Boddony

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Boddony
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Name Boddony
Race Dwarf
Age
Occupation Co-Owns the printing press used by William de Worde in The Truth.
Physical appearance
Residence
Death
Parents
Relatives
Children
Marital Status Dwarf-to-be of the dwarf Gunilla Goodmountain.
Appearances
Books The Truth
Cameos


Boddony is the dwarf-to-be of the dwarf Gunilla Goodmountain (sex isn't discussed amongst Dwarves: it's rather assumed that the two of them know which is which...).

The two of them are the owners of the Movable Type Printing Device which enters William de Worde's life rather abruptly and is the catalyst for the events of The Truth.

In keeping with Pratchett's usual mastery of nudges towards human reality, both are well-named. The Roundworld Bodoni is a well-known typeface that was designed at the end of the eighteenth century by Giambattista Bodoni, an Italian printer who became the Director of the Press for the Duke of Parma.

Goodmountain is a direct translation of Gutenberg. Johann Gutenberg was the (German) inventor of movable type in the 1450s, most famously responsible for the Gutenberg Bibles - the first printed books in the Western World.


Annotation

Another dwarf mentioned in The Truth, young Caslong, is yet another sly nod to Roundworld. Caslon is a well-known typeface named after its creator William Caslon, who released it in the 1730s. It was a highly successful and popular typeface throughout Europe and America: the first printings of the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution were set in Caslon.

Another member of Goodmountain's team is called Gowdie, another font, Gaudi - the architect of the famous church in Barcelona.