Bodoni

Giambattista Bodoni was born on February 16, 1740, in what was then the Kingdom of Sardinia (now Piedmont). The sources place his birthplace in Saluzzo. He came from a family of printers and learned the trade at his father’s side. In February 1758, at the age of 17, he left for Rome, where he worked as a compositor at the press of Propaganda Fide for about eight years. There he handled foreign-language typesetting, studied Hebrew and Arabic, and began cutting his own punches.

In 1768, he went to Parma to set up and run a royal press for Duke Ferdinand, and he stayed there for the rest of his life. The duke was his main early patron, and in 1791 he gave Bodoni a private press of his own. Napoleon later gave him a life pension after receiving his Iliad. Bodoni died on November 30, 1813.

The Bodoni Typeface

Bodoni first imitated the type designs of Pierre Simon Fournier and then came to admire the more modeled types of John Baskerville. He later developed the “Modern” style with Firmin Didot, which has strong contrast between thick and thin strokes. As a result, his typefaces have very thin hairlines and look plain and unadorned on the page. He designed many of them, each in a large range of sizes, and his widow published the full range in the Manuale tipografico (Typographic Manual in English) in 1818, five years after his death. It runs to over 600 pages. Several modern revivals exist, all called Bodoni, and they are typically used as display faces.

Note

The very classic Italian looking red stamp at the center of the top row of this album page depicts Bondoni. He looks a little crunched in there, but I still like it. It looks much better than the other ones on this page.

Contains 11 spots: own 11 – 11 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Jan 1, 2023

Stamp Details

The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.

spot	own	catalog	subject	description
1.1	✓	988	Giovanni da Verrazzano Bridge	30₤ (nov 1964) comm., brown & black
1.2	✓	980	Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813)	30₤ (jul 1964) comm., carmine red
1.3	✓	A157	Giovanni da Verrazzano Bridge	130₤ (nov 1964) air mail, black & russian green

Europa CEPT

2.1	✓	981	Europa (CEPT)	30₤ (sep 1964) comm., lilac
2.2	✓	982	Europa (CEPT)	70₤ (sep 1964) comm., dark green blue

Other

2.3	✓	986	War Veterans Pilgrimage to Rome	30₤ (nov 1964) comm., dark siena
2.4	✓	987	War Veterans Pilgrimage to Rome	70₤ (nov 1964) comm., blue
3.1	✓	983	7th Genl. Assembly of Europe Cities	30₤ (oct 1964) comm., lilac brown & yellow green
3.2	✓	984	7th Genl. Assembly of Europe Cities	70₤ (oct 1964) comm., blue & dark lilac brown
3.3	✓	985	7th Genl. Assembly of Europe Cities	500₤ (oct 1964) comm., red

Stamp Day

4.1

✓

989

Stamp Day

15₤ (dec 1964)
comm., orange brown & lilac brown

Footnotes

Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.