Culture
Words by Michel Wlassikoff
Bodoni in Parma
Giambattista Bodoni’s enduring influence: as the director of Parma’s ducal printing works, he designed elegant typefaces and published significant typographical works, culminating in the posthumous Manuale Tipografico (1818).
Giambattista Bodoni’s enduring influence: as the director of Parma’s ducal printing works, he designed elegant typefaces and published significant typographical works, culminating in the posthumous Manuale Tipografico (1818).
Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813) was appointed director of the ducal printing works in Parma in 1768. At first, he printed with typographic equipment acquired from Pierre-Simon Fournier. In 1771 he published his first collection of vignettes and uppercases, inspired by Fournier. In 1788, he produced and published his first Manuel typographique, which included an alphabet of his own invention. Around 1798, he designed a typeface strongly inspired by Firmin’s Didot, but with a refined elegance.
Bodoni continued to operate after the Napoleonic occupation and annexation of Parma in 1802. The ducal printing house devoted itself to French-language publications for the authorities of the Republic, then the Empire, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In 1806, he printed a collection of excerpts from his works, intended for the instruction of the son of Joachim Murat (who called himself Joachim Napoleon), hereditary prince of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. One section is devoted to the in folio publication of the great French classics. This is followed by examples of page layouts for various works in French, Italian, Spanish, English and Greek, with numerous ornaments and vignettes from the ducal printing house, favoring sober ornamentation and purely typographical construction.
In 1818, his widow published the last version of Bodoni's major work, Il Manuale tipografico, in two volumes, dedicated to Duchess Marie-Louise, the new sovereign of Parma. Il Manuale tipografico contains over six hundred Latin and exotic founts, including one hundred and forty-two sets of Roman and Italic founts, followed by Greek, Hebrew, Russian, Arabic, Phoenician, Armenian, Coptic and Tibetan alphabets, as well as a vast selection of borders, ornaments, symbols and flowers. In the preamble, a posthumous statement by Bodoni reminds us that a well-designed typeface derives its beauty from four principles: uniformity of design, precision and clarity, good taste and charm.
Document:
De la bibliothèque du colonel général des hussards JUNOT, grand-officier de l'Empire, Ier aide-de-camp de l'Empereur Napoléon Ier… 1806
Pour la bibliothèque de son altesse royale Napoléon Achille prince héréditaire du royaume des Deux-Siciles. Imprimé par ordre de sa majesté Joachim Napoléon, roi des Deux-Siciles, pour l’instruction de son fils aîné, S. A. R. Le prince Achille Napoléon.
Imprimerie Nationale.
See also: Giambattista Bodoni, Manuale Tipografico, 1818. Complete online reproduction.
