Johann froben biography

Swiss printer, publisher, and humanist (died 1527)

Johann Froben, in Latin: Johannes Frobenius (and combinations), (c.

1460 – 27 October 1527) was a famous printer, publisher and learned Renaissance humanist in Basel. He was a close friend of Erasmus and cooperated closely with Hans Holbein the Younger.

Johann froben biography

He made Basel one of the world's leading centres of the book trade. He passed his printing business on to his son, Hieronymus, and grandson, Ambrosius Frobenius.

Early life and printing partnership

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] He moved to Basel in the 1480s.^[2] He graduated from the University in Basel, where he made the acquaintance of the famous printer Johann Amerbach (c.

1440–1513). Froben established himself as a printer in that city about 1491, when he published the first manageable bible in the octavo format.