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A: Paris, Île-de-France, France

Pierre-Simon Fournier Issues his "Manuel typographique," an Influential Manual of Types and Typefounding

1764 to 1766

In 1764 printer and typefounder Pierre-Simon Fournier le Jeune issued from Paris his Manuel typographique, utile aux gens de lettres, et à ceux qui exercent les différents parties de l'Art de l'Imprimerie in 2 volumes. The first volume concerned typefounding and contained 16 plates showing equipment and instruments used by the typefounder. The second volume was a survey of European typefoundries, mainly of value today for its wide-ranging collection of type specimens from different foundries. Fournier planned a third volume on printing techniques, and a fourth volume on the lives of typographers.  His death in 1768 prevented publication of those volumes. 

In 1930 English typographer and historian of printing Harry Carter published an annotated English translation in an edition of 260 copies at the Curwen Press: Fournier on Typefounding. The Text of the Manuel typographique (1764-66) translated into English and Edited with Notes by Harry Carter. This was reprinted by offset as a trade edition, with a new foreword and a supplementary bibliography by Carter, in 1973.

Barber, French Letterpress Printing (1969) 10.

(This entry was last revised on 06-15-2014.)

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