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Caption: "This work, On Duty, (De Officiis) was addressed to Cicero?s son Marcus in the year 43 B.C. In it Cicero gives his viewpoints on many philosophical and ethical questions which center mainly around the theme borrowed from the Stoics. "Man must be virtuous in order to be happy". Like many wealthy Romans, Cicero had sent his son to study philosophy in Athens under the philosopher Cratippus. From Cicero?s famous letter, we learn that he exchanged books with Cleopatra, who was in Rome when this text was written. We wonder whether she received a copy of the De Officiis and, if she did, whether she read it. Cicero?s diction and style established Latin as a vehicle for great prose. This work has a distinction of being the first classical book that appeared in print. In the year 1469, John of Spire and his brother Wendelin, Germans from Rhenish, Bavaria, were well established and encouraged by the city senate of Venice to establish themselves as the first printers in that city and were given an exclusive five year privilege. When John died the following year from the plague, the senate decided that the grant or "patent" given to the brothers had lapsed. Wendelin, however, continued to print four or five years longer, until competition forced him into bankruptcy. Venice soon became the printing center of Europe; before 1480, more than fifty printing establishment were in operation. Daniel Berkeley Updike states that the two brothers, John and Wendelin, made and used the first truly Roman type. It is also thought by some scholars of printing history that Nicolas Jenson worked for the de Spires in the year 1469. It is possible that he really was the creator of the first type used by this press." (Ege, Otto F.)Original Leaves from Famous BooksOtto F. Ege Collection