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COLOPHON , a final See also:paragraph in some See also:manuscripts and many See also:early printed books (see Boon), giving particulars as to authorship, date and See also:place of See also:production, &c. Before the invention of See also:printing, a See also:scribe when he had finished copying a See also:book occasionally added a final paragraph at the end of the See also:text inwhich he recorded the fact, and (if he were so minded) expressed his thankfulness to See also:God, or asked for the prayers of readers. In the famous Bodleian MS. 264 of the See also:Roman d'See also:Alexandre there is an unusually full See also:note of this See also:kind recording the completion of the copy on the 18th of See also:December 1338 and ending
" Explicit iste See also:liber, scriptor sit crimine liber,
Christus scriptorem custodiat ac det honorem."
Both in manuscripts and also in early printed books authors made use of such a final paragraph for expressing similar feelings. Thus the Guillermus who made a famous collection of sermons on the gospels for Sundays and See also:saints' days records its completion in 1437 and submits it to the correction of charitable readers, and See also:Sir See also:- THOMAS
- THOMAS (c. 1654-1720)
- THOMAS (d. 110o)
- THOMAS, ARTHUR GORING (1850-1892)
- THOMAS, CHARLES LOUIS AMBROISE (1811-1896)
- THOMAS, GEORGE (c. 1756-1802)
- THOMAS, GEORGE HENRY (1816-187o)
- THOMAS, ISAIAH (1749-1831)
- THOMAS, PIERRE (1634-1698)
- THOMAS, SIDNEY GILCHRIST (1850-1885)
- THOMAS, ST
- THOMAS, THEODORE (1835-1905)
- THOMAS, WILLIAM (d. 1554)
Thomas See also:Malory notes that his Morte d'See also:Arthur was ended the ix yere of the reygne of Kyng See also:Edward the See also:fourth," and bids his readers "praye for me whyle I am on lyue that God sende me See also:good delyuerance, and whan I am See also:deed I praye you all praye for my soule." So again Jacobus Bergomensis records that his Supplementum Chronicarum was finished " See also:anno salutis nostre 1483. 30 Kalendas Julii in ciuitate Bergomi: mihi vero a natiuitate quadragesimo nono," and in the subsequent See also:editions which he revised brings both the See also:year and his own See also:age up to date. Before printing was invented, however, such paragraphs were exceptional, and many of the early printers, notably See also:Gutenberg himself, were content to allow their books to go out without any mention of their own names. See also:Fust and Schoeffer, on the other See also:hand, printed at the end of their famous psalter of 1457 the following paragraph in red See also:ink:—Presens spalmorum (sic for psalmorum) codex venustate capitalium decoratus Rubricationibusque sufficienter distinctus, Adinuentione artificiosa imprimendi ac caracterizandi absque calami vlla exaracione sic effigiatus, Et ad eusebiam dei industrie est consummatus, Per lohannem fust ciuem maguntinum, Et Petrum Schaffer de Gernszheim Anno domini Millesimo. cccc. lvii In vigilia Assumpcionis. Similar paragraphs in praise of printing and of See also:Mainz as the See also:city where the See also:art was brought to perfection appear in most of the books issued by the partners and after Fust's See also:death by Schoeffer alone, and were widely imitated by other printers. In their Latin See also:Bible of 1462 Fust and Schoeffer added a See also:device of two See also:shields at the end of the paragraph, and this addition was also widely copied. Many of these final paragraphs give See also:information of See also:great value for the See also:history of printing; many also, especially those to the early editions of the See also:classics printed in See also:Italy, are written in See also:verse. As the practice See also:grew up of devoting a See also:separate See also:leaf or See also:page to the See also:title of a book at its beginning, the importance of these final paragraphs slowly diminished, and the information they gave was gradually transferred to the title-page. See also:Complete title-pages bearing the date and name of the publishers are found in most books printed after 1520, and the final paragraph, if retained at all, was gradually reduced to a See also:bare statement of the name of the printer. From the use of the word in the sense of a " See also:finishing stroke," such a final paragraph as has been de-scribed is called by bibliographers a " colophon " (Gr. KoXo4 cw), but at what See also:period this name for it was first used has not been ascertained. It is quite possibly not earlier than the 18th See also:century. (For origin see COLOPHON [city].) (A. W.
End of Article: COLOPHON
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