Bodoni followed the ideas of John Baskerville, as found in the printing type Baskerville, that of increased stroke contrast and a more vertical, slightly condensed, upper case, but taking them to a more extreme conclusion. Bodoni's typeface has a narrower underlying structure with flat, unbracketed serifs. The face has extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes, and an overall geometric construction.
Bodoni came from a printmaking background, his father and grandfather both being in that trade. He worked for a time as an apprentice in the Vatican's Propaganda Fide printing house in Rome. There, it was said he impressed his superiors so much with his eagerness to learn, studiousness in mastery of ancient languages and types, and energy of effort, that he was allowed to place his own name on his first books, a Coptic Missal and a version of the Tibetan alphabet.
Bodoni admired the work of John Baskerville and studied in detail the designs of French type founders Pierre Simon Fournier and Firmin Didot. Although he drew inspiration from the work of these designers, above all from Didot, no doubt Bodoni found his own style for his typefaces, which deservedly gained worldwide acceptance among printers.
After a bout of malaria put Bodoni out of commission, he was hired by the Duke Ferdinand of Bourbon-Parma to organize a printing house in Parma to be bankrolled by the Duke, with an eye to create one of the great houses of Italy, to be called la Stamperia Reale. Bodoni got to work publicizing the house with the creation of specimen books, which were very received amongst the upper classes of European capitals. Soon, fine editions of classical and respected works followed, such as Homer's works and Gerusalemme Liberata of Torquato Tasso. Eventually his success was such that he was permitted to open a printing house under his own name, Officina Bodoni.
Bodoni achieved an unprecedented level of technical refinement, allowing him to faithfully reproduce letterforms with very thin "hairlines", standing in sharp contrast to the thicker lines constituting the main stems of the characters. His printing reflected an aesthetic of plain, unadorned style, combined with purity of materials. This style attracted many admirers and imitators, surpassing the popularity of French typographers such as Philippe Grandjean and Pierre Simon Fournier.
Unflagged by his famous rivalry with Didot, in his life Bodoni designed and personally engraved 298 typefaces, and the various printing houses he managed produced roughly 1,200 fine editions.
The Bodoni Museum, named for the artisan, was opened in Parma in 1963.
Text courtesy of Wikipedia.
There are many styles within the family of Bodoni including regular, medium, italic, condensed, bold and black. The one above is regular.
Bodoni's typefaces were often highly styled editions some considered more apt "to be admired for typeface and layout, not to be studied or read."
Bodoni in use. Really looks nice at large sizes.
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