Life and Times of Giambattista Bodoni: Typescript, ca. 1898-1903

RLIN ID No.

NYGG02-A21

Title

Life and times of Giambattista Bodoni [typescript], [ca. 1898-1903].

Physical Description

1 item (viii, 192 leaves)

Historical/Biographical Note

Giambattista Bodoni, typographer and book designer, was superintendent of the Press of the College of the Propaganda in Rome (a committee of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church that had oversight for foreign missions) before moving to Parma in 1766 to reconstruct and manage the ducal press. He cut distinctive styles of roman and italic type known for their clearness, delicacy, and round light faces. Bodoni’s widow completed and published his Manuale Tipografico in 1818. The Grolier Club (a New York bibliophile organization) expressed interest in publishing a life of Bodoni in English, and founding member Theodore Low De Vinne, himself a printer, presented the club with a translation from an unidentified Italian work in 1903. The club considered the purchase of Bodoni types for the printing of this publication in 1905 and continued to consider the project for several years, but in the end it did not publish the translation.

General Note

Title devised by cataloger.

General Note

The typescript does not include the name of the original author or translator. Internal evidence suggests that it may be a translation of Jacopo Bernardi’s Vita di Giambattista Bodoni (Saluzzo, 1872).

Names

Bernardi, Jacopo, 1813-1897. Vita di Giambattista Bodoni. 1872.

Bodoni, Giambattista, 1740-1813.

Added Entries

De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914, donor.

Grolier Club.

Subjects

Type and typefounding. Italy. Parma. 18^th century.

Type and typefounding. Italy. Parma. 19^th century.

Type designers. Italy. Parma. 18^th century.

Type designers. Italy. Parma. 19^th century.

Location

Grolier Club, 47 East 60^th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022-1098.