The term can already be found in Hieronymus (347-420), a father of the church, saints, as well as learned theologians, and, moreover, in a script which is mentioned in a letter by Hieronymus: the testamentum Corocottae Porcelli. This ends with the remark Explicit testamentum Corocottae Porcelli sub the XVI Cal. Lucernina’s Clibanato et Piperato consulibus feliciter [1] and thereby marks the end of the text (1) Franz Bücheler, Petronii saturae, Berlin and Zurich 1963, Appendix p. 347) ,
Sometimes, however, this reference is not so generous and embedded in a sentence, but is simply shortened by the naming of the term explicit, partly also explicit liber. In some cases, only the word finit is found. However, all these phrases have the common meaning that they mark the end of the respective works or, in some cases, the end of the respective paragraph.
The so-called Kolophon was later derived from an ebendic twist. Such a colophony is a transcript, which is at the end of a handwritten text and provides information about the content, author, manufacturer, client, place, time and production details of this publication. The colophony is therefore already many times more complex. They are still printed today.