ed village.

BODONI, GIAMBATTISTA (1740-1813), Italian printer, was born in 1740 at
Saluzzo in Piedmont, where his father owned a printing establishment.
While yet a boy he began to engrave on wood. He at length went to Rome,
and there became a compositor for the press of the Propaganda. He made
himself acquainted with the Oriental languages, and thus was enabled to
render essential service to the Propaganda press, by restoring and
accurately distributing the types of several Oriental alphabets which
had fallen into disorder. The infante Don Ferdinand, afterwards duke of
Parma, having established, about 1760, a printing-house on the model of
those in Paris, Madrid and Turin, Bodoni was placed at the head of this
establishment, which he soon rendered the first of the kind in Europe.
The beauty of his typography, &c., leaves nothing further to be desired;
but the intrinsic value of his editions is seldom equal to their outward
splendour. His Homer, however, is a truly magnificent work; and, indeed,
his Greek letters are faultless imitations of the best Greek
manuscript. His editions of the Greek, Latin, Italian and French
classics are all highly prized for their typographical elegance, and
some of them are not less remarkable for their accuracy. Bodoni died at
Padua in 1813. In 1818 a magnificent work appeared in two volumes
quarto, entitled _Manuale Tipografico_, containing specimens of the vast
collection of types which had belonged to him.

See De Lama, _Vita del Cavaliere Giambattista Bodoni_ (1816).

BODY-SNATCHING, the secret disinterring of dead bodies in churchyards in
order to sell them for the purpose of dissection. Those who practised
body-snatching were frequently called resurrectionists or
resurrection-men. Previous to the passing of the Anatomy Act 1832 (see
ANATOMY: _History_), no licence was required in Great Britain for
opening an anatomical school, and there was no provision for supplying
subjects to students for anatomical purposes. Therefore, though
body-snatching was a misdemeanour at common law, punishable with fine
and imprisonment, it was a sufficiently lucrative business to run the
risk of detection. Body-snatching became so prevalent that it was not
unusual for the relatives and friends of a deceased person to watch the
grave for some time after burial, lest it should be violated. Iron
coffins, too, were frequently used for burial, or the graves were
protected by a framework of ir