In 1760, Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to his friend John Baskerville.

　　Baskerville was an artist, printer and creator of the type bearing his name. Franklin visited Birmingham frequently, staying with Baskerville. They shared the same year of birth and a professional interest in type and books. Baskerville's type had greater contrast of line widths, thinner serifs, and a lighter feel. He then wet the paper before printing and pressed the metal type and its ink into the paper. His styles were met with criticism, and many claimed they were difficult to read and even caused blindness.

　　In his letter to Baskerville, Benjamin Franklin reported that he had tested one critic by referring to a Caslon type sample as a "Baskerville" type sample.

　　"Craven-Street, London. Let me give you a pleasant Instance of the Prejudice some have entertained against your Work. Soon after I returned, discoursing with a Gentleman concerning the Artists of Birmingham, he said you would be a Means of blinding all the Readers in the Nation, for the Strokes of your Letters being too thin and narrow, hurt the Eye, and he could never read a Line of them without Pain.

　　"He said you would be a Means of blinding all the Readers in the Nation, for the Strokes of your Letters being too thin and narrow, hurt the Eye, and he could never read a Line of them without Pain."

　　"I thought, said I, you were going to complain of the Gloss on the Paper, some object to: No, no, says he, I have heard that mentioned, but it is not that; 'tis in the Form and Cut of the Letters themselves; they have not that natural and easy Proportion between the Height and Thickness of the Stroke, which makes the common Printing so much more comfortable to the Eye. -- You see this Gentleman was a Connoisseur. In vain I endeavoured to support your -- Character -- against the Charge; he knew what he felt, he could see the Reason of it, and several other Gentlemen among his Friends had made the same Observation."

　　Ben Behaves "Mischievously"

　　"Yesterday he called to visit me, when, mischievously bent to try his Judgment, I stept into my Closet, tore off the Top of Mr. Caslon's Specimen, and produced it to him as ours brought with me from Birmingham, saying, I had been examining it since he spoke to me, and could not for my Life perceive the Disproportion he mentioned, desiring him to point it out to me.

　　"He readily undertook it, and went over the several Founts, shewing me every-where what he thought Instances of that Disproportion; and declared, that he could not then read the Specimen without feeling very strongly the Pain he had mentioned to me. I spared him that Time the Confusion of being told, that these were the Types he had been reading all his Life with so much Ease to his Eyes; the Types his adored Newton is printed with, on which he has pored not a little; nay, the very Types his own Book is printed with, for he is himself an Author; and yet never discovered this painful Disproportion in them, till he thought they were yours. I am, &c. B. Franklin"

　　Even so, Benjamin Franklin chose Caslon for the first printing of the Declaration of Independence. Baskerville could not sustain his printing business and his executors found thousands of unsold volumes in his shop.

　　"I spared him that Time the Confusion of being told, that these were the Types he had been reading all his Life with so much Ease to his Eyes; the Types...on which he has pored not a little; nay, the very Types his own Book is printed with..."

　　A French nobleman (who spied on the British for Franklin) bought Baskerville's punches and type and printed the 70-volume works of Voltaire. They were brought to Paris, and used to print inflammatory pamphlets during the Revolution, then confiscated by the government, re-sold to a private firm, and used to print ephemera for a century. In 1953 they were presented to Cambridge University.

　　Baskerville's corpse also suffered indignity. Because of his atheism, he was buried on his estate. Forty-five years later a canal was dug through the property, and his body disinterred. It was left in a plumber's shop for eight years, and the owner charged visitors sixpence to look at the well-preserved body. It was transferred to a warehouse and displayed for the public, but the fumes were said to have caused observers to fall ill. It was finally sneaked into a crypt of a church where it remained unmarked for 50 years, until curious parishioners opened the vault and found his coffin with his nameplate, and erected a marker. That church was demolished in 1898 and the corpses were removed to a chapel in the city cemetery. That chapel was also demolished, and the entrances to the crypts bricked over.

　　Baskerville is still a favorite son of Birmingham-but so is Ozzy Osbourne. And most people still cannot identify typefaces.

 

[时间：2006-09-29  作者：Frank Romano  来源：信息中心]