Joseph Moxon

author

Joseph Moxon

1627–1691

A printer, globe maker, and map seller in Restoration England, this 17th-century figure helped turn practical science and crafts into books ordinary readers could use. He is especially remembered for writing clearly about trades, mathematics, and printing at a time when such knowledge was rarely gathered in English.

1 Audiobook

Moxon's mechanick exercises, volume 1 (of 2) : $b The doctrine of handy-works applied to the art of printing

Moxon's mechanick exercises, volume 1 (of 2) : $b The doctrine of handy-works applied to the art of printing

by Joseph Moxon

About the author

Born in 1627, Joseph Moxon became an English printer and publisher of mathematical books and maps, as well as a maker of globes and mathematical instruments. He worked at the meeting point of science, navigation, and the book trade, and he was appointed hydrographer to King Charles II.

Moxon is often noted for making technical knowledge more accessible in English. He produced an early dictionary devoted to mathematics and is also well known for Mechanick Exercises, a practical work describing crafts and trades, including printing. Because he wrote from the viewpoint of working practice, his books have remained valuable to historians of printing and technology.

In 1678, he became the first tradesman elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, a sign of the respect he had earned in scientific and learned circles. He died in 1691, but his reputation has lasted through the unusual range of his work: printer, instrument maker, map seller, and explainer of how things are actually made.