Pierre Simon Fournier

Pierre Simon Fournier (September 151712 – October 81768) was a French mid-eighteenth century punch-cutter, typefounder and typographic theoretician. He worked in the rococo form, and designed typefaces including Fournier and Narcissus [MyFonts entry for Pierre Simon Fournier le jeune [http://www.myfonts.com/person/fournier-le-jeune/pierre-simon/] ] .

He was known as Fournier le Jeune (the younger); his father Jean Claude was also in the type-setting industry. In his early life, Fournier studied watercolour with J. B. G. Colson, and later wood engraving. In 1737, Fournier published his first theoretical work, on the minimum spacing between letters while still retaining readability.

Career

In 1723, the French government agreed that types should be subject to standards. By 1737, Fournier le Jeune decided to begin creating his punches to a scale of 72 points to the French inch, weird 72 Didot points or 6 Ciceros to the French inch. With that, the traditional terms Parisienne, nonpareile, galliarde, petit romain went out the window.

Two years after developing the point system, Fournier decided to create his own type foundry.

When the Netherlands was seized by France, Louis XIV commissioned new types for use during his reign. The King kept the font as a monopoly to himself, with penalties against unauthorized reproduction. In the following century, Fournier's "Modèles des Caractères" (1742) continued the "romaine du roi" style, but adapted it for his own new age. The typefaces that Fournier and successors created had such extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes, that there was a constant risk of the letters shattering.

Upon publishing "Modèles des Caractères", filled with rococo and fleurons, Fournier's publication helped revive the 1500s concept of type ornaments. The revival spawned imitations, including some by Johann Michael Fleischmann and J. Enschedé.

By the 1750s, Fournier le Jeune was still riding high as a major player in the industry. Fournier acted as advisor to Sweden and Sardinia in the creation of their royal printing works, and helped Madame de Pompadour establish her own printing works.

On his wave of relative success, Fournier's interest of music had a chance to finally flourish. Working with J. G. I. Breitkopf in 1756, Fournier developed a new musical typestyle that made the notes round, more elegant, and easier to read. They quickly gained popularity in the music world. Ballard had previously had a monopoly in the printing of music, using Hautlin's comparatively crude 1525 cuts.

Patenting his invention in 1762, he surprisingly was frowned upon by other printers, who initially didn't recognise the practice as legitimate. He published a historical and critical treatise on the origins and process of cast iron characters for music, in which he pled for acceptance of his own works, while blasting Ballard.

After death

Fournier's company remained open until the 19th century.

Interest in type design was stimulated in 1922 by D. B. Updike's Printing Types. This led to the newly appointed advisor to Monotype Corporation, Stanley Morison, initiating a program of recutting past faces. Among them was Fournier's self-named font.

Fournier on others' type

" [Baskerville's italic is] the best found in any type-foundry in Europe." Baskerville taught calligraphy for four years, before discovering type. Both Fournier and Baskerville's italics originated with copperplate hand.

Notes

Further reading

* FOURNIER PIERRE SIMON, Traité historique et critique [...] . Minkoff Reprint, Genève 1972 [avec le traité des Gando]
* LEPREUX G., Gallia typographica, série parisienne. Paris 1911
* BEAUJON P., Pierre Simon Fournier 1712–1768, and XVIIIth Century French Typography. London 1926
* CARTER H. (éditeur), Fournier on Typefounding. London 1930 [traduciton de P.-S. Fournier, «Manuel typographique» Paris 1764–1768
* HUTT A., Fournier the Compleat Typographer. London 1972
* Gando, N. and F. Gando, Observations sur le Traité historique et critique de Monsieur Fournier le jeune sur l’origine et les progrès des caractères de fonte pour l’impression de la musique. Berne: 1766
* Steinberg, S. H., Five Hundred Years of Printing. New Castle, DE: The British Library & Oak Knoll Press
* Warszawski, Jean-Marc, Musicologie: "Pierre Simon Fournier". Revision as of February 6, 2005
** [http://www.musicologie.org/Biographies/f/fourneir_sp.html www.musicologie.org (in French) biography for Fournier's work in musical notation]