The poet tells us that he prepared the advertisements for the booksellers, putting these in the form of epigrams, but not neglecting to specify the form and price of each book as well as the place where it was offered for sale.
Qui tecum cupis esse meos ubicunque libellos,
Et comites longæ quæris habere viæ,
Hos eme quos arctat brevibus membrana tabellis;
Scrinia da magnis, me manus una capit.
· · · ·
Libertum docti Lucensis quære Secundum
Limina post Pacis, Palladiumque forum.[206]
The idea of an epigrammatic advertisement recalls the announcement (identical with the rhyming title-page) of the first edition of Lowell’s Fable for Critics.
“Reader! Walk up at once (it will soon be too late) and buy at a perfectly ruinous rate,