Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Lorem Ipsum (revisited)...

Found a nice little site on the history of "Lorem Ipsum...": which says that, according to some linguistic detective work by Professor Richard McClintock...

Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC.

Part I of a full Latin version is here (search the page for the rare word "consectetur", and you should see "dolorem ipsum" a few words before it).


However... I wonder whether anyone has tried to identify which particular incunabulum this came from? According to this listing of pre-1472 incunabula, there was one published in Venice by "Vindelinus de Spira, for Johannes de Colonia, not after 9 Nov. 1471."

Could it be that Venetian printers used Lorem Ipsum right from the start?

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