Nel milla quatro cente septe e due
Nel quarto mese; a di cinque et sei,
Questa opera gentile impresso fue,
Io maestro Johanni Numeister opera dei
Alla dicta impressione, et meco fue,
El Elfuginato, Evangelista mei.
—Humphreys interprets the words “Evangelist mine” as standing for “the one who made me known to the world.”[450] M. Bernard writes, “better Evangelist than I am.” The last volume bearing the name of Numeister was an edition of Torquemada’s Contemplations. With his death in 1479, the brief record of the press of Foligno comes to a close.
Florence.
—Florence, which for a century or more had been the centre of the intellectual life of Italy, and which presented in its great collection of manuscripts, its central position, and its important trade connections, distinctive advantages for the work of book-publishing, was comparatively late in giving attention to the new art, and the issues from the Florentine presses before the close of the fifteenth century, were much less important than those of Venice and of Milan.
The first book printed in Florence, a commentary on Virgil, by Servius, bears date 1471. It was issued by Bernardo Cennino, and appears to have been his sole publication.