Joseph Moxon
Joseph Moxon FRS (born August 8, 1627 in Wakefield , † before February 15, 1691 ) was an English printer, manufacturer of globes and author of scientific books.
Origin, youth and education
Joseph Moxon was a younger son of the printer James Moxon , who from 1622 lived mostly in London. Joseph is said to have attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in his birthplace Wakefield for a short time before the devout Puritan family emigrated to Delft in the Netherlands in 1636 . In 1638 the family moved to Rotterdam , where his father printed Bibles in English. Joseph worked in his father's workshop and learned printing from him . The family returned to London in the mid-1640s after Parliament's victory in the English Civil War . As their father's heirs, Joseph Moxon and his older brother James were accepted into the Worshipful Company of Weavers before September 1646 , although the brothers worked as printers.
Work as a printer, publisher and type founder
Manufacturer of globes
By 1649, Joseph and his brother James printed at least twelve books in London, all but one of which contained Puritanism. This book, A Book of Drawing, Limning, Washing or Coloring of Mapps and Prints , printed for map dealer Thomas Jenner in 1647 , heralded Moxton's future career. From 1650 the brothers worked independently in London as book printers. In 1664 Joseph was admitted to the Worshipful Company of Weavers as a Liveryman . Moxon began to be interested in globes and maps before 1650 and learned practical mathematics . In the spring of 1652 he traveled to Amsterdam , which was then the center of globe manufacture. There he commissioned printing plates for globes from an engraver . In the same year he advertised globes with heaven and earth, which he made together with John Sugar and which had a diameter of 15 inches (38 cm).
Printer of globes and scientific books
Moxon's first workshop was in Cornhill before moving to Ludgate Hill from 1665 to 1686 . However, his workshop was also destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. Moxon had to move into alternative quarters on Russell Street near Covent Garden for six years before he could return to Ludgate Hill in 1672. Moxon set up a printing house in which he printed common scientific books and also sold maps, diagrams, globes and mathematical instruments . He gained recognition for the printing of mathematical texts, especially for the Mathematical Manual by John Dansie and for the new edition of Certain Errors in Navigation by Edward Wright , published in 1657 . Moxon acquired a particularly good reputation through the creation of tables such as Primum mobile from 1656 and for 230 pages with trigonometric functions and logarithms in the book Trigonometria by William Oughtred , published in 1657 .
Activity as publisher and author
After all, Moxon not only printed books, but was his own publisher . The first book published by himself was A Tutor to Astronomy and Geography , a translation of the book Institutio astronomica by William Bleau . By 1684 he published more than thirty scientific works and technical manuals. Several books, such as the one he wrote, Vignola, or, The Compleat Architect and A Tutor to Astronomie , were printed in several editions during his lifetime. Moxon's most famous work, written by himself, is Mechanick Exercises: Applied to the Art of Printing , in which, as a practitioner, he describes the printing trade in detail and which appeared in twenty-four parts from 1683 to 1684. Together with Thomas Tutnell , a manufacturer of mathematical instruments, he wrote a treatise on mathematical instruments for the third edition of the Mathematical Dictionary , which appeared in 1700. The first edition of the book was published in 1678 and was the first English-language dictionary for mathematical terms.
Activity as a type founder
Moxon also worked as a type founder . He was involved in the printing of John Wilkins' essay Real Character and a Philosophical Language in 1668 and designed his own font for it with Latin and italic characters. He designed other characters between 1681 and 1685 for Index vilaris by John Adams, and between 1681 and 1685 he designed some characters for the printing of the Bible in Irish by Robert Boyle .
Honored as a Hydrograph Royal and a member of the Royal Society
Moxon was so valued by mathematicians in London that thirteen mathematicians supported his petition to King Charles II for him to be recognized as the Hydrographer Royal for the manufacture of globes, maps and nautical charts. His supporters included Elias Ashmole , Lawrence Rook and Walter Pope, three Fellows of the Royal Society who, as well-known royalists, vouched for him, as his father James was known as a puritan printer. Finally, in January 1662, he was recognized as a hydrograph. As the first trader he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in November 1678. After him, a trader was not elected as a fellow until the 18th century. As a printer, editor and hydrograph Royal, he had long known numerous members of the Royal Society. His choice may be related to the publication of the first part of Mechanick Exercises, or, The Doctrine of Handy Works… of the Smiths Trade in January 1678. Moxon was involved in the printing, in particular he had illustrations for some professions such as blacksmith, Carpenter, carpenter and turner made. In July 1678 John Evelyn had presented several prints to Joseph Williamson , President of the Royal Society, which gave new impetus to the History of Trades , which the Royal Society had begun in the 1660s but was reluctant to continue . Moxon quickly added the addition of Member of the Royal Society to the front pages of the books he had printed . At first he was an active member of the Society, but in November 1682 he was one of 23 members who were expelled for failure to pay dues. Nevertheless, he continued to add the addition of Member of the Royal Society to his works .
Family, offspring and last years
On February 17, 1648, Moxon married Susan Marson . With her he had two children, a son and a daughter:
- Susan (baptized 1650)
- James
After the death of his wife in 1659, Moxon married Hannah Cooke on June 8, 1663 . In 1668 he married a third time.
In 1686 or shortly thereafter, Moxon went out of business and moved in with his son James, who worked as a map engraver on Warwick Lane . There he died in February 1691. On February 15, 1691 he was buried in the churchyard of St Paul's Cathedral . His son continued to sell his father's globes and instruments and also republished several of his father's books.
Works (selection)
- Mechanic exercises on the whole art of printing . Plow, Kidlington 2004, ISBN 0-902813-15-3
- A tutor to astronomy and geography: a facsimile of the first edition 1659 . Renascent Books, Mickleover 2013, ISBN 978-1-4826-3733-5
literature
- G. Jagger: Joseph Moxon, FRS, and the Royal Society . In: Notes and Records of the Royal Society , 49 (1995), 193-208
Web links
- DJ Bryden: Moxon, Joseph (1627-1691). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Moxon, Joseph |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English printer, cartographer and author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 8, 1627 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wakefield |
| DATE OF DEATH | before February 15, 1691 |