Figure 164
Caractère Gras used in Aventures de Télémaque: Pierre François Didot, Paris
From a copy in Harvard College Library (facsimile), Gallica (scan)
1787
The preface state that it is set in “les nouveaux Caractères de sa Fonderie,” and that the subscribers, allowed to choose between a caractère gras and a caractère maigre for this edition, had given six hundred votes for the former against two for the latter. The choice seems justified, for the gras employed in Télémaque is maigre enough, in all conscience! However, it is a type with some colour left in it, and it is beautifully imposed and printed on a rich papier d’Annonay, made for the book.