1764 ❧ A typographer's copy of Fournier's Manuel Typographique. FOURNIER, PIERRE-SIMON. 1712-1768. Manuel Typographique, Utile aux Gens de Lettres, & à ceux qui exercent les différentes parties de l'Art de l'Imprimerie. Paris: Imprimé par l'Auteur, [Volume I] chez Barbou, rue S. Jacques, 1764; [Volume II] chez J. Barbou, rue des Mathurins, 1766. 2 volumes, 8vo (175 x 112 mm). Engraved frontispieces, 16 folding engraved plates, 250 pages of typographical engraved specimens. Some toning. Contemporary 18th-century French mottled calf, red and green morocco lettering pieces. Some light wear, joints started but holding by cords. Provenance: Gulielmus [William] Powell (bookplate); Daniel Berkeley Updike (1860-1941), typographer and historian (bookplate). THE FOUNDATIONAL MASTERWORK OF 18TH-CENTURY ENLIGHTENMENT TYPOGRAPHY. Pierre-Simon Fournier (known as Fournier le Jeune) stands as a colossus in the history of design, logic, and print. His Manuel Typographique represents the formal birth of modern typographic standardization. Within these volumes, Fournier introduced and codified his revolutionary point system, which established a consistent, mathematical scale for measuring type sizes (dividing a pica into 12 distinct points)-a methodology that forms the direct technological bedrock of physical and digital composition to this very day. Beyond its strict engineering utility, the Manuel is celebrated as a high-water mark of Rococo book design. Volume I acts as an exhaustive practical manual detailing the mechanical alchemy of punchcutting, matrix-making, and typefounding. Volume II acts as an extensive typographic specimen treasury, showcasing over 250 pages of alphabets, music types, complex exotic scripts, and Fournier's highly admired, dense, florid multi-piece type ornaments. FROM THE COLLECTION OF ONE OF THE GREATEST TYPOGRAPHERS AND TYPOGRAPHIC HISTORIANS 20th-CENTURY. From the library of Daniel Berkeley Updike (1860-1941), the highly influential founder of Boston's Merrymount Press and the author of the definitive historical text Printing Types: Their History, Forms, and Use (1922). Updike is credited with reviving international scholarly appreciation for Fournier's historical contributions. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing