Punica

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Punica

Printer Conrad Sweynheym (German, active 1462 - 1477)

Printer Arnold Pannartz (German, active 1465 - 1476)

Author Tiberius Catius Silius Italicus (Italian, about 26-101 CE.)

Place of OriginItaly (Rome)

Date1471

Dimensions12 13/16 x 9 3/8 in.

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineFrederick B. and Kate L. Shoemaker Fund

Object number

1949.26

Not on View

Label TextIn 1465, two Germans Sweynheym (of Mainz) and Pannartz (of Cologne) established the first press in Italy -- in the Benedictine monastery of Subiaco near Rome. They devised an excellent roman typeface, but still showed a trace of the German gothic type style. In1467, the partners moved their press to Rome and there they cut a new roman type, which was more like the rounded Italian calligraphy of their day. By 1473 Sweynheym and Pannartz had printed 56 editions and they were over stocked with books. Printing press had been established in at least ten Italian cities, and all these new printers had been busily turning out Latin classics. In the financial crisis that followed, the partnership of Sweynheym and Pannartz dissolved. This historical text describes the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage in 218-201 B.C.