Johann Froben

Johann Froben was born in Hammelburg, Franconia and appears the first time at the workshop of the printer of Anton Koberger of Nuremberg in 1486.

[1] For the books Decretum (1493) by Gratian and Decretales (1494) by Pope Gregory IX he employed Sebastian Brant as an editor.

[6] In 1513, he carefully published a copy of Erasmus Adagia with a cover designed by Urs Graf depicting the gods Nemesis and Caerus with an allegory of a triumphant Humanitas in a chariot pulled by Homer and Demosthenes and pushed by Cicero and Vergil.

[8] Through a deeply ramificated web of distributors the works of the Frobens reached the European book market in Venice, London, Frankfurt or Paris in a timely manner.

[10] Besides he also employed well known formschneiders like Jakob Faber (the "Master IF")[citation needed] and Hans Lützelburger, who was regarded as one of the finest formscheiders of his time.

Froben is, through his descendant Anna Catharina Bischoff a direct ancestor of the former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The young woman pictured with his memorial plaque in the notes section below is his American 11th great-granddaughter whose mother's maiden name is Frobenius.

Froben's work in Basel made that city in the 16th century the leading center of the Swiss book trade.

Portrait of Johann Froben by Hans Holbein the Younger , 1522–23. Froben commissioned many book illustrations from Holbein.
Printer's device of Johann Froben , by Hans Holbein the Younger , c. 1523
Epitaph for Johann Froben in Basel Peterskirche.