The Text is Silent, the Typographer Speaks. Memory and Self-Representation in Bodonian Commemorative Books

Abstract

The planned but yet never published poetry collection in honor of Vittorio Amedeo III of Savoia and the much more famous print of 'Epithalamia' constitute the starting point of the study, that investigates the ways in which Giambattista Bodoni played the role of a printer. Eager to preserve the memory of his work with movable type and presses, Bodoni revolutionized if not the form, at least the deeper meaning of occasional books for weddings or other lavish celebrations of power. No longer devoted solely to preserve the ruling aristocracy and families at the end of the Ancien Régime, the Bodonian-celebrating texts represent real typographical manuals and monuments in which the text becomes secondary to the publisher as the true protagonist.