Johannes Philippus de Lignamine (1420 – ??) was a Sicilian printer/publisher and tax collector from

Messina Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...

active at

Monte Cassino Monte Cassino (today usually spelled Montecassino) is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, in the Latin Valley, Italy, west of Cassino and at an elevation of . Site of the Roman town of Casinum, it is widely known for its abbey, the first h ...

near

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and a courtier to

Pope Sixtus IV Pope Sixtus IV ( it, Sisto IV: 21 July 1414 – 12 August 1484), born Francesco della Rovere, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 August 1471 to his death in August 1484. His accomplishments as pope include ...

. He is best known for his publication of '' Herbarium Apuleii Platonici'' in 1481. While Italy was the first country to use

Johannes Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (; – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and Artisan, craftsman who introduced letterpress printing to Europe with his movable type, movable-type printing press. Though not the first of its ki ...

's new printing techniques, it was also the first country in which the German monopoly of the printing industry was lost. On 3 August 1470 the ''Institutio Oratoria,'' a book by Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (AD30-AD96) was typeset on an Italian press operated by Johannes Philippus de Lignamine. This first edition was edited by

Giovanni Antonio Campani Giovanni Antonio Campani called Campanus (27 February? 1429 – 15 July 1477), a protégé of Cardinal Bessarion, was a Neapolitan-born humanist at the court of Pope Pius II, whose funeral oration he wrote, followed by a biography, flattering bu ...

and was based on a corrupt copy of the manuscript found by

Poggio Bracciolini Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini (11 February 1380 – 30 October 1459), usually referred to simply as Poggio Bracciolini, was an Italian scholar and an early Renaissance humanist. He was responsible for rediscovering and recovering many classi ...

.Antiquarian Books :: ILAB-LILA :: International League of Antiquarian Booksellers
/ref> Research by Margaret M. Smith concluded that de Lignamine was the first printer to use small capitals.

References

Italian printers Printers of incunabula 1420 births 15th-century Italian businesspeople Year of death unknown 15th-century Sicilian people {{italy-business-bio-stub