Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook423 pages6 hours
Giambattista Bodoni
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
This is the first English-language biography of the relentlessly ambitious and incomparably talented printer Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813). Born to a printing family in the small foothill town of Saluzzo, he left his comfortable life to travel to Rome in 1758 where he served as an apprentice of Cardinal Spinelli at the Propaganda Fide press. There, under the sponsorship of Ruggieri, he learned all aspects of the printing craft. Even then, his real talent lay in type design and punchcutting, especially of the exotic foreign alphabets needed by the papal office to spread the faith. His life changed when at age 28 he was invited by the Duke of Parma to abandon Rome for that very French city to establish and direct the ducal press. He remained in Parma, overseeing a vast variety of printing, some of it pedestrian, but much of it glorious. And all of it making use of the typefaces he personally designed and engraved. This fine book goes beyond Bodoni's capacity as a printer; it examines the life and times in which he lived, the turbulent and always fragile political climate, the fascinating cast of characters that enlivened the ducal court, the impressive list of visitors making the pilgrimage to Parma, and the unique position Parma occupied, politically Italian but very much French in terms of taste and culture. Even the food gets its due. The illustrations—of the city, of the press, of the types and matrices—are captivating, but most striking are the pages from the books he designed, especially pages from his typographic masterpiece, the Manuale Tipografico, which displayed the myriad typefaces in multiple sizes that Bodoni had designed and engraved over a long and prolific career. Intriguing, scholarly, visually arresting, and designed and printed to Bodoni's standards, this title belongs on the shelf of any self-respecting bibliophile. It not only makes for compelling reading, it will be considered the biography of record of a great printer for years to come.
Unavailable
Author
Valerie Lester
Valerie Lester is an independent scholar, writer, and translator living in Boston. She is the author of Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens, a biography of Dickens's principal illustrator, and she has also written poetry, plays, & articles.
Related to Giambattista Bodoni
Related ebooks
Giambattista Bodoni: His Life and His World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hidden Treasure Files Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWeird Tales: Best of the Early Years 1923-25: Best of the Early Years 1923-25 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Passing Ceremony Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhilan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Millionaire and the Bard: Henry Folger's Obsessive Hunt for Shakespeare's First Folio Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Pulp: How Paperbacks Brought Modernism to Main Street Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Enough Liebling: Classic Work by the Legendary New Yorker Writer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Do Things with Books in Victorian Britain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Selected Essays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarx in Paris, 1871: Jenny's ”Blue Notebook” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings18 Bookshops Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Paalen Life and Work: I. Forbidden Land: The Early and Crucial Years 1905 - 1939 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Book of Lies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Garrets and Pretenders: Bohemian Life in America from Poe to Kerouac Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shelf: From LEQ to LES: Adventures in Extreme Reading Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Frankenstein Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Witches' Hammer Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Travels in the Shining Island: The Story of James Evans and the Invention of the Cree Syllabary Alphabet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnraveling the Real: The Fantastic in Spanish-American Ficciones Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Book of the Month: Sixty Years of Books in American Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Theatre of Memory: A Life in Words Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Way Out Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Candy Men: The Rollicking Life and Times of the Notorious Novel Candy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsResisting the Bonhoeffer Brand: A Life Reconsidered Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Novel of the Future Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Widening Stain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mother Tongue: An American Life in Italy Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A Study Guide for Edith Wharton's "Pomegranate Seed" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Purple Streak Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Artists and Musicians For You
IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Meaning of Mariah Carey Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Woman in Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Marathon Don't Stop: The Life and Times of Nipsey Hussle Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Elvis and Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slash Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gender Madness: One Man's Devastating Struggle with Woke Ideology and His Battle to Protect Children Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gary Larson and The Far Side Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYes Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leonardo da Vinci Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Will Eisner: Champion of the Graphic Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between The World And Me Summary Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of The War of Art: by Steven Pressfield | Includes Analysis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Not Dead & Not for Sale: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/550 Great Love Letters You Have To Read (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Be a Woman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Kids: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Walked the Line: My Life with Johnny Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5More Myself: A Journey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Longing for Less: Living with Minimalism Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Me: Elton John Official Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bowie: An Illustrated Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sounds Like Me: My Life (So Far) in Song Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Outsider Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Giambattista Bodoni
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
3 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A splendid biography of Bodoni, in every sense of the word -- the book itself is a beautifully produced object, the writing is clear, interesting, and tells his story well, and the interior illustrations and thoughtful appendices make this an illuminating work. As a printer, I am sometimes wary of typographers, but Bodoni's clear foot in both worlds makes him a man after my own heart, and the sheer number of punches produced in his shop boggles the mind. Truly a seminal and influential figure in the world of printing, and I am glad to know more about his life and the role of printing in the 18th century.