Deberny et Peignot’s “Bodoni”, ca 1953

Vox coined the term “Didone” to describe the family of typefaces from the Revolution era, combining the works of Bodoni and Didot, a classification later adopted by ATypI in 1962. Deberny et Peignot, influenced by this emerging classification and trends in the United States, notably through Alexey Brodovitch’s interest, launched a new cutting of the Bodoni typeface to align with contemporary graphic design advancements.

It is possible that the cutting of Bodoni by Deberny et Peignot has something to do with the emergence of the classification of characters proposed by Maximilien Vox, from 1952, then adopted by the Association Typographique internationale (ATypI) in 1962. Vox presents its research and its proposal which improves the Thibaudeau classification dating from the beginning of the century, within the framework of the first Rencontres de Lure and within the annual Caractère Noël that he directs. To qualify the family that the English call “Moderns”, i.e. the types engraved from the Revolution and which dominate the 19th century, he coined the neologism of “Didone”. Notwithstanding, Deberny et Peignot, with whom Vox has worked a lot and who supports its initiative, have Didot types, inherited from the original cuts, but no Bodoni at all, which was not in vogue in France at the time. It is precisely at the moment when the word, associating the two major typefaces, begins to establish itself in the vocabulary of the trade that the foundry launches a fairly extensive engraving of a Bodoni type, also used of original models. It is also possible that Charles Peignot, attentive to the progress of graphic design in the United States where he visited several times, noted Alexey Brodovitch”s marked interest in this typeface which he likes and which he uses widely in Harper’s Bazaar.

Vox highlights Bodoni in Caractère Noël 1953 and around the same period a specimen booklet was published by Deberny et Peignot, which is reminiscent of the Divertissements Typographiques made for the foundry by Maximilien Vox in the interwar period. Vox will be very proud of the terms created for its classification, in particular of the association which categorizes the Didone family. In this regard, he provides this comment:

“The most undeniable of styles, the most personal, the easiest to recognize. The word which defines them is a salvation of two works, two doctrines which interpenetrate each other too precisely in time and in the spiritual for it to be possible to consider them separately. Bodoni + Didot = Didones. The Didone typographic revolution was parallel to the political revolutions of the time. Alone, it will have deserved the title of absolutely modern. Strict, austere, logical – but respectful of the canon – the Didone is a tribute to the goddess Reason.”

Maximilien Vox, notice devoted to didones in Typographie, catalog of typefaces by Deberny et Peignot, circa 1962.

It is not certain that the qualifiers of strict, austere, logical, were favored by Brodovitch or even Massimo Vignelli to glorify Bodoni that they brought fully to life in their compositions.

Document: Archives Signes