FOURNIER (Pierre-Simon, Fournier le Jeune). Manuel Typographique, utile aux gens de lettres, et à ceux qui exercent les diffèrentes parties de l'Art de l'Imprimerie.1764

Paris: Imprimé par l'Auteur, et se vend chez Barbou, First edition, 2 vols., 8vo (163 x 105 mm), vol. I: xxxii, 323, [5]pp., with half-title, engraved frontispiece by Gravelot, 16 folding engraved plates at rear; vol. II: [2], xliv, 306pp., including 250 pages of specimens of which 15 show his music types (5 folding, 2 printed in red and black), engraved frontispiece by De Sève, engraved titles within ornamental borders, internally very clean with just occasional light spotting, nice wide margins, cont. calf, joints rubbed and lightly cracked, smooth spines with red morocco lettering pieces, head and tail of spines chipped, corners rubbed through to boards, but still a very good set. Fournier's pioneering study of typefounding and punchcutting, illustrated with engraved plates of the tools used for those processes and the most important book on French eighteenth-century typography. It is a spirited masterpiece of technical writing, intended to explain to the layman the intricacies and nuances of the typographical art. The second volume is really a type specimen book, illustrating samples of approximately one hundred ancient and modern alphabets. It is also one of the most exquisite examples of French rococo book production, making use of Fournier's own printing types and ornaments. Updike's opinion of Founrnier's work is unequivocal "The Manuel Typographique is a work which no student of French typography can afford to be without." Bigmore & Wyman I, p. 228; Audin, 55 & 56; Updike I, p. 260.