John Baskerville was an English businessman, in areas including japanning and papier-mâché, but he is best remembered as a printer and type designer. He was also responsible for inventing "wove paper", which was considerably smoother than "laid paper", allowing for more sharper printing results.

Baskerville not only designed a typeface, which has become one of the world’s most ubiquitous and historically important founts, he also experimented with casting type, improved the printing-press, developed a new kind of paper and refined the quality of printing inks. Yet despite his importance many aspects of his work remain unexplored.

I found this video by Dr Caroline Archer and Dr Malcolm Dick which assesses his contribution to printing, the arts, technological change and the Enlightenment:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/6_dy_yMf0pE

Baskerville increased the thick-thin contrast over that found in William Caslon's types, making the serifs sharper and more tapered, and shifted the axis of rounded letters to a more vertical position. The curved strokes are more circular in shape, and the characters became more regular.

In 1757, Baskerville published his first work, a collection of Virgil, which was followed by some fifty other classics. In 1758, he was appointed printer to the Cambridge University Press. It was there in 1763 he published his master work, a folio Bible, which was printed using his own typeface, ink, and paper.

The modern types became more popular than Baskerville, and people had to wait until 1917 when Bruce Rogers revived Baskerville's type for the Harvard University Press, followed by Stanley Morison's revival in 1924 for the British Monotype Company. Linotype introduced it in 1931.

Outside of being a revolutionary typographer, Baskerville was an interestingly unconventional man for his time.

Before he died in 1775, he stipulated that he should not be buried in consecrated ground. So, where do we put him? First, he was put in a mausoleum on his own land. But the house was wrecked during the Birmingham riots, and the land was sold. A developer eventually cut a canal through the property. In 1821, workmen found Baskerville's lead-lined coffin.

Since it couldn't be buried in any consecrated cemetery, it sat in a warehouse until a plumber put it use as a workbench. But that finally became too morbid even for him. The plumber cast about, trying to find a churchyard that would take the coffin.

Then, a bookseller came to his rescue. He sneaked Baskerville into his family crypt at Christ Church, but when the church found out, Baskerville was moved from that consecrated spot to Warstone Lane Catacombs, a consecrated labyrinth where he remains today.