These books were created at the end of the handpress period and serve as a kind of monument to the preceding 450 years of printing. Art militaire des chinois: ou, Recueil d'anciens traités sur la guerre, composés avant l'ere chrétienne, par différents généraux chinois. After the Industrial Revolution more people were reading, and artists' whose work often hung in royal palaces were suddenly being seen by hundreds, if not thousands, of those in the widening middle class of France.Īmiot, Joseph Marie. Not only did this collaboration provide much-needed patronage to artists during the difficult revolutionary days, it also brought their work into contact with a completely new demographic. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and The Elisha Whittelsey Funds and Gift of John Sise, by exchange, 1958 (58.635.1)ĭavid and his studio designed and engraved nearly one hundred illustrations for the folios. Printed books with engraved illustrations 19 11/16 x 13 3/4 x 2 3/4 in. Published by Pierre Didot l'ainé (French, 1761–1853), Paris. Jean Racine (French, baptized 1639–1699). Pierre hired Jacques Louis David to edit the illustrations, which were executed by members of his studio, most significantly by Baron François Gerard and Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson. During the next ten years, Pierre published three monumental works of Racine, Virgil, and Horace, known collectively as the Louvre editions. In 1797, Pierre was awarded a gallery in the Louvre in recognition of the work of the Didot press. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Jayne Wrightsman, 2008 (BS75 1785b Q) Printed by François Ambroise Didot (French, 1730–1804). Bibliorum Sacrorum Vulgatae versionis, 1785. These books, which often received luxurious bindings, were meant to be admired and appreciated as objects of art, not simply picked up and read. Pierre designed large, folio-sized books with wide margins, elegant type designed by his brother, Firmin, and sumptuous illustrations. When Pierre Didot inherited his father's business in 1789, he set about reorienting the press towards elegant collectible books, hoping to bring glory to both the family name and the classical poets he loved. Pierre: Illustrations and the Art of the Book Champollion's "grammar book," which translates Egyptian hieroglyphics and was a landmark publication in the field, one of the many important scholarly publications Didot printed. Grammaire égyptienne: ou Principes généraux de l'écriture sacrée égyptienne appliquée à la représentation de la langue parlée. The family's most lasting legacy is the Didot family of fonts, designed by Firmin Didot, which influences typography to this day.Ĭhampollion, Jean-Francois. Making classic works-be they artistic, philosophical, or literary-available to a broad audience was only part of the family's influence, however. The former were illustrated by some of the most respected artists of the day, providing a wide audience with access to images that had only ever been available to those privileged few who had access to royal palaces and aristocratic chateaus. This auction catalog, recently acquired and one of over two hundred thousand in Watson Library's collection, provides an inventory of the sale of Firmin-Didot's book collection.įirmin-Didot, a family of French printers, punch-cutters, and publishers, gained renown for their illustrated editions of the classics, as well as for publishing inexpensive editions of scholarly texts. Catalogue illustré des livres précieux manuscrits et imprimés faisant partie de la bibliothèque de Ambroise Firmin-Didot.
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