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James Mosley

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James Mosley
Born(1935-04-18)18 April 1935
Driffield, England
Died (aged 90)
OccupationsLibrarian, historian
SpouseGillian Riley
Awards
Academic background
EducationGonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge
Academic work
InstitutionsSt Bride Library
University of Reading

James Mosley (18 April 1935 – 25 August 2025) was a British librarian, preservationist and historian specialising in the history of printing, type and lettering.[3][4]

Mosley was from 1958 to 2000 Librarian of the St Bride Printing Library in the City of London, where he curated and worked to expand the museum's large collection of printing and lettering materials and books. This collection greatly expanded with the close of the metal type era, which saw many companies and printing shops supply St Bride's with their equipment and archives. He became a visiting lecturer and professor at the University of Reading in 1964, and was a founding member of the British Printing Historical Society in that year, as well as the first editor of its journal.[5][6][7] Mosley received the Individual Award of the American Printing History Association in 2003 and the Gold Medal of the Bibliographical Society in 2017.

Background

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Mosley was born in Driffield in 1935[8] and grew up in Twickenham in the south-west London suburbs, where he became interested in printing, using a "small Adana press."[9][1]

Mosley read English at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he and his future wife Gillian Riley were invited by Philip Gaskell, later also a historian of printing, to collaborate on operating a small hand-press as an amateur project in the King's College cellar.[1][4][10][11] During his time at university he worked with Eric Gill's brother Evan on sorting material for an exhibition on his work by Monotype, a hot metal typesetting machine company with which Gill often collaborated.[9][1][12]

Mosley's wife was food historian and book designer Gillian Riley, whom he met at Cambridge; she predeceased him in 2024.[13] Mosley died on 25 August 2025, at the age of 90.[14][15][16]

Career

[edit]

After a brief period working at the type foundry Stevens Shanks, one of the last remaining in London,[11] Mosley was hired at St. Bride as assistant librarian in 1956, becoming librarian in 1958.[1][17][18][19]

Mosley wrote many articles and books on the history of printing.[20][21][22][23] Some of his best-known articles are 'English Vernacular', on British signpainting and lettering traditions from the eighteenth to the twentieth century,[24][25][26][27] 'The Nymph and the Grot', on the early development of sans-serif letters before they became adopted by printers, which was later republished as a book,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34] and 'Trajan Revived', on the Roman-style lettering revivals of the sixteenth and twentieth centuries.[35][36] He collaborated with historians on other projects, including a printed edition of the decorated alphabets of Louis Pouchée's type foundry,[37][38][39][40][41] a study of the early printing of works by David Hume[42] and on the forgeries of Harry Buxton Forman and Thomas James Wise.[43][44][45][46] He was a specialist on the career of Vincent Figgins, an early nineteenth century typefounder, who founded the type foundry that later became part of Stevens Shanks.[47][26][48]

The St Bride Library, off Fleet Street in the City of London, was set up as a technical library to give trade education to printers at a time when the area was a centre of book and newspaper printing and publishing.[1][49][50][51] From his experience working at Stevens Shanks, Mosley felt that they did not appreciate the value of the historic materials they owned, dating back to the beginning of the nineteenth century,[11] and the close of the metal type era and the switch to phototypesetting (which happened during Mosley's career) meant that many companies disposed of their hot metal typesetting and foundry type equipment or went out of business altogether, and many also left the area.[1] Mosley helped to acquire for St. Bride a large range of printing materials, including from Monotype, H. W. Caslon & Company, Figgins and Stevens Shanks[48] and the Chiswick Press, as well as materials from print shops including the collections of Oxford University Press and the Victoria & Albert Museum, supplementing the personal collections of William Blades and Talbot Baines Reed which the library already owned.[52][38][53][54][55][56][57][58] He also advised on designing fonts based on historic typefaces and lettering,[45] for example one of traditional French metal stencil lettering,[59] and was cited as an influence by font designers such as Paul Barnes.[45][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67]

After retirement from St. Bride Mosley continued to write, research and lecture.[26][68][69] He also advised on historically appropriate lettering for Bellerby & Co, Tate Britain and HMS Victory.[70][71][72][73]

Mosley was influential on younger designers through giving lectures on the history of letterforms as a guest lecturer at the University of Reading and the Rare Book School. His lectures for Reading in 2020-1 were recorded and, following his death, the University of Reading and his estate agreed to make them available publicly.[74]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Mosley, James. "2003 Individual Award: acceptance speech". APHA. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  2. ^ "James Mosley (1935-2025)". Bibliographical Society. Retrieved 2 September 2025.
  3. ^ Olocco, Riccardo. "James Mosley (1935-2025)". Fontstand. Retrieved 9 November 2025.
  4. ^ a b "Other Lives: James Mosley". The Guardian.
  5. ^ "Professor James Mosley". University of Reading. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  6. ^ "James Mosley: Hyphen Press". Hyphen Press. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  7. ^ Chambers, David; Bain, Iain (2014). "The Printing Historical Society: the early years". Journal of the Printing Historical Society. n.s. 21: 7–18.
  8. ^ "Radici della scrittura moderna". scritture.org. Scritture & Zabar. Retrieved 26 August 2025.
  9. ^ a b c Barnes, Paul. "James Mosley: a life in objects". Eye magazine. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
  10. ^ Barker, Nicolas (11 September 2001). "Philip Gaskell: obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  11. ^ a b c Mosley, James (2001). "Memories of an Apprentice Typefounder". Matrix. 21: 1–13.
  12. ^ "Eric Gill: Monotype Recorder special issue" (PDF). Monotype Recorder. 41 (3). 1958. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 October 2015. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
  13. ^ Jaine, Tom (29 November 2024). "Gillian Riley obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  14. ^ Morlighem, Sébastien. "James Mosley (1935–2025)". Typo.Social. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  15. ^ "Read more about James Mosley's legacy on the @eyemagazine_ blog, written by @catherine_dixon. (Link in our bio)". St Bride Foundation. Retrieved 2 September 2025 – via Facebook.com. 1935-2025
  16. ^ Dixon, Catherine; Carter, Matthew. "James Mosley 1935–2025". Eye. Retrieved 31 August 2025.
  17. ^ Richardson, Bob (5 May 2015). "The Mosley effect". St. Bride Foundation. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  18. ^ "Change at Oxford...and at St. Bride's". Motif. No. 1. p. 82.
  19. ^ Walters, John L. "Search for a star (librarian)". Eye Magazine. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
  20. ^ Mosley, James (1995). Tuohy, Steven (ed.). James Mosley: Librarian, St Bride Printing Library, London: a checklist of the published writings 1958–95. Cambridge: Rampant Lions Press. ISBN 978-0-902591-60-8.
  21. ^ Howes, Justin (2004). James Mosley. Mark Batty. ISBN 978-0-9724240-5-9.
  22. ^ de Jong, Feike. "The Briot project. Part I" (blog). PampaType.com. TYPO; republished by PampaType. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  23. ^ Mosley, James (2006). "Garamond, Griffo and Others: The Price of Celebrity". Bibiologia. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
  24. ^ Mosley, James (1963). "English Vernacular". Motif. Vol. 11. pp. 3–56.
  25. ^ a b Mosley, James. "English vernacular (2006)" (blog). Type Foundry. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  26. ^ a b c d Mosley, James. "Working Letters – an affectionate view of the vernacular". Letter Exchange. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  27. ^ "Motif Magazine: the world made visible". Design Observer. 2 March 2012. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  28. ^ Mosley, James (1965). "The Nymph and the Grot". Typographica. 12.
  29. ^ a b Mosley, James. "The Nymph and the Grot: an update" (blog). Typefoundry. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  30. ^ Kinross, Robin (5 May 2005). "Justin Howes obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  31. ^ a b Mosley, James (1999). The nymph and the grot: the revival of the sanserif letter. London: Friends of the St Bride Printing Library. ISBN 978-0-9535201-0-7.
  32. ^ a b c Mosley, James (30 November 2023). "The first sanserif type". Imprimit; republished by Abyme. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
  33. ^ Mosley, James. "Comments on Typophile thread - "Unborn: sans serif lower case in the 19th century"". Typophile (archived). Archived from the original on 28 June 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
  34. ^ Mosley, James; Shinn, Nick. "Two Lines English Egyptian (comments on forum)". Typophile. Archived from the original on 14 March 2010. Retrieved 30 October 2017.
  35. ^ Mosley, James (1964). "Trajan Revived". Alphabet. 1: 17–48.
  36. ^ Nash, John (2002). "In Defence of the Roman Letter" (PDF). The Edward Johnston Foundation Journal. Edward Johnston Foundation. Archived from the original on 29 October 2007. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  37. ^ Mosley, James (1993). Ornamented types: twenty-three alphabets from the foundry of Louis John Poucheé. I.M. Imprimit in association with the St. Bride Printing Library.
  38. ^ a b "Ornamented types: a prospectus" (PDF). imimprimit.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  39. ^ Daines, Mike. "Pouchee's lost alphabets". Eye Magazine. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  40. ^ "Ornamented Types". Letterform Archive. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
  41. ^ Coles, Stephen (7 May 2016). "Ornamented Types Introduction and Prospectus". Fonts in Use. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  42. ^ Norton, David (1988). "John Wilson, Hume's First Printer" (PDF). The British Library Journal. 14 (2): 123–135. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  43. ^ Barker, Nicolas; Collins, John (1983). A Sequel to An Enquiry into the Nature of Certain Nineteenth Century Pamphlets by John Carter and Graham Pollard.; The Forgeries of H. Buxton Forman & T.J. Wise Re-examined. London: Scolar Press. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-85967-638-0.
  44. ^ Mosley, James. "Handmade Type: Thoughts on the preservation of typographic materials". Incline Press. Archived from the original on 19 April 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  45. ^ a b c d Drucker, Johanna; Re, Margaret; Mosley, James (2003). Typographically Speaking: the Art of Matthew Carter (2nd ed.). New York: Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN 978-1-56898-427-8.
  46. ^ Tracy, Walter (2003). Letters of Credit: A View of Type Design. D. R. Godine. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-56792-240-0.
  47. ^ a b c Mosley, James (1958). "The Typefoundry of Vincent Figgins, 1792–1836". Motif. No. 1. pp. 29–36.
  48. ^ a b Mosley, James. "Sanspareil Matrices". Matrix: 104–114.
  49. ^ "St Bride Library". The Passmore Edwards Legacy. 13 January 2021.
  50. ^ "St Bride Library celebrates 125 years". Print Week. 26 November 2021.
  51. ^ Richardson, Bob (19 November 2021). "Inside St Bride with Bob Richardson, 3 August 2021". YouTube. St Bride Library. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  52. ^ Kinross, Robin. "Temple of Type". Eye Magazine. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  53. ^ Young, Timothy. "London Dispatch: The St. Bride Foundation". Design Observer. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  54. ^ Mosley, James. "Talbot Baines Reed, typefounder and sailor". Type Foundry (blog). Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  55. ^ Howes, Justin; Mosley, James; Chartres, Richard (1998). "A to Z of Founder's London: A showing and synopsis of ITC Founder's Caslon" (PDF). Friends of the St. Bride's Printing Library. St Bride Library. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 November 2005. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
  56. ^ Mosley, James. "The materials of typefounding". Type Foundry. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  57. ^ Danielli, Darryl. "Interview: 'St Bride's is a living, breathing thing that pulls you in'". Print Week. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  58. ^ Mosley, James. "Type held in the hand". Type Foundry. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  59. ^ Mosley, James. "Lettres à jour: public stencil lettering in France". Type Foundry (blog). Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  60. ^ "New Release: Chiswick by Paul Barnes". Commercial Type. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  61. ^ "Chiswick: A Vernacular Typeface with Paul Barnes". Vimeo. Cooper Union. 3 April 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  62. ^ Davis, Mark (24 March 2017). "Quirky, Vernacular, and British: Chiswick". Type. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  63. ^ Ong, Jyni. "Commercial Classics revives a host of British typefaces from the turn of the industrial revolution". It's Nice That. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  64. ^ Barnes, Paul. "The treasure of St. Bride: Part II". Type magazine. Archived from the original on 9 July 2020. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  65. ^ Barnes, Paul (10 July 2019). "The Past is the Present with Paul Barnes". Vimeo. Type@Cooper. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  66. ^ Wilson, Doug. "Designing Surveyor". Frere-Jones Type. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  67. ^ Rhatigan, Dan. "A small tribute to James Mosley". Ultrasparky. Retrieved 2 September 2025.
  68. ^ Mosley, James. "The sanserif: the search for examples". Mnémosyne: Base documentaire de l'ésad d'Amiens. ESAD Amiens. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  69. ^ Mosley, James (10 November 2015). Lecture on Gill's work (Speech). 'Me & Mr Gill' talk. Old Truman Brewery, London.
  70. ^ "HMS Victory to be re-painted in Battle of Trafalgar colours after 210 years". historicdockyard.co.uk. Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  71. ^ a b "Font Victory". Whybrow Wayfinding. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  72. ^ Mosley, James. "A British National Letter". Typefoundry (blog). Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  73. ^ a b Foyle, Jonathan (27 November 2015). "Globemaker Peter Bellerby, the man with the world in his hands". Financial Times. Nikkei. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
  74. ^ Wilton, Caitlin. "A History of Letterforms". typography.network. University of Reading. Retrieved 10 October 2025.
  75. ^ Caslon, William IV (1816). [Untitled fragment of a specimen book of printing types, c. 1816]. London: William Caslon IV. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
[edit]

Mosley's type, lettering and calligraphy reading lists: