GIAMBATTISTA BODONI
(1740–1813)

U&lc
author: Allan Haley

In harmony with his „aristocratic” typefaces, Giambattista Bodoni lived a virtually aristocratic lifestyle. History has given him the title „the king of typographers and the typographer of kings”. After a relatively short apprenticeship, Bodoni became almost immediately the director of the royalty press belonging to the Duke of Parma. And a few years later, when Napoleon drove the Austrian governors out of northern Italy, he continued his work under Imperial patronage.

Bodoni created typefaces and typography to impress the eye. His designs were studied efforts meant to be seen as well as read. Few would deny that Bodoni's typefaces are beautiful; unfortunately, few would say they are also easy to read. By current standards, his designs are, in fact, the antithesis of what an easily readable typeface should be. Had he known this fact, however, Bodoni would probably not have been very upset. His goal was not to create type or typography to be appreciated by the masses. His books and other printing exercises were large, regal efforts meant to be looked upon and appreciated as works of art, rather than as mere pieces of communication. His work was probably the most honored — and least read — printing of his time.

The typography Bodoni produced is still regarded as being among the most refined and structured printing ever produced. But then, he had the luxury of virtually limitless time, money, and effort to spend on any given project. Bodoni once confided to a friend that he agonized more than six months and produced thousands of trial proofs in the process of choosing just the right type for the title page of one of his books!

Luxury of choice and time in Bodoni's craft was complemented by the luxurious lifestyle he was able to maintain. While he did not reside in a palace or command a variety of servants, neither did he have to be concerned where his lira were coming from, Bodoni was paid whether he worked or not. Some historians would have us believe that Bodoni struggled to get by on a meager salary with inadequate equipment. It's true that his career began in this manner, but by the time he was 40 Bodoni had at least two sources of income. One was a grant from the Duke of Parma, the other was from the printing and publishing he did on his own. By his own account, he was a wealthy man.

While all this grandeur and prosperity certainly must have been gratifying to Bodoni, some suggest that the concept and function of a „royalty press” run counter to the basic premise of typographic communication. Typography, they argue, has a history of providing inexpensive, attractive information to the masses; and, in fact, the first typography in the Western world, Gutenberg's Bible, started this tradition. Daniel Berkeley Updike, in his definitive 19th-century book Printing Types, accused Bodoni of caring nothing about printing as a means to instruct or edify the masses. He wrote: „Bodoni did not despise the masses — he forgot all about them! He was a court printer, existing by the patronage of the lucky few. His editions were intended to be livres d'apparat. He alone saw no harm in making them so, but the bigger and more pretentious they were, the better he liked them.

BODONI'S „NEW” TYPE AND TYPOGRAPHY

Bodoni was no revolutionary. The modern roman style, which is attributed to him, did not, as many would believe, spring forth as if by magic. While the letters he cut and the books he printed were more refined and of exceptionally higher quality than most of the work originating before or during his lifetime, it would be difficult to classify any of Bodoni's efforts as fundamentally new. When he was young, the work of John Baskerville served as his ideal; when he opened his first printing office for the Duke of Parma, Bodoni did so with type from Fournier. In later years, the work of his great Parisian competitor, Francois Didot, influenced him dramatically. Bodoni was always, in some manner, dependent on the work of other, bolder contemporaries.

Yet despite these influences, he was not a copyist. A comparison of Bodoni's type to Didot's, two designs that on the surface may appear virtually identical, is a perfect example. There are distinct similarities in their work, and Bodoni surely studied Didot's designs very carefully, but a close examination reveals that Bodoni's weight transitions are more gradual and his serifs still maintain a slight degree of bracketing. There is even a hint of „old style” in Bodoni's work. He followed Didot's lead, carefully evaluating the designs of his great competitor, consciously remaining, however, always just slightly behind the radical modernism of his contemporary. Perhaps this explains, to some degree, the longevity of Bodoni's type designs. They were radical enough to be considered new and different (to establish for Bodoni an important and influential place in current typographic circles), but not so different that they became the 18th-century versions of fad designs.

EVOLUTION OF „MODERN” TYPE STYLES

The art of the punch cutter is by nature, conservative, and the history of Roman typeface design bears this out. Once letterforms had their basic shape and proportions determined in the 15th century, noticeable changes were few and far between. In the course of the 18th century, however, and seemingly without warning, a new and revolutionary style of roman letter made its appearance. It was distinguished from previous „old style„ designs by fine hairline serifs, a distinct contrast of thick and thin strokes, and a weight stress that was vertical rather than oblique. This new style of roman letter was the result, not of the warmth and vitality of the calligrapher's brush, but of a logical and mathematical approach to letter form construction.

One of the first of these „logical” typefaces was cut by Phillipe Grandjean under the influence of the engravings of a supposedly „perfect letter” developed by a committee entrusted to the design process by the Paris Academic Like so many other „designs by committee” neither these letters nor the resulting type from Grandjean proved to have any lasting success. Their worth was in influencing later designers to develop non-calligraphic letterforms.

The work of Pierre Simon Fournier and John Baskerville followed that of Grandjean and echoed the basic design traits and character proportions he established. While Fournier created his type more than 40 years later than Grandjean, and Baskerville still a decade later, these can be traced as the distinct evolutionary steps toward the moderns of Didot and Bodoni.

DO GOOD MODERNS EQUAL BAD TYPE?

Moderns hold a unique place in typographic history and usage. They mark a departure from previous designs that can only be compared to Jenson's departure from the frakturs of northern Europe, and they are as difficult to use well as any text typeface ever created.

Beatrice Warde, the eminent typographic historian, in a famous essay, likened the perfect type to a crystal goblet. Her perfect type is transparent, or invisible, to the reader and allows the content to be enjoyed without coloration or distraction. Bodoni's type is anything but a „crystal goblet”. Its hairline serifs, strong thick-and-thin stroke contrast, and abrupt weight changes cloud the reading process. Bodoni is no quiet servant to the communication process; it is a design that demands attention.

If used carefully, Bodoni type can create typography that is exceptionally beautiful, even elegant, but not particularly easy to read. If used poorly, Bodoni's extreme weight contrasts and vertical stress can cause a typographic effect, „dazzling”, which is visually uninviting and exceptionally disruptive to the reading process. Bodoni makes a very powerful typographic statement — one way or another.

BODONI'S EARLY YEARS

Giambattista (John the Baptist) Bodoni was born in 1740, in Saluzzo, a relatively small town in northern Italy. He was the fourth and youngest son of Francesco Agostino Bodoni, a master printer in Saluzzo. Three of his four sons also became printers. Domenico succceeded to his father's printing house; Giuseppe assisted his famous brother in Parma; and Giambattista, became one of the most successful and influential printers of all time.

As a boy, Bodoni worked in his father's business, first as a „printer's devil” doing odd, and not particularly pleasant, jobs around the print shop. Later he became a full-fledged apprentice, learning the basic skills of printing and block engraving.

At the age of 18, Bodoni came to the conclusion many young men had reached before, and have since: that it was time to seek growth and learning outside home and away from parents. He and a schoolmate went to Rome. Immediately, Bodoni's talents and the basic education from his father began to pay off. (It is said that much of the cost of the journey was paid by the sale of his engraving blocks to printers in cities and towns along the route.) Once in Rome, Bodoni secured employment in the printing house of the Vatican, a great honor in itself.

Bodoni developed his typographic skills and made important friends in Rome. While working as a compositor at the Vatican press, Bodoni showed an interest in, and eventually took up the study of, oriental languages. He was remarkably successful at these studies. So successful was he that he was given the task of putting in useful order the series of exotic characters that had been cut by the French type designers Garamond and LeBe. These had, through years of misuse, become hopelessly pied (scrambled), and thus useless. This tedious, frustrating, and complicated work brought Bodoni into conferences with many learned officials of the Press, including Cardinal Spinnelli, head of the institution, and Abbot Ruggieri, the superintendent. The abbot was to become a close friend and advisor to the young printer. Through Cardinal Spinnelli, Bodoni also met Father Maria Paciaudi, who was at that time librarian to the Cardinal.

This article is realized for web by Marica Bucek, student of fourth year of Graphic Design at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade.