Faithfully to reëcho the discords of the original is above the present translator’s skill. As money troubles thickened about him, Wendelin’s colophons became less buoyant and interesting; but in 1473, when the transfer of his business to John of Cologne and Manthen of Gerresheim was impending, we find these verses in one of the huge law-books in which the early printers were so bold in investing their money—the “Lectura Bartoli de Saxoferrato super secunda parte Digesti Veteris”: Finis. M. cccc. lxxiii. Non satis est Spire: gratissima carmina Phoebo, Musarum cantus, historiasque premi. Omnis habet sua vota liber. Non cessat ab arte. Has pressit leges, Iustiniane, tuas. Spira tua est virtus Italas iam nota per urbes, Ore tuum nomen posteritatis erit. 1473. ’Tis not enough for Speier to print the songs That Phoebus loves, the Muses’ tales and lays: Each book is favored. Not for rest he longs, But thus to print Justinian’s laws essays. Speier, now Italy’s cities know thy glory, And future ages shall repeat the story. When Wendelin resumed business on his own account in 1476, he published very few books; but one of these, the “Divina Commedia” of Dante, printed in that year, has an Italian colophon in the ambitious form of a sonnet: [Illustration: Dante. Divina Commedia. Venice: Wendelin of Speier, 1476.] Finita e lopra del inclito e diuo Dante alleghieri Fiorentin poeta La cui anima sancta alberga lieta Nel ciel seren oue sempre il fia vivo. Dimola benvenuto mai fia priuo Deterna fama che sua mansueta Lyra opero comentando il poeta, Per cui il texto a noi e intellectiuo. Christofal Berardi pisaurense detti Opera e facto indegno correctore Per quanto intese di quella i subietti. De Spiera Vendelin fu il stampatore: Del mille quattrocento e settanta setti Correuan gli anni del nostro signore. Here ends the work of Dante, the most high Florentine poet, famed to every age, Whose holy soul now finds glad harborage (Aye may he there abide!) in heaven’s clear sky. From Benvenuto d’Imola let none try To wrest the credit due for comment sage On this great poem, by which every page, Poet himself, he helps to clarify. Pesaro’s son, Christoph Berardi hight, Hath all corrected, though with many a fear Of lofty themes, hard to pursue aright. The printer Wendelin, who from Speier came here: And since Christ’s birth there urges now its flight The fourteen hundred six and seventieth year. This putting of dates into verse is sad work. In Jenson’s early colophons, instead of dates (which are added in prose), we have the name of the reigning doge to wrestle with. Thus, in his edition of the “Rhetorica” and “De Inuentione” of Cicero we find the following verse and prose colophon: [Illustration: Cicero. Rhetorica. Venice: N. Jenson, 1470.]