| Title: |
Specimen des Nouveaux Caractères de la Fonderie et de l’Imprimerie de P. Didot, l’Ainé, Chevalier de l’Ordre Royale de Saint-Michel, Imprimeur du Roi et de la Chambre des Paris, dédié à Jules Didot, fils, Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. |
| Description: |
Chez P. Didot et Jules Didot, Paris. 1819. Small 4to, title, preface + [38]ff., of type specimens printed on rectos only, presentation inscription from the author, “De la part de l’auteur”, later marbled boards, uncut, a nice clean wide margin copy. A revolutionary neo-classical type specimen that had immense influence on the course of type design in the 19th century. In his preface Didot explains that he has adopted “the numerical order for the identification of my types, in place of the meaningless and often absurd names preserved up to the present day in nearly all the printing offices... The numerical order, the only one really convenient, was introduced by my father [Francois Ambroise Didot], and the name of each of his characters is given at the heads of the respective specimens.” The introduction of the point system for identifying type size was eventually universally adopted and is still in use today. This was the first Didot type specimen book and the first to make use of the Didot point system which was developed by F.A. Didot in the 1770s. The text consists of original poems by Pierre Didot. Audin 212; Bigmore & Wyman I, p.175. |
