Aesthetics, economy and printing in the eighteenth century: the catalogue of Giambattista Bodoni and his patron José Nicolás de Azara

Abstract

This article addresses and documents the influence of the economic variable on the production of one of the most outstanding typographers in the history of the book, Giambattista Bodoni, who was famous for his books to the 18th century European bibliophile elite. Three main financing channels are distinguished in his catalog, resulting various types of editions, and this perspective of analysis shows the relevance of the Spanish patron José Nicolás de Azara in Bodoni’s work. But Azara did not only leave his mark on Bodoni’s catalog by promoting bibliographic projects; also by advising the typographer to achieve examples of the beautiful book, which should balance in his opinion its functionality with its aesthetic waste, that was always directly proportional to the economic cost. As a conclusion, the article confirms the prominence of patronage -especially Azara’s- even in Bodoni’s art of printing along the transition from the Eighteenth to the Nineteenth century.

Keywords

• Neoclassical bibliophilia
• Patronage; Bodoni’s books
• José Nicolás de Azara
• Printing economy