Giambattista Bodoni

A lively, lavishly illustrated biography of the great printer Bodoni, vividly describing his work, life, and times while justifying his reputation as the "prince of typographers." The first English bio of the ambitious and incomparable printer Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813). Born to a printing family in the small town of Saluzzo, he left his comfortable life to travel to Rome in 1758 where he served as an apprentice of Cardinal Spinelli. There, under the sponsorship of Ruggieri, his close friend, mentor, and protector, he learned all aspects of the craft. Even then, his real genius, lay in type design and punchcutting, especially of the exotic foreign alphabets needed by the papal office to spread the faith. His life changed when at age 28 he was invited by the Duke of Parma to establish and direct the ducal press. He remained in Parma, overseeing a vast variety of printing, much of it glorious. And all of it making use of the typefaces he personally designed and engraved.

Valerie Lester was a scholar, writer, biographer, and translator. The story of her life and death is told in Absolutely Delicious: A Chronicle of Extraordinary Dying by Alison Jean Lester.