Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/163

 12 S. IV. JUNE, 1918.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

157

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

P. S. FOTJRNIER, PABISIAN TYPE-FOUNDEB. In some investigations I have been making relative to Pierre Simon Fournier (commonly styled le jeune) (1712-68), the Parisian type-founder to whom the inven- tion of the " point system " is generally attributed, I am unable to solve certain ques- tions. These arise from the following facts.

Pierre Simon Fournier was the son of Jean Claude Fournier, manager of a well- known Paris foundry. This Jean Claude had nine children, of whom six were boys. Three lived to maturity, and of these Pierre Simon was the youngest. The eldest brother was a type-founder, and became in 1730 proprietor of the Le Be" foundry, of which his father had for some years been director. He would therefore appear to be properly styled Faine. The second son, a printer at Auxerre, does not seem to come into the problem. The third son was named Pierre Simon Fournier, and it was for bis elder brother that Pierre Simon, commonly called le jeune, first began to cut type. According to Lottin, the eldest brother's name was Jean Pierre Fournier, and Lottin says that he knew of no " speci- men " of his types ever having been issued. But in 1742 there was issued an oblong folio " specimen " entitled " Modeies des Carac- teres de rimprimerie, Et de autres choses neceesaires audit Art. Nouvellement Graves par Simon Pierre Fournier le jeune, Graveur & Fondeur de Caracteres. A Paris, Rile des sept voyes, vis-a-vis le College de Reims, 1742." And in the same year a 16mo specimen was published with the following title : " Caraoteres de I'lmprimerie, Nouvellement Graves, Par S. P. Fournier le jeune, Graveur & Fondeur de Caracteres. A Paris, Rile des sept voyes vis-a-vis le College de Reims, 1742." In the preface to the first specimen the compiler alii .des to his experiments in formulating t/pe- measurement, and explains his system of " proportions." Now, the perfected scheme of the " point system " has always been ascribed to Pierre Simon Fournier le jeune.. He treats of it at length in his ' Manuel Typographique,' issued in 1764, and there calls it his own invention, adding that he first published his plan in 1737, some five years earlier than the description appearing in the ' Modeies ' in 1742. A reference to


 * his 1737 issue appears in Bigmore and

Wyman's ' Bibliography of Printing.' It was entitled " Table des Proportions des ~'aracteres d'Imprimerie, Paris, 1737," 4to ; ut I have never seen it. Although Lottin Dlaces the two specimens just alluded to inder Pierre Simon Fournier's publications,

takes pains to give their author's initials as S. P., showing that he felt the difficulty that puzzles me. In a note in the edition of J. B. Rousseau's ' CEuvres,' Bruxelles [Paris), 1743, printed by one of the Didots, the types are stated to be those of Simon Pierre Fournier le jeune.

It has been suggested that Simon Pierre and Pierre Simon Fournier may be one and the same person, who at one time may have transposed his Christian names. But this seems unlikely even more so than that a man would name his two sons Simon Pierre and Pierre Simon. In the " specimen " of Ph Denis Pierres, published at Paris in 1785, types are shown from the foundry of Fournier Z'oCne and Fournier le jeune. And Mr. Luther Livingston in ' Franklin and his Press at Passy ' says : " Among the Franklin papers are letters signed by T. T. Fournier fils, T Fournier le jeune, Fournier le jeune, Fournier I'aine." This, however, proves nothing, for Fournier le jeune (Pierre Simon), who by 1768 was dead, left two sons, one of whom was a founder, and Fournier Faine had descendants, and the allusions may be to them.

My question is, who was this Simon Pierre Fournier le jeune, and what was Lottin' s authority for calling the elder brother Jean Pierre ? Or was Lottin wrong, and were there two Foumiers, both fo\mders of type, both investigating and improving the formulation of type-measurement, both sometimes styling themselves le jeune, and both issuing specimens the elder Simon Pierre Fournier, the younger Pierre Simon ? No one has ever yet alluded to the elder Fournier as having any part in the formula- tion of the " point system."

I proposed this problem to M. Georges Lepreux, the learned author of ' Gallia Typographical but his lamentable death by accident at Paris occurred shortly after my letter should have reached him. As your correspondents assisted me about Ibarra and Julian Hibbert (see 12 S. i. 327, 410), I am hoping for like aid in this instance.

In this connexion can any one tell me if a portrait of Joaquin Ibarra of Madrid has ever been engraved, and, if so, by whom, where, and when ? D. B. UPDIKE.

The Merry mount Press, Boston, U.S. A.