De Medicina Praecepta

It seems the earliest reference to escalated margins I can find is from as far back as the 2nd century! It's the word 'Abracadabra' from a medical poem (which you really don't see many of these days!) by the Roman physician Serenus Sammonicus called De Medicina Praecepta! Apparently in this case the word was repeated 12 times, which the final letter being further omitted each time, resulting in a typographic funnel, that when worn on an amulet can remove illness from the body. The first printed version of the poem was printed by an Italian printer and publisher in 1484...which could explain how escalated indents first made it into Italian and Venetian printing and typography (although I think I would need more evidence if I really wanted to proove it).

I found a copy of De Medicina Praecepta in the British Library and took a look. The copy I found wasn't the 1484 Italian version, but was printed in 1533 in Paris. Here's the part that mentions Abracadabra (top paragraph on the right hand page):

I sent this over to a friend who studied Latin and Greek at uni and he managed to translate it (roughly he claims) for me. More or less it reads:

It is fatal, the thing which the hemitriteum [some sort of fever, as far as I can tell] was published in Greek words, and this none of our ancestors wanted to say, nor (I think) were able to. You inscribe on the paper, the thing that is written Abracadabra, several times, and underneath you repeat it, you remove the final letter, and more and more the singular elements in the shape disappear, until the letter is reduced to a narrow cone, and let them remember to buy back their neck [life?] with these things having been tied with string. Some people remember that a lion’s fat is a benefit to them. And let the red and yellow [blood and fat?] connect in the skin of a cat, and do not doubt that the green emeralds mix with them, and let such chains pull the emeralds together lying around the neck, and drive away (a power to be admired) fatal illnesses. With limbs which were broken and fallen apart to be healed.

(…) – the actual brackets in the text
[…] – translator’s additions

Interesting stuff. I think I may have my first basis for my first introductory letterpress task now.