# Cicero and the Cicero

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cicero-and-the-cicero/544005>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [June 21, 2010, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cicero-and-the-cicero/544005 "2010-06-21T17:13:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![robinfior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@robinfior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robinfior)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cicero-and-the-cicero/544005/1 "2010-06-21T17:13:03Z")

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I was interested to read about Lorem ipsum… and to learn that it was Cicero who remains remains a key figure , it seems, in Chicago, and thankfully so. It is not so surprising that Cicero’s ‘Ethics’ should have been used by Letraset, for their stick-down sheets: one of the founders of Letraset, was the distinguished British printer James Shand, who told me in 1964, rather ruefully that he had taken his money out of the company as he could see no future for the dry stick-down process; before, one moved around single letters with a water-colour brush – and the tip of a scalpel, I am not sure). Anyway, James was a member of the typocracy, the Double Crown Club, and if he didn’t have the early type specimen, several of his friends would have, like James Moran.  
Date? Possibly as early as c.1540, when Roman type was displacing Black Letter and the Counter Reformation was getting underway, o resist the threat of the more accessible vernacular Bibles. Here in Lisbon, the oldest surviving books in Roman type coincide with the introduction of the Inquisition (1538).  
Roman type is still used, but – Ethics?

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**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2010, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cicero-and-the-cicero/544005/2 "2010-06-22T00:13:20Z")

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Link to column: [What does the filler text “lorem ipsum” mean? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2290/what-does-the-filler-text-lorem-ipsum-mean)

Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, **robinfior** , we’re glad to have you here. When you start a thread, it’s helpful to other readers if you provide a link to the column you are talking about… saves time and keeps us all on the same page. No biggie, you’ll know for next time. And, as I said, welcome!