Joan Michael Fleischman

• Name — Joan Michaël Fleischman • Baptised — 15 June 1707 (probably) • Birthplace — Wöhrd, Nuremberg • Died — 27 May 1768 • Place of death — Amsterdam, Dutch Republic • Occupation — Engraver and type designer

He was born in Wöhrd, Nuremberg, but moved to Amsterdam, where he worked for Izaak van der Putte and Hermanus Uytwerff before opening his own type foundry in 1735. Fleischman was unable to continue the type foundry on his own, and Rudolf Wetstein ran the business for him, while he continued to work for him as a punchcutter. After Rudolf died in 1742, his son Hendrik Joris Wetstein sold the company in 1743 to Izaak Enschedé of Haarlem, forming the nucleus of the type-founding business of Joh. Enschedé, which remained operational until 1990. Fleischman continued to live in Amsterdam and made fonts for Enschedé as well as other Amsterdam businesses. His "Courant-Letter" face used by the Haerlemse Courant was one of the first marketed specifically for the use of newspapers; historian Harry Carter praised him as "a superb cutter of small types, and in refinement of design and execution his news fonts are unsurpassed". Fleischman apparently somewhat concentrated on smaller typefaces; the Enschedé's display typefaces were mostly cut by Jacques-François Rosart. • Illustration — An example of Fleischman's work, showcased in the Enschedé specimen of 1768. This image shows his "Paragon" (20pt) size roman and italic. Fleischman lived in Amsterdam until the end of his life, dying there in 1768. During the 1760s he contributed to a planned book on the technology of typefounding and punchcutting intended to be published by the brothers Ploos van Amstel as a Dutch response to Pierre-Simon Fournier's Manuel Typographique, which was never finished. A short manuscript attributed to Fleischman, perhaps a draft of part of this work, was acquired by a Dutch bookseller and published in 1994 with English translation. Fleischman's typefaces were received with great popularity in his lifetime and Enschedé's lavish type specimen "of 1768" evidently became something of a memorial to him (it is dated to 1768 on the title page, but all copies known were apparently finished the following year; Fleischman's portrait is dated 1769). John A. Lane, who has prepared an edition and commentary on it, notes that "Enschedé scrupulously saved Fleischman's own account book and other documents, including even his passports, so that his career can be reconstructed in remarkable detail." Fournier also thought that his work had brought "considerable accessions" to the reputation of the Enschedé foundry. He was also commemorated by the Ploos Van Amstel Brothers' type foundry in the introduction to their specimen following his death.

When Breitkopf developed the first typeface for music in 1755, Enschedé wanted to improve on the idea, and hired Fleischman to create a more flexible and accurate system. Soon after, the first Haarlem songbook Haerlemsche Zangen was published with this font. Previous songbooks had had their music engraved on copper plates by musicians. The new font was designed to be used by publishers in the same way that typeface could be used to print words, but this idea was not successful, as the musicians who wrote the music needed training in order to use the font. An innovative musician who used the Enschedé-Fleischman font was Leopold Mozart for his Dutch edition of his Instructions to play the violin in 1766. His son the wunderkind played the organ in the St. Bavochurch across the street from Enschedé's publishing company in the same year.

• Illustration — Handheld moulds like the ones he is holding in Cornelis van Noorde's engraved portrait of him • Illustration — Parel Muziek font • Illustration — First Dutch banknote in 1814, called Roodborstje, with Fleishman's music font recycled for the decorative edging. • Illustration — Two modern digital fonts influenced by Fleischman: Joshua Darden's Freight Text Book and GFS Fleischman by George D. Matthiopoulos.