A personal road from traditional to modernīefore he took up the neoclassical modern idea for romans and italics, early examples of Bodoni’s work as a punchcutter are in his first specimen book, Fregi e maiuscole incise e fuse da Giambattista Bodoni, Parma 1771. Title page of Bodoni’s first specimen book, 1771.ġ771–1786. Likewise, though Bodoni wasn’t interested in printing as an instrument for educating the masses and his patrons and clients were some of the richest people in the world, that should not interfere with a possibility of appreciating his books and his type.ĥ. Although they both worked for the powerful and corrupt Roman Church, that has no influence on our ability to appreciate their art. It is right to say that Bodoni was a product of his times, but were his times and his position as an artist much different from those experienced by many artists of previous centuries? Raphael didn’t paint for the citizens of Rome and neither did Leon Battista Alberti build any council houses. Besides his unrivalled skill, and a Stakhanovite capacity for continuous hard work, Bodoni’s expertise in self-promotion also stood him in very good stead. He was fortunate to have José Nicolas De Azara as a wealthy, generous and erudite patron. Bodoni rode through his stormy times by changing his allegiances and astutely ingratiating himself with the crowned heads of the ancien regime as well as the new French power - without batting an eyelid. Delighted by Bodoni’s apparently uncynical flattery they returned the favour with titles, caskets full of gold coins or annuities, as in the case of Carlos III of Spain and Napoleon. And this meant printing special editions with obsequious dedications to kings and emperors extolling their vastly overstated virtues and showing their names printed in his big and elegant letters. He understood that a way to finance this expensive work was to cosy up to European royalty. So, bearing in mind these omissions, it must be stated emphatically that what follows concerns only a part of Bodoni’s work and any comprehensive critique would necessarily have to encompass the other areas.īodoni’s compulsive passion was to cut punches, make type and print books to show it off.
Though the same goes for his work as a printer, at least with regard to this latter suffice it to say that the typographic quality of his books was very high and in all probability unequalled during his lifetime ( fig. We omit discussion of those exotics here and we also omit discussion of Bodoni’s script types. Unrivalled skills, self-promotion and hagiography De l’influence des Beaux Arts sur la félicité publique par Charles D’Alberg’ (1811). A worthy example of the high typographic quality achieved by Bodoni: ‘Périclès.
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