La typographie des Fournier
The careers of the Fournier brothers, Jean-Pierre (1706-1783) and Simon-Pierre (1712-1768), highlight 18th-century typography’s evolutions: Jean-Pierre managed the Le Bé foundry and upheld typographic traditions, while Simon-Pierre introduced new types, developed a universal type measurement system based on the typographic point, and contributed to the Encyclopédie, bridging historical referentialism and progress.
The careers of the Fournier brothers, Jean-Pierre (1706-1783) and Simon-Pierre (1712-1768), highlight 18th-century typography’s evolutions: Jean-Pierre managed the Le Bé foundry and upheld typographic traditions, while Simon-Pierre introduced new types, developed a universal type measurement system based on the typographic point, and contributed to the Encyclopédie, bridging historical referentialism and progress.
The careers of the two Fournier brothers, Jean-Pierre said l'aîné (the elder) (1706-1783), and Simon-Pierre said le jeune (the younger) (1712-1768) are emblematic of the evolution of typography in the 18th century. The first manages the Le Bé foundry and defends the tradition: “… I am the owner of the Garamont foundry, of Le Bé and of Granjon, I offer to people curious about true beauty, to show them my punches and my matrices (…) these are the same characters which illustrated the Estienne, the Plantin, the Elzeviers… » While Fournier the younger proposed new types and wrote a Manuel Typographique defining a universal system for measuring characters, based on the typographic point. The opposition between the two brothers turns into a dispute, which is relayed in the Journal des Savants and the Mercure de France. However, the innovative spirit of Fournier the Younger, which led him to contribute to the publication of the Encyclopédie, did not prevent him from becoming a historian of his discipline and paying homage to his predecessors: “… the Simon de Colines, the Garamond (sic), the Grandjon, the Le Bé, the de Sanlecque, these artists to whom Printing is indebted for all progress, have become our Masters very in this art [the cutting of punches], which they brought in France to a point of perfection that neighboring Nations have never reached.” The term typographer takes on a broader meaning than before : “Know all the details of the foundry and printing machinery, in order to subject your work to it” is his motto, which fits well into the spirit of the Encyclopédie, of which he is in a way the typographical advisor and for which he wrote the long article “printing types” where, moreover, he presents a specimen of his own founts. These benefit from a first edition, in 1742, reproduced here.
Document : Modèles des caractères de l'imprimerie [...] nouvellement gravés par Simon-Pierre Fournier le jeune [...]. Paris, rue des Sept voyes, 1742 [In 4 ° oblong ; 12 p. and 27 plates].
Library of the Estienne school.
