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.