John of Speyer

John of Speyer spīˈər [key], d. 1470, first printer in Venice, b. Bavaria. He designed and patented the first type purely roman in character. It appears in Cicero's Epistulae ad familiares and Pliny's Historia naturalis, both printed in 1469. On his death his patent on the roman design expired; Nicolas Jenson was enabled to print with roman type in 1470.

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