the test of prose, and the poetaster meddles with it at his peril, as witness the uniform inferiority of metrical renderings of the Psalms to the prose of the Great Bible or Prayer-Book version. But mediocre poetry when turned into prose becomes simply ridiculous, and so the present translator, without reckoning himself as even a “minimus poeta,” has wrestled manfully with these various verse colophons and “reduced” them, as best he could, into English rhymes, since these, poor as they are, misrepresent the originals less than any attempt he could make in prose. Here, then, without more apology, are the colophons from the earliest Venetian books, which fall into an interesting sequence. The first printer at Venice, it will be remembered, was John of Speier, who obtained a special privilege for his work which would have cramped the whole craft at Venice had not his death removed the difficulty. In his first book, an edition of Cicero’s “Epistolae ad Familiares,” printed in 1469, the colophon is cast into these verses: [Illustration: Cicero. Epistolae ad Familiares. Venice: John of Speier, 1469.] Primus in Adriaca formis impressit aenis Vrbe Libros Spira genitus de stirpe Iohannes. In reliquis sit quanta uides spes, lector, habenda, Quom labor hic primus calami superauerit artem. M.CCCC.LXVIIII. In Adria’s town, one John, a son of Speier, First printed books by means of forms of brass. And for the future shall not hope rise higher When the first fruits the penman’s art surpass? 1469. Of this first Venetian edition of Cicero’s letters we know from a subsequent colophon that only one hundred copies were printed, one twenty-fifth part of the whole edition now being preserved in the four copies at the British Museum. It was obviously sold out very rapidly, and in some three or four months’ time the printer had got out a second edition, to which he added a new colophon. [Illustration: Cicero. Epistolae ad Familiares. Second Edition. Venice: John of Speier, 1469.] Hesperiae quondam Germanus quisque[3] libellos Abstulit: en plures ipse daturus adest. Namque uir ingenio mirandus et arte Ioannes Exscribi docuit clarius aere libros. Spira fauet Venetis: quarto nam mense peregit Hoc tercentenum bis Ciceronis opus. M.CCCC.LXVIIII. From Italy once each German brought a book. A German now will give more than they took. For John, a man whom few in skill surpass, Has shown that books may best be writ with brass. Speier befriends Venice: twice in four months has he Printed this Cicero, in hundreds three. 1469.