DIDOT, FAMILY. - Celebrated French printers and booksellers, possibly of Lorraine origin, but who carried out their activities in Paris from the 18th century onwards.
FRANÇOIS (1689 – 2 Nov. 1757) is the founder of the house; he printed chiefly Greek classics and historical works, but also produced some luxury editions.
FRANÇOIS-AMBROISE (7 Jan. 1730 – 10 July 1804), eldest son of François, took over the direction of the printing house on 19 July 1757. He established a new foundry and devised the “point typographique,” i.e., the typographic unit of measurement, as well as a new printing press; among books of the utmost elegance, he produced a collection of works in verse and prose (64 vols. in 8°), due to the munificence of the Count of Artois. He was also entrusted with publishing the collection of classics “ad usum delphini.”
PIERRE-FRANÇOIS (9 July 1731 – 7 Dec. 1793), collaborated with his aforementioned brother but was surpassed in fame by his son HENRI (15 July 1765 – 8 July 1852), renowned for his microscopic editions, with characters of 2 points and 1/4, cast with a special machine of his own invention. Another son of Pierre-François, LÉGER (1767–1829), is associated with the creation of the first continuous machines for paper manufacturing.
PIERRE (25 Jan. 1761 – 31 Dec. 1853), son of François-Ambroise, director of the house from 1789, was a learned scholar and appreciated poet, but achieved greater renown for his folios, with type cast by his brother Firmin. Most celebrated among these is his edition of Racine, published in 1801. His son JULES (5 Aug. 1794 – 18 May 1871) is known as the printer of the “Collection des classiques français” (83 vols. in 8°), published by Lefèvre.
FIRMIN (14 Apr. 1764 – 24 Apr. 1836), brother of Pierre, Hellenist and poet of refined taste, ranks among the most famous printers of all time: he created the Didot typeface, invented the stereotyping process, and introduced the typographic reproduction system for geographical maps. After him, the family combined the original surname with the personal name Firmin into a single hereditary surname.
AMBROISE (7 Dec. 1790 – 22 Feb. 1876), son of the preceding, an uncommonly gifted Hellenist and passionate bibliophile, promoted the new edition of the Thesaurus graecae linguae by Stephanus (Henri Estienne), the publication of the Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis by Du Cange, and the Biographie générale, and established the monumental collection of Greek authors with Latin translations.