Giambattista Bodoni of Parma (1740-1813), an Italian engraver, publisher, printer and typographer is now remembered for the famous typeface named after him.
In 1768 he was appointed printer to the court of Parma. Greatly influenced by the work of John Baskerville (see above), he developed an international reputation for technical refinement, combining classical typographical elegance with purity of materials.
Our Bodoni collection comprises about 170 books, including splendid editions of the classics. We hold his folio of Horace's Opera (1791), and works by Italian authors, such as the two volume edition of Tasso's La Gerusalemme Liberata (1795). We also hold his editions of Gray's Poems (1793) and Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1791). The last is superbly bound by William Edwards of Halifax in Etruscan calf. It is decorated by acid staining in contrasting shades of terra cotta leather and black tooling. There are rectangular panels on each cover, bordered with Greek palmate leaves in black with outer borders tooled in gold. The spine is also decorated in gold and black with classical ornaments in six panels.