Giambattista Bodoni

Giambattista Bodoni

Font example Bodoni

Statue in Saluzzo

Giambattista Bodoni (born February 16, 1740 in Saluzzo , Piedmont , † November 29, 1813 in Parma ) was an Italian stamp cutter ( engraver ), printer , typographer and publisher . He is considered the best classicist book designer.

Bodoni began his career as a typesetter in the Tipografia della Congregazione di Propaganda Fide , the papal organization for the evangelization of peoples, in which he set all texts in oriental languages ​​from 1758 to 1766. In 1782 he was appointed royal Spanish chamber typographer, and from 1786 he headed the ducal printing house in Parma. He also founded a private printing company in 1791 for his own work. He cut his numerous letters himself. The printed works " Homer ", 1785, " Horace ", 1791, "Our Father in 155 Languages", 1806, as well as many French editions of Italian and French classics are characterized by excellent printing and careful, particularly harmonious typesetting .

Bodoni initially worked with the writings of the French Pierre Simon Fournier . He later founded his own type foundry , from which his wife Margherita Dall'Aglio Bodoni published the " Manuale Tipografico ", a unique compilation of his rich oeuvre, in 1818, a few years after his death . It contained 373 fonts, in addition to Antiqua fonts, Asian and Russian fonts, as well as numerals, lines and musical notation. In an effort to produce the perfect book of its time, Bodoni was in competition with the French company Firmin Didot . Bodoni was superior to Didot in terms of design and craftsmanship, but he had better editing , which in turn made the French books more suitable for everyday use.

Bodoni has created a new font for almost every work he prints . The numerous divergent typefaces from the various type foundries / foundries are now often under the collective name "Bodoni" or "Bodoni-Antiqua" as digital fonts sold.

In 1963 the city of Parma established the Museo Bodoniano in his honor , based on the Bodoni estate acquired in 1843 by the Duchess of Parma.

Fonts

• Manuals Tipografico . [Parma 1818]
  • Typography manual, manuale tipografico . Edited by Stephan Füssel. Cologne 2011. ISBN 978-3-8365-0552-9
  • Facsimile reprint of the parchment original from the Berlin State Library .

literature

• Francesco Barberi:  Bodoni, Giambattista. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 11:  Boccadibue-Bonetti. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1969.
• Franco Maria Ricci : Bodoni in Offenbach. 12 panels of the series of capitals and chancellery writings . Klingspor Museum , Offenbach 1988.
• David Pankow: Giambattista Bodoni. Manuale tipografico. Octavo Books, Palo Alto, Calif. 1998, ISBN 1-891788-06-X (2 CD-ROM).
• TM Cleland: Giambattista Bodoni of Parma . Publisher: Society of Printers Boston, (Mass.) 1916.
• Jacopo Bernardi: Vita di Giambattista Bodoni . Publisher: Saluzzo. Tipografia Fratelli Lobetti-Bodoni 1872.
• Vita del cavaliere Giambattista Bodoni tipografo italiano e catalogo cronologico delle sue edizioni . Tomo 1. 2. 2 Della Stamperia Ducale, Parma 1816, La Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze (National Central Library of Florence).
• Books about Giambattista Bodoni on the Internet Archive online.
• Raffaello Bertieri: L'arte di Giambattista Bodoni. Con una notizia biografica a cura di Giuseppe Fumagalli. Bertieri e Vanzetti, Milano 1913.

Web links

Commons : Giambattista Bodoni  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Giambattista Bodoni in the catalog of the German National Library
• the Manuale Tipografico on the web
• Lexicon of Typography
• Gianbattista Bodoni in: 1923 American Type Founders Specimen Book & Catalog
• Giambattista Bodoni Biography