DIDOT, the name of a family of learned French printers and publishers. FRANcOIS DIDOT (1689-1757), founder of the great ness of his family, was born at Paris. He began business as a bookseller and printer in 1713, and among his famous produc tions was a collection of the travels of his friend the Abbe Prevost, in twenty volumes (I747)• FRANcOIS AMBROSE DIDOT (1730-1804), son of Francois, made important improvements in type-founding, and was the first to attempt printing on vellum paper (178o). Among the works which he published was the famous collection of French classics prepared by order of Louis XVI. for the education of the Dauphin, in usum Delphini, and the folio edition of L'Art de verifier les dates. PIERRE FRANcOIS DIDOT (1732-1795), his brother, devoted much attention to the art of type-founding and to paper-making. Among the works which issued from his press was an edition in folio of the Imitatio Christi (1788). HENRI DIDOT (1765-1852), son of Pierre Fran cois, is celebrated for his "microscopic" editions of various stand ard works, for which he engraved the type when nearly seventy years of age. He was also the engraver of the Assignats issued by the Constituent and Legislative Assemblies and the Convention. DIDOT SAINT-LEGER (1767-1829), second son of Pierre Francois, was the inventor of the paper-making machine known in England as the Didot machine. PIERRE DIDOT (1760-1853), eldest son of Francois Ambroise, is celebrated as the publisher of the beau tiful "Louvre" editions of Virgil, Horace and Racine. The Racine, in three volumes folio, was pronounced in i8o1 to be "the most perfect typographical production of all ages." FIRMIN DIDOT (1764-1836), his brother, second son of Francois Ambroise, in vented the process of stereotyping, and coined its name. He was the author of two tragedies—La Reine de Portugal (1824) and La Mort d'Annibal 0817); and he wrote metrical translations from Virgil, Tyrtaeus and Theocritus. AMBROISE FIRMIN DIDOT (179o-1876) was his eldest son. On the retirement of his father in 1827 he undertook, in conjunction with his brother HYACINTHE FIRMIN DIDOT (1794-188o), the direction of the publishing busi ness. Their greatest undertaking was a new edition of the The saurus Graecae linguae of Henri Estienne, under the editorial care of the brothers Dindorf and M. Hase (9 vols., 1855-1859). Among the numerous important works published by the brothers, the zoo volumes forming the Bibliotkeque des auteurs grecs, Bibliotheque latine, and Bibliotheque francaise deserve special mention. Ambroise Firmin Didot was the first to propose (1823) a subscription in favour of the Greeks, then in insurrection against Turkish tyranny. The works include a translation of Thucydides. In 1875 he published a very learned and elaborate monograph on Aldus Manutius. His collection of mss., the richest in France, was said to have been worth, at the time of his death, not less than 2,000,000 francs.
See P. G. Brunet, Firmin Didot et sa famille (187o).