Institutio oratoria (1471) — Gallery of Early Printed Books

Illuminated opening leaf with Pico Master decoration — Opening of the text, "FABIVS Quintilianus Victorio Salutem. Efflagitasti quotidiano conuicio ut libros quos ad Marcellum meum de institutione oratoria… scriberem iam emittere inciperem," set in Jenson's roman. This copy was finished by the "Pico Master" with an inhabited initial "F" of putti, a white-vine (*bianchi girari*) initial "P" beginning the Proemium below, and a coloured *bas-de-page* of a wreathed medallion flanked by winged figures and putti closing the column (view 23).

Dedicatory epistle in Jenson's roman type — The dedicatory letter of the editor Omnibonus Leonicenus to Mossus de Bufaledis, bishop of Belluno, "REuerentissimo in christo patri ac domino meo obseruandissimo domino Moysi de bufaledis episcopo belunensi Omnibonus Leonicenus salutem plurimam dicit," opening with a hand-painted blue initial "R" on an otherwise plain page of Jenson's even, wide-set roman (view 20).

Tabula of chapters in two columns of roman type — A leaf of the *Tabula Quintiliani*, the chapter index keyed to the twelve books, in two columns of Jenson's roman — the restrained serifs and uniform colour of the letterform shown across a dense reference page (view 13).

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Quintilian's complete manual of rhetorical education, edited by Omnibonus Leonicenus, printed in Jenson's celebrated roman type in his most productive early years. Together with the 1470 Eusebius and Cicero, it belongs to the run of humanist classics that established the roman as the canonical letterform of Italian printing.

The linked facsimile is the Boston Public Library copy, finished by hand for an early owner: where many surviving copies (including the Munich BSB exemplar) leave the printed initial spaces blank, this one was lavishly illuminated by the "Pico Master," with a historiated initial, white-vine (bianchi girari) border, and an illuminated bas-de-page at the opening of the text.

Institutio oratoria

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