographic experiments put him ahead of his time, had an international impact and did much to enhance the printing industry of his day whilst the volumes he created in Birmingham are recognised as masterpieces of the art and craft of book making which ‘went forth to astonish all the librarians of Europe’. As well as printing in Birmingham Baskerville also became printer to the University of Cambridge, from where he issued four editions of the Book of Common Prayer and his great folio Bible which is still regarded as one of the world’s most beautifully printed books.

To commemorate the anniversary of his death, this article recounts the 2020 campaign to prevent the Boulton Family Baskerville Bible from being sold at auction with its likely loss to the nation as a whole. It also reviews the Baskerville volumes housed in the Cadbury Research Library [CRL] at the University of Birmingham, one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of material from the Baskerville Press, where the Boulton Family Baskerville bible is now housed.

Item Type:	Article
Dates:	Date Event 30 May 2025 Accepted 30 May 2025 Published Online
Subjects:	CAH25 - design, and creative and performing arts > CAH25-01 - creative arts and design > CAH25-01-03 - design studies
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts, Design and Media > College of Art and Design
Depositing User:	Gemma Tonks
Date Deposited:	11 Jul 2025 12:25
Last Modified:	11 Jul 2025 12:27
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/16511

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