DIDOT, FAMILY. – Famous French printers and booksellers, perhaps originally from Lorraine, but active in Paris from the eighteenth century onward.
FRANÇOIS (1689 – 2 Nov. 1757) was the founder of the firm; he printed chiefly Greek classics and historical works, but also produced a number of luxury editions.
FRANÇOIS-AMBROISE (7 Jan. 1730 – 10 July 1804), François’s firstborn, took over the management of the printing house on 1 July 1757. He created a new type foundry and devised the “typographic point,” that is, the unit of measurement in typography, as well as a new printing press; among books of the greatest elegance, he produced a collection of works in verse and prose (64 vols. in 8°), made possible by the munificence of the Comte d’Artois. He was also entrusted with publishing the collection of the classics “ad usum delphini.”
PIERRE-FRANÇOIS (9 July 1731 – 7 Dec. 1793) collaborated with the brother mentioned above, but was surpassed in fame by his son HENRI (15 July 1765 – 8 July 1852), celebrated for his miniature editions, printed in type measuring 2¼ points, cast with a special machine of his own invention. Another son of Pierre-François, LÉGER (1767–1829), attached his name to the creation of the first continuous machines for the manufacture of paper.
PIERRE (25 Jan. 1761 – 31 Dec. 1853), son of François-Ambroise and director of the firm from 1789, was an appreciated scholar and poet, but achieved greater renown for his folio editions, printed with type cast by his brother Firmin. The most celebrated of all was his 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), Pierre’s brother, a Hellenist and poet of taste, was among the most famous typographers of all time: he created the D. typeface, invented the stereotyping process, and introduced the system of typographic reproduction of maps. After him, the family joined Firmin’s personal name to the original surname, forming a single family name.
AMBROISE (7 Dec. 1790 – 22 Feb. 1876), son of the preceding, a Greek scholar of uncommon merit and a passionate bibliophile, promoted the new editions of Stephanus’s (Henri Estienne’s) Thesaurus graecae linguae, the publication of Du Cange’s Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, and of the Biographie générale, and initiated the monumental collection of Greek authors with Latin translation.