farfel_n06_122_462

The great Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius (c260-2340
the earliest history of the Christian church. Rufinus
(c340-410) made a rather free translation, + added
2 books XXXI carrying on down tto the death of Theodosius
the Great (395).
The value of the work does not so much lie in its literary
merit, but in the weath of the materials which it
furnishes for a knowledge of the early Church many
prominent figures of the 1st 3 centuries are known to
us only from its pages.

THe physician J. Philippus de Lignamine of Messins belonged
to the court of Popes Paul III + Sixtus IV (1414-1484, reg. 1471-84) + probably was never a
printer himself. ALthough in the colophons only his name is
to be found, yet from his dedications we understand that "his
printers" printed for him. We can even prove that among
these printers, there were also Germans. Pope Sixtus IV's
work" De Sanguine Christi " \published in 1472 bears the same
initials God. AI. Wich we find also in the Augustinus
printed in Subiaco, whilst other books are signed B.R. +
B, R, M. We find then that several printers worked for
Lignamine + that he allowed them ot put their initials in the books
they had printed. But the type in which the books issued from
his press are set is the same for all of them. It is approximately
the largest roman tyep which was used in the 15h C. for the
printing of whole texts, a type bearing a Roman character but
of considerable originality. FO rthe later books the type was
provided with a double series of majuscules of wich the smaller ones have
only the height of the lower case letters. Like Sweynheym + Pannartz
Lignamine gave the Pope Sixtus IV an account of his activity in
a petition from which we learn that the editions of his
books must have been very modest. His press was in operation
until the year 1476; in 1481 Johann Neumeister in Foligno had a
type that seems to have been in imitation of Lignamine.