These are direct excerpts from the  extensive auction catalog notes: 

Lactantius, Opera. \[Subiaco: Konrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz, 29th October 1465\]  


FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST DATED BOOK PRINTED IN ITALY, THE FIRST DATED BOOK CONTAINING GREEK TYPE: A MILESTONE IN THE HISTORY OF PRINTING.  
  
  
In c.1464, Konrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz established a press at the Benedictine monastery of St. Scholastica at Subiaco—a location long regarded as the birthplace of printing in humanist Italy. Just four publications were printed at the monastery before the German printer-publisher duo established their second press at Rome: a grammar by Donatus (no copies of which are known), Cicero's De oratore, the present edition of Lactantius, and the works of St Augustine. As the colophon declares, the present volume was printed "die vero antepenultima mensis Octobris" (the day before the penultimate day of October). The publication date of 29 October 1565 gives it the distinction of being the very first dated book printed in Italy.  
  
This work is also potentially the first book for which Greek type was cast. In the same year Peter Schoffer printed an undated edition of Cicero’s De Officiis and Paradoxa in Mainz. While the Greek type cast for the edition covered the full alphabet, it did not include accents and aspirations which had to be added manually. The Greek quotations in the text are not supplied consistently. It is likely that the Greek type was cast while the book was being assembled, as earlier quires leave space for the Greek quotations to be added by hand, while later on the letters are supplied in print and only the accents have been added manually. The present edition appears to contain the only surviving appearance of this Greek type (a new type was cast after the relocation of the workshop to Rome).  


The workshop of Sweynheym and Pannartz specialised in creating aesthetically pleasing, large-format editions of classical and patristic texts which were in high demand by humanists and the curia in Rome. The present copy has been carefully annotated in multiple fifteenth- and sixteenth-century hands—giving intriguing material evidence of its use as a scholarly resource by humanist readers. Whilst a large proportion of extant copies have been decorated in an Italianate style, the large red and blue puzzle initials found in the present copy have a decidedly Germanic feel. The monastery at Subiaco was known as something of a German enclave from the mid-fifteenth-century onwards, so these initials are more likely to be the work of a resident monk than a German artist imported by the printers.  
  
The present copy is notable for containing the two scarce leaves of errata by Antonius Raudensis, which appear not to have been issued with all copies. Of just seven copies that we can trace at auction in over a century, only three copies have the errata present: the Longleat copy (sold Christie's, 13 June 2002, lot 42), the Doheny copy (sold Christie's, 22 October 1987, lot 77), and the Ehrman copy (sold Sotheby Parke Bernet, 8 May 1978, lot 600).  


FIRST EDITION, folio (240 x 337 mm). COLLATION: \[a10 b2 c–g10 h12 i–p10 q12 r–t10\]: 183 leaves (only, of 186: lacking a10 blank (usually found after table of contents), and t9-10 terminal blanks. Subiaco roman type, 36 lines. Greek words supplied in manuscript, breathings also supplied in manuscript where Greek quotations are included in print, rubricated incipits, explicits, and running-titles executed in manuscript, first letter of sentences highlighted with red, numerous red or blue two-line initials in manuscript as well as eight large initials (including two beautiful red and blue puzzle initials with floral and vegetal marginal extenders in red and blue ink), extensive Latin and Greek marginal annotations in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century hands, nineteenth-century brown morocco, elaborately decorated in a Grolieresque style, some tooling on boards apparently added over earlier tooling, spine with raised bands in six compartments, monogrammed initials of a nineteenth-century owner added to each compartment, housed in a nineteenth-century red morocco slipcase, occasional marginal spotting, final 45 leaves with neat repairs to small wormholes (mostly marginal), a few leaves with marginal dampstaining, worming to spine  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


A milestone in the history of printing: The first dated book c. 1454 printed in Italy sold for £332,800 ($449,670) at Sotheby’s London Books, Manuscript and and Objects from 3 important collections auction on April 17. Reported by Rare Book Hub.