Johann Froben
Johann Froben, in Latin: Johannes Frobenius (and combinations), (c. 1460 – 27 October 1527) was a famous printer, publisher and learned Renaissance humanist in Basel. He was a close friend of Erasmus and cooperated closely with Hans Holbein the Younger. He made Basel one of the world's leading centres of the book trade. He passed his printing business on to his son, Hieronymus, and grandson, Ambrosius Frobenius.
Biography
Johann Froben was born in Hammelburg, Franconia and moved to Basel in the 1480s.[1] He graduated from the University in Basel, where he made the acquaintance of the famous printer Johann Amerbach (c. 1440 — 1513). Froben established himself as a printer in that city about 1491, when he published the first manageable bible in the octavo format.[1] He soon attained a European reputation for accuracy and taste. In 1500, he married the daughter of the bookseller Wolfgang Lachner, who entered into a partnership with him.[2] It was part of Froben's plan to print editions of the Greek Fathers.[2] Between 1496 and 1512 he was in a printing alliance together with Amerbach, and Johannes Petri for larger projects like collected works of Augustine.[3] In 1507 he bought Amerbachs printing house.[3][4] In 1513, he carefully published a copy of Erasmus Adagia with a cover designed by Urs Graf depicting the gods Nemesis and Caerus with an allegory of a triumphant Humanitas in a chariot pulled by Homer and Demosthenes and pushed by Cicero and Vergil.[1][5] In 1514 Erasmus settled to Basel.[6]
Froben became friends with Erasmus, who lived in his house when in Basel, and not only had his own works printed by him from 1514,[4] but superintended Froben's editions of Jerome, Cyprian, Tertullian, Hilary of Poitiers and Ambrose. His printing of Erasmus' Novum Testamentum (1516) was used by Martin Luther for his translation.[2] He and later his son have published more than 200 works by Erasmus of Rotterdam.[4] Through a deeply ramificated web of distributers the works of the Frobens reached the European book market in Venice, London, Frankfurt or Paris in a timely manner.[7]
Froben employed Hans Holbein the Younger, Urs Graf and Albrecht Dürer to illustrate his texts.[3] Graf was the one who designed his device.[8] Besides he also employed well known formschneiders like Jakob Faber (the "Master IF")[citation needed] and Hans Lützelburger, who was regarded as one of the finest formscheiders of his time.[9] Holbein painted a portrait of Froben in the 1520s.[4]Holbein also painted the device with Hermes caduceus which Froben used from 1523 onwards.[10]
Dying in October 1527, Froben did not, however, live to carry out this work, but it was very creditably executed by his son Hieronymus Froben and his son-in-law Nikolaus Episcopius. Froben died in October 1527 in Basel.[2] His Hebrew – Greek – Latin memorial plaque is located in the Peters Church in Basel[8] which has been used as a reformed church since 1529. The church does not contain the remains of those who are memorialized within. The park across the street from the church was once a graveyard and it is believed that it is there where the now unmarked remains lay.
Froben is, through his descendant Anna Catharina Bischoff a direct ancestor of the former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The young woman pictured with his memorial plaque in the notes section below is his American 11th great-granddaughter whose mother's maiden name is Frobenius.
Legacy
Froben's work in Basel made that city in the 16th century the leading center of the Swiss book trade. An existing letter of Erasmus, written in the year of Froben's death, gives an idea of his life and an estimate of his character; and in it Erasmus mentions that his grief for the death of his friend was far more distressing than that which he had felt for the loss of his own brother, adding that "all the apostles of science ought to wear mourning".[2] The epistle concludes with an epitaph in Greek and Latin.[2] He was well known for his Greek typeface, and he was also one of the first printers to have had their own Hebrew typeface.[8] According to Beatus Rhenanus, who was one of his employees, he published only prominent works and despised the lesser ones.[8]
- Johann Froben' marks
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Notes
References
- ^ a b c Sebastiani, Valentina; Ricketts, Wendell (2014). "Froben Press Editions (1505-1559) in the Holdings of the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies Library: A Brief Survey". Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme. 37 (3): 217. ISSN 0034-429X.
- ^ a b c d e f Chisholm 1911.
- ^ a b c "Das Haus zum Sessel" (PDF). University of Basel. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b c d Müller, Christian (2006). Hans Holbein the Younger: The Basel Years, 1515-1532. Prestel. p. 296. ISBN 978-3-7913-3580-3.
- ^ "Erasmi Roterodami Germaniae decoris Adagiorum chiliades tres, ac centuriae fere totidem". www.e-rara.ch. 1513. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
- ^ Sebastiani, Valentina; Ricketts, Wendell (2014),p.219
- ^ Sebastiani, Valentina; Ricketts, Wendell (2014),p.220
- ^ a b c d Werthmüller, Hans (2013-12-11). Tausend Jahre Literatur in Basel (in German). Springer-Verlag. p. 127. ISBN 978-3-0348-6561-6.
- ^ Stein, Wilhelm (1920). Holbein der Jüngere. Berlin: Julius Bard Verlag. p. 108.
- ^ Müller, Christian (2006) p.295
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Froben, Joannes". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 237.
External links
- . Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
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