The private presses of William Morris, Harry Kessler, Giovanni Mardersteig or Alberto Tallone of the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century wouldn’t exist without the printing revolution led by Giambattista Bodoni who, in the second half of the eighteenth century, brought book printing to its highest level of aesthetic perfection, with meticulous attention to detail, characterized by painstaking craftwork and the use of selected and fine materials.

Born in Saluzzo in Piedmont in 1740 to a family of printers, Bodoni’s first professional experience was in his father’s printing shop, before moving in 1758 to Rome, where he worked at the Stamperia della Congregazione di Propaganda Fide, reordering the series of print types for oriental alphabets that Sixtus V had commissioned by Claude Garamond and Guillaume Le Bè. After this period, decisive for his future career, in 1768 Bodoni accepted the invitation of Duke Ferdinand of Bourbon to manage the Stamperia Reale of Parma, where he remained for the rest of his life, finally finding a place where his talent could unfold. “The Emilian duchy at the time occupied a privileged cultural position in an Italy characterised by the despotism of the Illuminati, also opening its doors to new artistic, philosophical and literary trends” (Bodoni 1740-1813, Parma, 2013, p. 16). Although the first works were still issued with print types from France, in just a few months Bodoni started to use print types of his own design, cut, stamped and cast into numerous variations, with excellent results, of true beauty and variety.

For the upcoming autumn sale, our Rare Books and Autographs Department is proud to present the exceptional collection of the Marquis Lorenzo Solari, a nobleman who in the early post-war period moved from Rome to Parma dedicating his life to the book trade, although his passion for books printed by Bodoni soon turned him into a sophisticated collector, a passion that should last for his whole life. Numerous volumes bear the bookplates of “La Vecchia Parma antiquariato” or of his own book collection. The collection includes many famous editions of the classic authors that made Bodoni’s name, including the Works of Horace dating back to 1791, being “the first edition of a classic author printed with Bodoni’s own printing types” (Brooks 417), the Works of Virgil dating back to 1793 and the Works of Catullus dating back to 1794, as well as the famous edition in three volumes of the Works of Homer in Greek dating back to 1808, dedicated to Napoleon, which Brooks describes as a “superb edition and one of the finest books ever printed in Italy or anywhere in the world” (Brooks 1050). The copy within the Solari collection comes in a splendid contemporary red Morocco binding bearing the arms of Maria Luigia of Bourbon-Parma on the cover.
There are obviously also festival books ranging from the Descrizione delle Feste celebrate in Parma l’anno 1769, considered the finest Italian book on festivities, with as many as 70 tipped-in illustrations, initials, headpieces and tailpieces, including also the Solenne battesimo di S.A.R. Ludovico principe primogenito di Parma del 1774, as well as the Relazione del solenne Ricevimento […] di S.A.R. il principe ereditario di Parma from 1786, published in occasion of the visit of the Duke and the Duchess of Gloucester. “Bodoni didn’t print books for the public, […] but essentially for the aristocracy, including volumes dedicated to the great and powerful, guaranteeing the patronage of the elite” (Bodoni 1740-1813, Parma, 2013, p. 23).

We may also cite some bibliographic curiosities, such as the rare Catalogo di alcune edizioni Bodoniane dating from 1793 (Brooks 517) or Dante’s Divine Comedy in folio printed in London in 1796, considered “a beautiful book due to size and printing types” (Brooks 653). The polyglot editions dedicated to exotic type are particularly worthy of note, and exalt the connoisseurship and geniality of the printer to design and cut type sizes “with hair-fine grace”: first and foremost the Epithalamia exoticis linguis reddita from 1775, printed in twenty-six oriental languages to celebrate the wedding of the Prince of Piedmont, as well as the Oratio Dominica from 1806 in 155 different languages printed to celebrate Pius VII’s journey to Paris for the Coronation of Napoleon, and last but not least the Manuale Tipografico from 1818 which, finished by Bodoni’s widow after his death in 1813, is the result of over forty years of work, containing 265 pages of Roman type, 125 of block capitals, 181 of Greek and oriental type, 1036 flourishes, 31 borders for mobile pieces and 20 pages of marks, numbers and musical notes. The copy in auction presents a striking contemporary English green Morocco binding by Upham of Bath with elaborate gold decorations bearing besides the Solari provenance the one of John Moore Paget. The importance of the volumes to be auctioned, along with the beauty of the copies and the provenances, confirm Giambattista Bodoni’s wellknown saying: “I want only the magnificent, and I do not work for the common herd of readers!”

By Annette Popel Pozzo