Words by Sébastien Morlighem
The Didot style: a short survey of the career of Firmin Didot
Didot is the name of a French family which was involved with printing, publishing, papermaking, punchcutting and typefounding over almost three centuries. Its most prominent members designed many typefaces between the 1780s and 1830s; yet, what is called and still known as the ‘Didot style’ was the achievement of Firmin Didot (1764–1836) and the peak of a persistent maturation process.
Didot is the name of a French family which was involved with printing, publishing, papermaking, punchcutting and typefounding over almost three centuries. Its most prominent members designed many typefaces between the 1780s and 1830s; yet, what is called and still known as the ‘Didot style’ was the achievement of Firmin Didot (1764–1836) and the peak of a persistent maturation process.
Early steps
Firmin was the second son of François-Ambroise Didot (also known as Didot l’aîné). He possibly began his classic studies at the Collège d’Harcourt in Paris, and also learned Greek language and literature with a friend of his father, the hellenist and philologist Jean-Baptiste-Gaspard d’Ansse de Villoison. [1] Around 1783, he began to learn punchcutting and typefounding, though there is no known account of the precise nature of his training under the supervision of Pierre-Louis Vafflard, the craftsman Didot l’aîné hired when he set up a foundry adjacent to his printing office with the aim to design his own typefaces.
He was alledgely trained there between 1776 and 1785. See Henri Louis Bouquet, L’ancien collège d’Harcourt et le lycée Saint-Louis, Paris: Delalain frères, 1891, pp. 420-1; Louis-Gabriel Michaud (ed.), Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne, Paris: Michaud, Tome soixante-deuxième, 1837, p. 462.
A rare specimen sheet titled ‘Épreuve du douze italique gravé par Firmin Didot’ shows his first effort [Fig. 1]. [2] This ‘douze’ (12 pt) size was fully deployed in his elder brother Pierre’s Épître sur les progrès de l’imprimerie, published in 1784. However, its design clearly follows an italic cut by Vafflard the previous year, though its originality was fully attributed to Firmin by Pierre:
2. Reproduced in Jeanne Veyrin-Forrer, Campionari di caratteri nella tipografia del Settecento, Milan: El Polifilo, 1963, ill. No. 33 (n. p.). This document is dated 1783 by Veyrin-Forrer, following the assertion of Firmin’s elder brother Pierre that Firmin cut this italic when he was 19. See P. Didot, Épître sur les progrès de l’imprimerie, Paris: Didot l’aîné, 1784, p. 18.
The zeal that my Father communicates to his son
Made him cut for his first attempt this italic
Of pure taste, delicate, exquisitely finished,
And on which praise falls as soon as it strikes the eye.
Before him the handsomest that one could find,
Which united tastes as soon as it appeared,
Was, in recent times, the work of Fournier.
But how far from the last was the step he took! [3]3. See P. Didot, 1784, p. 4. The translation is taken from Albert J. George, The Didot family and the progress of Printing, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1961, p. 34. See also S. Morlighem, The ‘modern face’ in France and Great Britain, 1781-1825: typography as an ideal of progress, PhD thesis, University of Reading, 2014, pp. 97–101.
Firmin probably completed his first roman types around 1785, after Vafflard left the foundry. [4] They confirm the stylistic direction taken by his father with Vafflard – refining a model mainly inspired by Claude Garamont –, but in a lighter and somehow drier way, and continued to expand the range of his types during the rest of the decade, cut and cast accordingly to his father’s new rationalised system of type bodies. [5] They gradually replaced Vafflard’s types in Didot l’aîné’s books and began to be disseminated in other printing offices, though nothing is known about their commercial success. Around 1789, after taking over management of the foundry from his father while Pierre inherited of the printing office, Firmin issued his first commercial specimen, comprising eight sizes of roman and italic, and two sizes of Greek. [6]
4. He previously cut four series of roman capital alphabets for the title page of Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata, printed by Didot l’aîné in 1784. See P. Didot, 1784, p. 17; J. Veyrin-Forrer, ‘Les caractères de François-Ambroise Didot (1781–1785)’, in La lettre et le texte, Paris: Rue d’Ulm, 1987, pp. 133-4.
5. See P. Didot, 1784, pp. 18-9. 1 Didot point = 0.375 971 510 4 mm.
6. See André Jammes, Les Didot: Trois siècles de typographie et de bibliophilie, 1698-1998, Paris: Paris Bibliothèques, 1998, p. 33.
While Pierre continued Didot l’aîné’s ‘Collection des auteurs classiques françois et latins’, he started to define a much more ambitious project: a new series of limited-run, lavish Latin and French classics, illustrated with engraved prints made from drawings of the young artists of the rising Neoclassical scene. [7] In 1791, Pierre published a first, small folio edition of the complete works of Virgil set in a new type, a 20 pt roman size, one of the biggest Firmin had ever cut. [8] This volume launched the ‘Celeberrimorum Poetarum Collectio’ series, but remained its sole title. In the advice to the reader, Pierre announced the publication ‘within a few months’ of ‘another edition of the prince of poets, in a large folio size, printed with bigger and more elegant types, and illustrated with 27 copper-plate engravings made after the drawings, already executed, of the well known David, prince of painters.’ [9] In 1795, Pierre printed for his colleague Antoine-Augustin Renouard a folio edition of Lucan’s Pharsalia, whose design is quite close of the 1791 Virgil [Fig. 2].
7. See Carol M. Osborne, Pierre Didot the Elder and French Book illustration, 1789–1822, New York: Garland Publishing, 1985.
8. Publii Virgilii Maronis Bucolica, Georgica et Aeneis, Paris: Pierre Didot l’aîné, 1791.
9. Pierre Didot, ‘Typographus Lectori S. D.’, Publii Virgilii Maronis…, 1791, p. iv. My translation (from the French version). See Jammes, 1998, pp. 40-1.
[Fig. 1] ‘Épreuve du douze italique gravé par Firmin Didot’, 1783. Taken from Jeanne Veyrin-Forrer, Campionari di caratteri nella tipografia del Settecento, Milan: El Polifilo, 1963, Tavola 33 (Fig. 33), n. p. 
[Fig. 2] Jean-Baptiste Massillon, Petit carême. Paris: Didot l'aîné, 1789.
Maturity
The following year, Firmin began rethinking the design of his types with a new roman type (16 pt) which made its debut in a quarto edition of François de La Rochefoucauld’s Maximes et réflexions morales. The contrast between the thick and thin strokes has been increased, the proportions have been slightly enlarged and a few letters redesigned, like the ‘a’, whose bowl is now gently swelling. Overall, this bolder face gives an effect of elegance and confidence scarcely present before. It appeared again, along with a new 12-pt size roman cut in the same style, in a quarto edition of La Fontaine’s Les amours de Psyche et Cupidon, illustrated by François Gérard [Fig. 3]. This book was the first one printed by Pierre after he moved at the end of spring 1797 to his new premises located in the Louvre Palace, where the Royal Printing Office previously operated.
However, this new stylistic approach was perfected and superseded shortly afterwards, as the folio edition of Virgil was finally ready for publication after seven years of work, an achievement proudly advertised by Pierre who particularly stressed his brother’s dedication:
As for the types of the impression, one can assert with certainty that nothing more elegant in its design, more harmonious in its setting, better aligned in its casting, or more accurate in its kerning and the spacing between the letters, has ever been seen until now. They were cut and cast by Firmin Didot my brother with very satisfactory success. The punches were recut three times, until they finally left nothing to be desired. [10]10. Pierre Didot, ‘Prospectus’ for Virgil’s Bucolica, Georgica et Aeneis, 1797, pp. 3-4. My translation.
Initially released in three successive parts between January and June 1798, Virgil’s Bucolica, Georgica et Aeneis was finally issued as a complete volume, comprising 23 plates made after the designs of Gérard and Girodet. [11] Two new sizes were introduced: 18 pt for the main text and 20 pt for the preface, both roman and italic. The roman has an unequivocal vertical stress, a well-balanced modulation and an even greater contrast between thick and thins, enhanced by the very careful printing on wove paper. The italic also benefited from the same treatment, becoming more sloped, fluid and graceful. Furthermore, several new series of titling capitals, with unprecedented extreme contrast, bring a sharp striking tone to the layout of the book. The folio Virgil is where the mature, classic Didot style was brought to fruition.
11. See Pierre Roux. 16 Ventôse an 6 (16 March 1798). Journal typographique et bibliographique, no. XXII, p. 169.
“The contrast between the thick and thin strokes has been increased, the proportions have been slightly enlarged and a few letters redesigned, like the ‘a’, whose bowl is now gently swelling.”
Font: Trianon Text Regular
These new types were used again in the second large folio of the illustrated series, an edition of the works of Horace, published as a volume in February 1800 with 12 headpiece engravings designed by Charles Percier, one of the most promising architects of the emerging French Neoclassical scene. [12] This was for Pierre (who translated and published the first book of Horace’s Odes in 1796) an obvious choice to continue his tribute to the roman poets after Virgil. A lesser-known but no less prestigious contemporary publication, the new Constitution de la République française (prompted by the installation of Napoléon Bonaparte as First Consul on November 1799), in a folio edition carefully printed on wove paper with a freshly-cast fount of Firmin’s recent 20 pt type, was also a timely opportunity to display the typographic novelty brought by the Didots.
12. See the Journal typographique et bibliographique, no. XVIII, 25 Pluviose an 8 (14 February 1800), p. 137.
Inevitably, and astutely, the highlight of the Louvre folio series, the Œuvres de Jean Racine would be dedicated to Bonaparte. [13] Begun in 1792 by Pierre Didot and David, this project was first unveiled and described in the general prospectus of June 1797, already planned to surpass the Virgil and the Horace with its three volumes, comprising 57 engravings. Even though this edition was far from being completed, Pierre brought to the attention of his readership that the design of Firmin’s types would, again, be improved:
13. See Jammes, 1998, p. 46.
The types […] with the aim of matching the dimension of the engravings, will be taller; and although they were cut at the same time and according to the same principles [of Virgil’s types], it seems that their bigger proportion have added much to their beauty. [14]14. P. Didot, 1797, p. 9. My translation.
As for the types, cut by Firmin Didot, we are not afraid to say that they probably reached the finest degree of perfection, as they are even superior to those used in the folio Virgil [. They] are a bit taller than those of the Virgil, so as to better match the dimensions of the figures, as the artists desired a wider area for the composition of their subjects. [15]15. P. Didot, ‘Prospectus des Œuvres de Racine’, Notice des différents ouvrages imprimés et qui se trouvent chez P. DIDOT l’aîné, à Paris, aux galeries du Palais national des Sciences et Arts, rue des Orties, 1798–9, p. 3. My translation.
After a number of postponements, the first volume of the Racine was released in August 1801. [16] Apart from a new cut of the 16-pt size roman, the text was set in the 20 pt previously used for the prefaces of the Virgil and the Horace. The untrained eye may not perceive these very subtle differences, but Firmin recut a few characters like ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘r, that he probably found unsatisfactory. Many decades later, his eldest son Ambroise Firmin-Didot would recall this commitment:
16. See the Journal typographique et bibliographique, no. XLIII, 20 Thermidor an 9 (8 August 1801), p. 137. However, it seems to have been fully completed in 1805.
The punches [of the Racine], whose matrices had served for the Virgil and the Horace editions, were further improved by Firmin Didot, and were judged as the nec plus ultra of perfection by the members of the London jury who, during the Great Exhibition in 1851, went to the British Museum with the aim of comparing the editions of Ibarra, Bodoni, Bulmer and Bensley with the Racine. [17]17. A. Firmin-Didot, Essai sur la typographie, Paris: Firmin Didot Frères, 1851, p. 859. My translation.
He cut these types not only with care and talent, but also with passion. If he did not cast them himself with his own hands, he supervised every step of the founding process with the utmost care; and often he took the mould from the hands of the workmen with the aim of teaching them how to cast the face of these letters, whose strokes are so delicate and cut with so little bevel, that no punch could have been struck in copper: all were struck in silver mounted in iron. [18]18. A. Firmin-Didot, letter to François-Antoine-Brutus Duprat, dated 12 January 1852. Quoted in full in F.-A. Duprat, Histoire de l’Imprimerie impériale de France, Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1861, pp. 258-9. My translation.
Firmin’s new style was not only displayed in the most spectacular Didot publications, but also swiftly spread to smaller books, such as a Virgil duodecimo edition published the same year as the large folio. Their typographic qualities are arguably incomparable, but a new 7 pt roman was used in this duodecimo with other older cuts of Firmin, a hint that he was simultaneously working on big and small sizes [Fig. 4].
The Didot brothers set up a parallel business in 1798: stereotyping books, printed from metal plates which were facsimiles of pages initially set with movable type. [19] They established a partnership with the former mechanic Louis-Étienne Herhan to publish stereotyped duodecimo and octodecimo books, mainly of Latin and French classics, printed on various qualities of paper (from ordinary to wove), with the aim of encompassing the widest possible readership, thanks to these editions, which were easy and quick to produce. Virgil (faithfully adapted from the duodecimo typeset version) and La Fontaine editions were first released and officially presented during the first Exhibition of French industrial products (19-21 September 1798), whose jury distinguished them. [20] Furthermore, metal plates were offered for sale to other printers in France and foreign countries, enabling them to publish these stereotyped books. Firmin’s small types could withstand their transfer from typesetting to stereotyping well, thanks to the strength of the type metal. [21] Thus, the market for cheap, pocket books began to expand, allowing the Didot style to disseminate even more quickly. [22]
19. See Alain Nave, ‘La stéréotypie, entre innovation technique et produit éditorial’, Les Trois revolutions du livre, Paris: Musée des arts et metiers/Éditions Imprimerie nationale, 2002, pp. 283-8.
20. See Première exposition publique des produits de l’industrie française. Catalogue des produits, Paris: imprimerie de la République, 1798.
21. See A. Firmin-Didot, 1854, pp. 48-9.
22. See Osborne, 1985, pp. 55-6; Jammes, 1998, p. 56.
After almost a decade of consistent and persistent work, Firmin, having redesigned and refined the types of his foundry, focused his attention on other letterforms, such as the English Roundhand. There is no known specimen for the new roman & italic types cut between 1795 and the mid-1800s: only a cautious investigation built on published books, year by year, could attempt to fill this gap.
[Fig. 3] Les Amours de Psyché et de Cupidon, suivies d’Adonis, poème, par Jean de La Fontaine. Paris: Pierre Didot, 1797. 
[Fig. 4] Publius Virgilius Maro. Bucolica, Georgica et Aeneis. Paris: Pierre & Firmin Didot, 1798.
The final years
Notwithstanding the management of his foundry and, after 1806, of his own printing office, Firmin also got involved with the National Printing Office, probably succeeding, in an informal way, Jean-Charles Fagnon, the previous punchcutter of the institution, who died in March 1800. [23] When Pope Pius VII visited the Imperial printing office 31 January 1805, Firmin was probably there; his job at the time consisted in repairing materials such as the arabic punches and matrices made under the supervision of Savary de Brèves in the seventeenth century. [24]
23. See the Magasin encyclopédique, ou Journal des sciences, des lettres et des arts, VIe année, tome cinquième, 1801, p. 309; L.-M. Chaudon, F. A. Delandine, Nouveau dictionnaire historique ou histoire abrégée de tous les hommes…, Lyon: Bruyset aîné et Cie, 1804, tome cinquième, p. 19.
24. See the Magasin encyclopédique, ou Journal des sciences, des lettres et des arts, VIe année, tome cinquième, 1801, p. 309; L.-M. Chaudon, F. A. Delandine, Nouveau dictionnaire historique ou histoire abrégée de tous les hommes…, Lyon: Bruyset aîné et Cie, 1804, tome cinquième, p. 19.
A decree was published 24 March 1809 to reorganise the institution and to create several new positions. [25] Firmin benefited from this decision and was officially appointed Chief of punchcutting and founding on 10 April 1809. [26] In February 1811, the unexpected visit of Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte prompted an ambitious project: the complete reform of the printing office’s typography under Firmin’s supervision. Therefore, he advised creating a new series of types based on a point unit of 0.4 mm, according to the centesimal and metric system introduced in 1795 by the National assembly. [27]
25. See F.-A. Duprat, ‘Extrait du décret impérial du 24 mars 1809 concernant l’organisation de l’Imprimerie impériale’, Précis historique sur l’imprimerie nationale et ses types, Paris: Librairie orientale de Benjamin Duprat, 1848, pp. 101-2.
26. According to a manuscript document, kindly provided by Didier Barrière, librarian of the Imprimerie nationale.
27. See Duprat, 1848, pp. 34-6; 1861, pp. 256-9; James Mosley, ‘Les caractères de l’imprimerie royale’, in Le Romain du Roi. La typographie au service de l’État, 1702-2002. Lyon: Musée de l’imprimerie, 2002, pp. 74-5.
A quarto specimen was printed in February 1812, showing an excerpt of Bossuet’s Histoire universelle set in a 14 pt type (roman & italic), possibly the earliest cut by Firmin. [28] Another size, 20 pt (roman & italic), was used for the texts of the Relation des cérémonies du sacre et du couronnement de S. M. l’Empereur Napoléon, a grand folio illustrated by engraved plates made from the drawings of Isabey, Fontaine and Percier. Its production also began in 1812, but was stopped in 1814 after Napoléon’s abdication and then resumed during the ‘Cent-jours’ period. [29] Eventually, the final demise of the Emperor and very high costs stopped the completion of the intended reform. A total of thirteen sizes were cut for this ‘typographie millimétrique’ which, as it was obviously marked with the Empire seal, was rapidly stored. [30]
28. See J. Mosley. ‘Type specimens of the Imprimerie royale 1643–1828’, Bulletin du bibliophile, no. 1, 2002, pp. 87-8.
29. See Duprat, 1848, p. 36.
30. See Duprat, 1848, p. 35. The surviving materials are currently in the Cabinet des poinçons of the Imprimerie nationale, Atelier du livre et de l’estampe, Flers-en-Escribieux. They represent the most important collection of materials of Firmin Didot, along with several series of script and non-latin types.
The only known comments describing the circumstances of their making came forty years later from Firmin’s son, Ambroise Firmin-Didot. The historian François-Antoine-Brutus Duprat criticised them in 1848, judging them too close to ‘the forms of the types of Louis XIV [i.e. the Romain du Roi]’ and ‘quite inferior’ to those that were cut by Firmin in the late 1790s for his brother’s folio editions. [31] Ambroise reacted in a letter to Duprat:
31. See Duprat, 1848, p. 35. My translation.
As for the types cut for the Imperial printing office […] my father had to comply with Mr. Anisson’s wish concerning their form and their lightness, to his regret. Later, Mr. Anisson had them fattened by Mr. Jacquemin, and it destroyed the whole they had originally offered, as can be judged in the first specimen. I worked myself for a long time on their accomplishment. [32]32. A. Firmin-Didot, letter to François-Antoine-Brutus Duprat, dated 12 January 1852. Quoted in full in Duprat, 1861, pp. 258-9. My translation.
The printing office had been managed by Jean-Joseph Marcel since 1803, but Anisson — or Laurent Alexandre Jacques Anisson-Duperron — was named Inspector 30th March 1809 (as representative of the Council of State) and became director under the first Restoration, 30th December 1814, a position he would recover after the ‘Cent-jours’. [33] If one gives credit to this letter, he played a significant part in the design of Firmin’s types, possibly from their early stages to their supposed subsequent phase of ‘fattening’ by the punchcutter Jean-Nicolas Jacquemin. [34] And according to Ambroise, they could not match Firmin’s previous achievements:
33. See Duprat, 1861, pp. 247-9, 267-8.
34. On Jacquemin, see Jacques André, Christian Laucou, Histoire de l’écriture typographique. Le XIXe siècle français, Gap: Atelier Perrousseaux, 2013, p. 194.
My father often devoted a full week to a single punch of the Racine that he was altering and starting again oftentimes. His whole life would not have sufficed to cut with the same care and the same passion the series of punches that he executed for the Imperial Printing Office; and for that matter, their fount would have been too expensive and even impossible, as there were too few elite workers who could cast the types of the Racine. [35]35. A. Firmin-Didot, 1852, in Duprat, 1861, p. 259. My translation.
Whoever decided on its design, this forgotten modern face deserves better appreciation than its author gave it. The roman is a slightly condensed version of Firmin’s with minor changes, such as the counter of the ‘a’, and the usual distinctive features of the printing office: the symmetrical top serifs and the left stroke on the middle of the ‘l’. However, the sensuous and flowing italic, clearly inspired by English models, emancipates it from the usual Didot style.
Firmin’s foundry and printing office were reunited in a single location, 24 rue Jacob, in 1811. Even if he kept his position in the Royal Printing Office after 1815 for a few years and was appointed printer of King Louis XVIII and of the Institute, he focused on his own business in which his sons Ambroise and Hyacinthe were becoming increasingly involved in, and on the improvement of his types.
The letter that opened Firmin’s translation of the Greek poets Tyrtaeus and Callinus, written by his sons later in 1827, shed light about his never ending work in progress:
Following the opinion of the most skilful Artists, you had already undertaken, for the characters of a certain size and especially the capital letters, to create a better relationship between the proportions of thicks and thins, and to make the latter shorter in general. Whereas you sacrificed something of the elegance you tried to give to the roman types that you cut in 1798, you successively improved them. [36]36. Ambroise, Hyacinthe and Frédéric Firmin-Didot, ‘Lettre adressée à Firmin Didot, par ses fils, pendant son séjour en Espagne, sur l’état de leur typographie’, in Les Chants de Tyrtée et de Callinus, Paris: Firmin Didot père et fils, 1827, n. p. (1st page). My translation.
In 1817, Firmin introduced these new types in Luis de Camões’ Os Lusiadas, a small folio privately printed for the editor of its text, Joze Maria de Souza-Botelho. They can be seen as the culmination of a quietly defined exploration, moreover advantageously served when carefully printed on the best wove paper. Notwithstanding refining and christening them in prestigious publications according to a now long-established familial tradition, Firmin was also still selling them, but in a more conspicuous way, as he had already begun in 1816 to print and circulate broadside specimen sheets. [37] He officially took his sons as partners in 1819, a logical progression as the family business was rapidly expanding, employing two hundred people in 1821. [38] Its reputation continued to rise during the nineteenth century, long after Firmin’s retirement in 1827 and death in 1836. However, the Firmin-Didot brothers needed to invest in new equipment and projects while facing increasing competition: in November 1837 they sold the foundry created by their grandfather in 1780 to a new firm, the ‘Fonderie générale des caractères français et étrangers’. [39]
37. See A. Jammes, Spécimens de caractères de Firmin et Jules Didot, Paris: Librairie Paul Jammes et Éditions des Cendres, 2003.
38. See Bazar parisien, 1821, p. 197; Jammes, 1998, pp. 59-60.
39. See Jammes, 1998, pp. 61-2.
In spite of this commercial misfortune, it is safe to say that the name of Didot became an everlasting brand, synonym of a typographic style that was created and matured not only by several members of this family, but also by their employees and competitors. Its ‘elegant severity’ (as Carol Osborne wrote) was the outcome of a well-defined, reductive designing process and still represents the epitome of the French modern face.
[Fig. 5] Les Bucoliques de Virgile, précédées de plusieurs Idylles de Théocrite, de Bion et de Moschus... Paris: Firmin Didot, 1806.
Initially published in 2015 for Trianon type specimen, ISBN 979-10-93578-03-3.
