mitch
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2007
- Messages
- 2,636
I just read "Giambattista Bodoni, His Life and His World" by Valerie Lester.
It's about the legendary typographer and was fairly interesting. The author, imho, devotes too much space to life in 18th century Italy in general (she has a real thing for the food of that era) and tends to speculate/fictionalize some accounts, but it's ok. As you might imagine, I would've preferred a much more technically oriented treatise on his work. Guess I'll have to seek that out.
What really struck me was at a time when the printed, mass produced, word was still somewhat of a rarity, this guy was a rockstar! We're talking hobnobbing with royalty, popes, even Napoleon himself. And he was basically an engraver...
It's about the legendary typographer and was fairly interesting. The author, imho, devotes too much space to life in 18th century Italy in general (she has a real thing for the food of that era) and tends to speculate/fictionalize some accounts, but it's ok. As you might imagine, I would've preferred a much more technically oriented treatise on his work. Guess I'll have to seek that out.
What really struck me was at a time when the printed, mass produced, word was still somewhat of a rarity, this guy was a rockstar! We're talking hobnobbing with royalty, popes, even Napoleon himself. And he was basically an engraver...
