Cleone: A Tragedy

Robert Dodsley (1703-1764).
Cleone. A Tragedy... London: J. Bell, 1792.
(SPL) PR 1241 .B4

John Bell was a printer and publisher of books and periodicals; he was also a bookseller and a writer. In 1788, Richard Austin in 1788 designed a typeface for Bell that used Baskerville’s type design as a model; this font achieved popularity in America, then returned to England. Bell eliminated the now-obsolete long “S,” beginning with his 1785 edition of Shakespeare. He also revolutionized the layout and typography of newspapers, recognizing that newspapers are read at a different speed and with a different purpose than books are. Among Bell’s innovations was making individual paragraphs more prominent. Other newspapers utilized Bell’s innovations, including the publication that eventually became known as The Times.