Venice; 1469.]

CICERO.

323

168. Cicero. Epistolae ad Familiares. Printecl
by John de Spira. Venice. 1469. Folio.

This is the second edition, by the same printer, of the work under
consideration. It is interesting to the classical collector, inasmuch
as it presents us with the third and last work ever executed by John de
Spira; the Pliny senior of 1469 being the seconcl production of
his press. From the colophon, it appears that only 300 copies of each
edition of the Familiar Epistles of Cicero were printed by him. As I
apprehend it to be rarer even than the first, the following description
of it may not be unacceptable. It begins, like the preceding one, on
the recto of the first leaf, without any prefix, thus

Go omni officio ac potius pietate erga te caeteris
satisfacio oibus: mihi ipse nun<| satisfacio. Tanta
enim magnitudo est tuorum erga me meritorum ;

This first page (here elegantly illuminated) contains 38 lines: a full
page, 41 lines. On the recto of the 135th and last leaf,

Hesperip quondam Germanus quosq; libellos
Abstulit: En plures ipse daturus adest.

Nanq; uir ingenio mirandus 8c arte Ioannes
Exscribi docuit clarius pre libros.

Spira fauet Yenetis: quarto nam mense peregit
Hoc tercentenum bis Ciceronis opus,

M. CCCC. LXVIIII.

Like the preceding impression, tlie present one has neither signa-
tures, catchwords, nor numerals ; and the Greek passages are omitted.
The press-work is more skilfully executed, and the appearance of the
volume is more elegant. In green morocco ; foreign binding.