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

Froben was born in Hammelburg, Franconia. After completing his university career at Basel, where he made the acquaintance of the famous printer Johann Amerbach (c. 1440 — 1513), Froben established a printing house in that city about 1491, and this 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. It was part of Froben's plan to print editions of the Greek Fathers. Between 1496 and 1512 he was in a printing alliance together with Amerbach, and Johannes Petri for larger projects like collected works of Augustine. In 1507 he bought Amerbachs printing house.

Froben was friends with Erasmus, who lived in his house when in Basel, and not only had his own works printed by him from 1514, 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. He and later his son have published more than 200 works by Erasmus of Rotterdam.


Froben employed Hans Holbein the Younger, Urs Graf and Albrecht Dürer to illustrate his texts. Graf was the one who designed his device. Besides he also employed well known formschneiders like Jakob Faber (the "Master IF") and Hans Lützelburger, who was regarded as one of the finest formscheiders of his time. Holbein painted a portrait of Froben in the 1520s.Holbein also painted the device with Hermes caduceus which Froben used from 1523 onwards.Müller, Christian (2006) p.295

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. His Hebrew – Greek – Latin memorial plaque is located in the Peters Church in Basel 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". The epistle concludes with an epitaph in Greek and Latin. He was well known for his Greek typeface, and he was also one of the first printers to have had their own Hebrew typeface. According to Beatus Rhenanus, who was one of his employees, he published only prominent works and despised the lesser ones.

File:Johann Froben's mark.jpg
File:Froben 2.jpg

Notes

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Froben, Johann
1460s births
1527 deaths
People from Bad Kissingen (district)
16th-century Swiss people
Swiss book publishers (people)
Printers of incunabula