Giambattista Bodoni
Subtitle: his life and his world
By: by Valerie Lester
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: David R. Godine, Publisher
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 255
ISBN-13: 9781567925289
Subjects: Type and type-founding; Printing; Type designers; Printers; Biography; History
Description: "This is the first English-language biography of the relentlessley ambitious and incomparably talented printer Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813). Born to a printing family in the small foothill town of Saluzzo, he left his comfortable life to travel to Rome in 1758 where he served as an apprentice of Cardinal Spinelli at the Propaganda Fide press. There, under the sponsorship of Abbé Ruggieri, his close friend, mentor, and protector, he learned all aspects of the printing craft. Even then, his real talent, indeed his genius, lay in type design and punchcutting, especially of the exotic foreign alphabets needed by the papal office to spread the faith. His life changed when in 1768 at age 28 he was invited by the young Duke of Parma to abandon Rome for that very French city to establish and direct the ducal press. He remained in Parma, overseeing a vast variety of printing, some of the pedestrian, but much of it glorious.^

And all of it making use of the typefaces he personally designed and engraved. This fine book goes beyond Bodoni's capacity as a printer; it examines the life and times in which he lived, the turbulent and always fragile political climate, the fascinating cast of characters that enlivened the ducal court, the impressive list of visitors making the pilgrimage to Parma, and the unique position Parma occupied, politically Italian but very much French in terms of taste and culture. Even the food gets its due (and in savory detail). The illustrations - of the city, of the press, of the types and matrices - are compelling enough, but most striking are the pages from the books he designed. And especially, pages from his typographic masterpiece, the Manuale Tipografico, painstakingly prepared by his wife Ghitta, posthumously published in two volumes, and displaying the myriad typefaces in multiple sizes that Bodini had designed and engraved over a long and prolific career.^

Intriguing, scholarly, visually arresting, and designed and printing to Bodoni's standards, this title belongs on the shelf of any self-respecting bibliophile. It not only makes for compelling reading, it will be considered the biography of record of a great printer for years to come."-- Publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Saluzzo, 1740-1758; title: Rome, 1758-1766; title: The invitation; title: Parma, 1768; title: The Duchess and Du Tillot; title: Bodoni at work; title: José Nicolás de Azara; title: Margherita Dall'Aglio; title: The private press and the Amoretti and Didot débacles; title: Gout and a grape seed; title: Two thefts and a fire; title: 1798 : the triumphal return and life on the farm; title: A letter from Jean-George Handwerck; title: The death of a duke, the presentation of a medal, and the death of a diplomat; title: Napoleon; title: 1806-1813; title: Il bajon; title: La vedova; title: Epilogue : Parma 30 November 2013; title: Appendix I. Cutting a punch / by Stan Nelson; title: Appendix II. Striking and fitting a matrix / by Stan Nelson; title: Appendix III. Printing on a hand press / by Fred and Barbara Voltmer; title: Appendix IV. The Trieste leaf / by James Mosley.