Not only the Bodonian wonders. The exhibition aims to recreate, to revive the cultural, economic and institutional world, the Italian and European courts, which in Bodoni found the craftsman-artist capable of giving the form of a book to their instances, ideas and ideals. A large exhibition will be dedicated to him – made possible with the decisive contribution of the Cariparma Foundation – and set up, from 5 October 2013 to 12 January 2014 in some of the most fascinating monumental spaces in the city: the Palatine Library, the Farnese Theater and the National Gallery, environments that alone are worth a visit.
We will be able to admire the refined and elegant Bodonian editions and, with them, the testimonies of the entire process of creation and then of marketing of masterpieces which, for content as for printing quality, were sought after by the courts, academies, libraries and intellectuals of Europe at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. And it is precisely to "Bodoni, the cultural environments and the courts" that one of the two sections of the exhibition is reserved. His first steps in his father's typography in his native Saluzzo, then his transfer to Rome and work at the Propaganda Fide printing house will be relived in the evocative scenography of lesser-known environments of the Farnese Theater.
Subsequently the arrival at the court of Parma, among the most "enlightened" and international in the fragmented Italy of the time.
And from this moment everything changes: it is no longer he who goes to present himself to the various European courts but it is kings, popes and princes who go to Parma, in his "Stamperia" to commission or secure his coveted editions.
The Bourbons and then Murat come or send their emissaries from Naples, as do the Bourbons of Spain and the Emperor, or Napoleon himself. As well as, from Milan, Eugenio Beauharnais Viceroy of Italy and, with him, the cultural environment that had its epicenter in Brera.
Throughout his career, as well as the powerful Bodoni he was the point of reference for the cultural and intellectual world, for writers, thinkers, historians of the caliber of Parini, Monti, De Azara, Alfieri and many others: he was able to give their ideas not only physics, transposing them into books of great elegance and rigor, but also widely disseminated. This magnificent "fresco of an era" of Italian history, with its lights and its inevitable shadows, lives on display, inside the monumental neoclassical hall of the National Gallery, thanks to the views and portraits of the personalities who animated the life and economic policy of the time created by great artists, Goya first of all, but also Anton Raphael Mengs, Angelica Kauffmann, Pompeo Batoni, Francois Gerard and many other artists already present in the ducal collections including Andrea Appiani, Antonio Canova, Bernardo Bellotto, Robert Hubert.
From the environment, to the master's forge, or rather to the "Perfect Book Factory" is reserved for the other large section of the exhibition; in the evocative environment of the Petitot Gallery of the Palatine Library, the masterpieces that tell the story of the printed book are exhibited first: from the Gutenberg Bible from the mid-XNUMXth century to the most important editions of European typography. Then Bodoni and his revolution in taste and technique. Here, the tools for casting the lead characters and the composition of the texts, the first editions but above all the most beautiful specimens to come out of the Bodonian presses, highlight, also resorting to the intelligent use of multimedia tools, how radical his " revolution” in the history of typographic art. A revolution which is the result, as the exhibition well documents, of obsessive attention to every stage of the work, always with extremely high quality and elegance objectives. From the choice, and conception, of the typographic character (still today the "Bodoni" inspired by the characters he created is among the most used), to the graphic composition, to the improvement of printing techniques on naturally highly selected papers, but also special supports such as silk and parchment. And again the attention to the engravings; true masterpieces of art. Finally, the color printing and bindings of sober, perfect elegance.
But the Bodonian genius also reveals itself in what we will today define as the marketing of its precious editions. His proud statement "I only want magnificent things and I don't work for the vulgarity of readers" is famous. However, he was perfectly aware that the book, however perfect as an object, found - then as now - its true life only in the hands of readers. And his luck confirms how well he knew how to convince them to buy.
Bodoni prince of printers in the Europe of the Enlightenment and Napoleon (1740-1813)
Parma, Palatine Library (Petitot Gallery) and National Gallery
Palazzo della Pilotta, Str.da alla Pilotta, 3
5 October 2013 - 12 January 2014
