Parma
9493 Vita del cavaliere Giambattista Bodoni tipografo italiano
Text by Angelo Ciavarella, Giuseppe De Lama, Marco Cattini, Fausto Razzetti. Curated by Leonardo Farinelli, Corrado Mingardi. Introduction by Luciano Silingardi
1989 / 320 PAGES.
Language: Italian
On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of Giambattista Bodoni’s birth, the Cassa di Risparmio di Parma and Franco Maria Ricci editore celebrate the typographer by re-proposing his biography written by Giuseppe De Lama, first published in 1816.
De Lama’s biography of Bodoni is enriched in this volume by several original contributions. Andrea Ciavarella, in his introduction, analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the biographer’s work, describing Bodoni as the greatest of typographic masters, without heirs or continuators. This is followed by the important biography, subdivided into years, alternating with reproductions of alphabets and typefaces taken from typographical manuals, with the addition of frontispieces made by Giambattista Bodoni’s typography. Ciavarella’s contribution also includes a historical-artistic analysis of Bodoni’s typographic manuals, thanks to which we can understand the central role played by Bodoni’s work within the 18th-century context and for the centuries to follow. A study by Marco Cattini on the economic-organisational aspects of the Stamperia Reale concludes the volume’s critical contributions, followed by an anthology of contemporary commentaries collected by Fausto Razzetti, a comparative chronology, and a biographical repertory.