Opus praeclarissimum M. T. Ciceronis Epistolarum Familiarium a Nicolao Ienson Gallico viuentibus necnon et posteris impressum feliciter finit.
1471.
A very notable book, the Familiar Letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero, printed by Nicolas Jenson for this and also for future generations, comes happily to an end.
The phrase, but slightly enlarged, recurs in the “Institutes of Quintilian” of the same year.
Quintilianum eloquentiae fontem ab eruditissimo Omnibono Leoniceno emendatum M. Nicolaus Ienson Gallicus viuentibus posterisque miro impressit artificio annis M.CCCC.LXXI Mense Maii die xxi.
Quintilian, the fountain of eloquence, corrected by the most learned Omnibonus Leonicenus, was printed by Nicolas Jenson, a Frenchman, with wonderful craftsmanship, for this and future generations, in the year 1471, on the 21st day of the month of May.
After this, until he joined John of Cologne, Jenson’s colophons become short and featureless. Meanwhile, however, a third printer, Christopher Valdarfer of Ratisbon, had set up a press at Venice, and toward the close of 1470 joined in the contest of poetical colophons. His first contribution to it appears to be these three couplets in praise of his edition of Cicero’s “De Oratore”:
Cicero. De Oratore. Venice: C. Valdarfer, 1470.