Figure 131 a & b
Page from Saggio Tipografico and Reverse of half-title of Fregi. Bodoni’s Fregi e Majuscole, Parma
From HathiTrust (facsimile scan 1, scan 2)
1771
In this we are able to see what types… Bodoni used in the earlier part of his career. They are (as he says in his very “worth-while” preface) a derivation from Fournier, but lack that precision which Bodoni embodied so characteristically in his nineteenth century types. They exhibit, however, his admiration for Fournier, whom he copied in a flattering but barefaced manner. Granted that the most agreeable features of the book are copied, this “specimen” of 1771 is one of the most tasteful and charming volumes of its kind in existence. Each page is surrounded with borders, of which scarcely one is bad, or scarcely two alike. Bodoni’s title-page, half-title to the specimen of types, and some minor decorations—for instance, the type “bees” surrounding type “flowers,” to which he has added the familiar motto from Virgil—are neatly “lifted” from Fournier’s Manuel