The Manuale Tipografico of Giambattista Bodoni has been called the greatest type specimen book ever printed. Issued posthumously in 1818 at Parma by Bodoni’s devoted widow Margherita, the two-volume work contains a dazzling array of 142 roman alphabets with corresponding italics, numerous script and exotic typefaces, and a striking collection of flowers and ornaments––all beautifully printed on crisp, handmade paper. These typefaces and decorative materials were the culmination of more than forty years of assiduous devotion by Bodoni to the typographic arts, both in his capacity as printer to the Duke of Parma and as proprietor of his own private press and type foundry. Only 250 copies of this specimen book were printed, and surviving examples are now highly prized by collectors.

The true value of the Manuale lies not in the fact that it is a splendidly printed and rare book, or even that it summarizes the life’s work of a celebrated type designer and printer who blithely sailed through some of the most tumultuous times in European history. Rather, its real significance is that from its pages speak the first successful modern types––more evolved, refined, and logical than those of Baskerville, yet not so chillingly formal and clinical as the letterforms of Bodoni’s great French rival Didot. Though Bodoni rarely made his types available to other printers, they came to have a profound influence on type design that is felt to this day.

Commentary by David Pankow, searchable English translation.