GIOVANNI was Venice’s first printer, producing two editions: the Epistolae familiares of Cicero and the Naturalis historia of Pliny, both printed in 1469, for which he obtained a five-year privilege. He also began printing the De civitate Dei of St Augustine, but left the work unfinished at his death, which occurred toward the end of the same year.
He was succeeded by his brother VINDELINO, who in 1470 completed the aforementioned edition and continued the printing business until 1477. He produced numerous works, including the first editions of several Latin classics: Tacitus, Sallust, Priscian (1470), Plautus, Tibullus (1472); Petrarch’s Rime (1470), Boccaccio’s Genealogia deorum (1472), the very well-known vernacular Bible of Niccolò Malermi in two volumes (1471), and a fine edition of Dante’s Commedia with the commentary previously attributed to Benvenuto da Imola, but actually by Jacopo della Lana. Documents confirm that after 1473 V. COLONNA.