Figure 310
Specimen of Bodoni’s Ducale in three weights: Manuale Tipografico, Parma
From Library of Congress (scan 1, scan 2, scan 3)
1818
The first volume contains, under the title of Serie di Caratteri Latini, Tondi e Corsivi, a series of roman and italic types which cover 144 pages. These run from parmigianina to papale. Sometimes there are as many as fourteen varieties of the same body in different designs and weights of line. It is almost impossible to conceive why it was necessary to have so many kinds which, even to a trained eye, appear much alike: though it is perhaps justifiable in the larger sizes—as in the three weights of ducale—where differences can be clearly detected.