BODONI, GIAMBATTISTA Italian printer, was born in I74o at Saluzzo in Piedmont, the son of a printer. He became a compositor for the press of the Propaganda. The infante Don Ferdinand, afterwards duke of Parma, placed him in charge of his fine printing-house in Parma, which he soon rendered the first of the kind in Europe. The intrinsic value of his editions is seldom equal to their outward splendour. His Homer, however, is a truly magnificent work ; and, indeed, his Greek letters are faultless imitations of the best Greek manuscript. His editions of the Greek, Latin, Italian and French classics are all highly prized for their typographical elegance, and some of them are not less remarkable for their accuracy. Bodoni died at Padua in 1813. In 1818 a magnificent work appeared in two volumes quarto, entitled Manuale Tipografico, containing specimens of the vast collection of types which had belonged to him.
See De Lama, Vita del Cavaliere Giambattista Bodoni (1816), and Bertieri, L'arte di Giambattista Bodoni (i913).