Thursday, February 6, 2025

The Catholicon (1460)


 

A combination Latin dictionary and encyclopedia completed in 1286, the Catholicon (compiled by  Giovanni Balbus of Genoa) was the first non-religious book of substantial size to be printed. The 1460 edition is the first of many 15th-century editions and contains the first detailed printed reference to the introduction of printing with moveable type in its colophon. This is also the first instance in which a book named its place of printing. 

Note: Although the printer's name is not given, the particular nature of the work and other evidence have led people to believe that this edition must have been printed by Johann Gutenberg. Not long after Gutenberg’s death, in about 1469, a second impression was printed by reassembling the stored two-line strips into type pages. The work must have been done in the shop of Peter Schoeffer, who included the Catholicon in his broadside publisher’s list datable to about 1470. 

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