Voltaire, L'Henriade: poëme épique. 1819. Imprimérie de Fermin Didot: Paris. Unbound. Folio. w/handwritten inscription by publisher/editor/typographer Firmin Didot.
The influence of Voltaire on progressive thought is obvious, and his literary influence on the French Romanticists was also very great, even when they were often often ambivalent about his rationalism. The Henriade is one of his two epic poems, championing religious toleration and civic unity. The more particular reason for the inclusion of this tome however is the fact that is inscribed by the publisher Firmin Didot, who was one of the founders (excuse the typesetting pun) of French Romanticist typography and largely responsible for the introduction of typographic play into the tradition of avant-garde literature. He came from a long line of bookmakers who manufactured the paper, moveable type, and presses used in their books. Along with Giambattista Bodoni, he pioneered the use of most extreme contrasts of thick and thin letter-strokes in moveable type in imitation of hand-penned lettering and increased the importance of serifs to the letter-form, creating what is now known as the Didot family of typefaces in his honour.
He pushed the intermixture of typefaces on a single page in frontispieces, title-pages, and chapter headings. This mixture of typefaces, as well as their interaction with etched images, was made more financially feasible by his development of the stereotype printing method, whereby after setting, an entire page would be cast as a single plate of metal for the printing of commercial copies, rendering the printing process much cheaper and allowing him to produce and sell huge numbers of inexpensive, well-printed books, making them available to people with smaller incomes.
Like many printers at the time, he was also a publisher (though his print-shop also filled orders for other houses) and, as the scholarly nature of this edition demonstrates, a very careful editor.
This unbound copy was specially prepared by Didot and sent in raw sewn signatures straight from the shop to a friend, who never added a binding; whether intentionally or not, this unbound state, which displays the construction of the book and emphasizes the raw materials of the bookmaker's craft, is peculiarly appropriate for a gift from a printer whose innovations helped to revolutionize the book trade.
The recipient "Monsieur de Souza", apparently a colleague and friend of Didot's, has not been identified. The inscription reads:
"hommage offert à Monsieur de Souza par son reconnaissant / et respecteux ami / firmin Didot"
He pushed the intermixture of typefaces on a single page in frontispieces, title-pages, and chapter headings. This mixture of typefaces, as well as their interaction with etched images, was made more financially feasible by his development of the stereotype printing method, whereby after setting, an entire page would be cast as a single plate of metal for the printing of commercial copies, rendering the printing process much cheaper and allowing him to produce and sell huge numbers of inexpensive, well-printed books, making them available to people with smaller incomes.
Like many printers at the time, he was also a publisher (though his print-shop also filled orders for other houses) and, as the scholarly nature of this edition demonstrates, a very careful editor.
This unbound copy was specially prepared by Didot and sent in raw sewn signatures straight from the shop to a friend, who never added a binding; whether intentionally or not, this unbound state, which displays the construction of the book and emphasizes the raw materials of the bookmaker's craft, is peculiarly appropriate for a gift from a printer whose innovations helped to revolutionize the book trade.
The recipient "Monsieur de Souza", apparently a colleague and friend of Didot's, has not been identified. The inscription reads:
"hommage offert à Monsieur de Souza par son reconnaissant / et respecteux ami / firmin Didot"
In translation:
"homage offered to Mr. de Souza by his grateful / and respectful friend / firmin Didot"
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