Giambattista Bodoni’s Oratio Dominica

Abstract

Giambattista Bodoni is certainly one of the most influential character of the late eighteenth century. His skill as a printer played a crucial role in his reputation among some of the most important and influential European politicians, diplomats, and scholars. He also granted glory and fame to the city of Parma thanks to his ducal printing house. His skill as a printer was particularly improved during his stay in Rome, between 1758 and 1766, under the supervision of Costantino Ruggeri in the printing house of Propaganda Fide. In 1805, on the spur of Pius VII, Bodoni undertook one of his most famous enterprise, the Oratio Dominica CL linguis versa, et propriis cuiusque linguae characteribus plerumque expressa. The work was conceived as a reaction to Pater Poliglotto, published in the French Imperial typography directed by Jean-Joseph Marcel and offered to the Pope in January of the same year. This French version was made in large part thanks to punches and matrix confiscated precisely at the Typography of Propaganda Fide, and carried to Paris in 1798. The result of Bodoni’s work was extraordinary; the Oratio Dominica, dedicated to Eugene de Beauharnais and Augusta Amelia, was even acknowledged at the Paris Industrial Exposition in 1806.