John Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf, a celebrated printer, letter-founder,
and bookseller of Leipsic, died on this day, in the year 1794: he was
born there November 23, 1719. After the perusal of a work by Albert
Durer, in which the shape of the letters is deduced from mathematical
principles, he endeavoured to fashion them according to the most
beautiful models in matrices cut for the purpose. His printing-office
and letter-foundery acquired very high reputation. It contained punches
and matrices for 400 alphabets, and he employed the types of Baskerville
and Didot. Finding that engraving on wood had given birth to printing,
and that the latter had contributed to the improvement of engraving, he
transferred some particulars, in the province of the engraver, to that
of the printer; and represented, by typography, all the marks and lines
which occur in the modern music, with all the accuracy of engraving, and
even printed maps and mathematical figures with movable types; though
the latter he considered as a matter of mere curiosity: such was also
another attempt, that of copying portraits by movable types. He likewise
printed, with movable types, the Chinese characters, which are, in
general, cut in pieces of wood, so that a whole house is often necessary
to contain the blocks employed for a single book. He improved
type-metal, by giving it that degree of hardness, which has been a
desideratum in founderies of this kind; and discovered a new method of
facilitating the process of melting and casting. From his foundery he
sent types to Russia, Sweden, Poland, and even America. He also improved
the printing-press.
Besides this, his inquiries into the origin and progress of the art of
printing, furnished the materials of a history, which he left behind in
manuscript. He published in 1784, the first part of “An Attempt to
illustrate the origin of playing-cards, the introduction of paper made
from linen, and the invention of engraving on wood in Europe;” the
latter part was finished, but not published, before his death. His last
publication was a small “Treatise on Bibliography,” &c. published in
1793, with his reasons for retaining the present German characters. With
the interruption of only five or six hours in the twenty-four, which he
allowed for sleep, his whole life was devoted to study and useful
employment.