Subiaco Press
The Subiaco Press was a printing press located in Subiaco, Italy. The Press was established in 1464 by the German monks Arnold Pannartz and Konrad Sweinheim in the Abbey of Santa Scolastica at Subiaco. It was the first printing press in Italy.
The first book printed at Subiaco was a Donatus; it has not been preserved. This was followed by Cicero's De Oratore in September 1465. The next book was Lactantius's De divinis institutionibus printed in October 1465. In 1467, Augustine's The City of God was printed. These early books are notable for their typography. Unlike earlier German books, they were not printed in blackletter type. Instead, they were printed in a "half Roman" type, as in Italy there was a desire to use Roman characters. Furthermore, Lactantius's De divinis institutionibus contains the world's first Greek printed characters. These were used for the extensive quotations in Greek which employed mobile letters now called "Subiaco type."
In 1467, Pannartz and Sweinheim left Subiaco and settled in Rome.
