Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of clas­sical Latin lite­ra­ture from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClin­tock, a Latin professor at Hampden-​Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consec­tetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in clas­sical lite­ra­ture, disco­vered the undo­ub­table source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Rena­is­sance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..", comes from a line in section 1.10.32.

The stan­dard chunk of Lorem Ipsum used since the 1500s is repro­duced below for those inte­re­sted. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 from "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" by Cicero are also repro­duced in their exact original form, accom­pa­nied by English versions from the 1914 trans­la­tion by H. Rackham.

Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of clas­sical Latin lite­ra­ture from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClin­tock, a Latin professor at Hampden-​Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consec­tetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in clas­sical lite­ra­ture, disco­vered the undo­ub­table source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Rena­is­sance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..", comes from a line in section 1.10.32.

The stan­dard chunk of Lorem Ipsum used since the 1500s is repro­duced below for those inte­re­sted. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 from "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" by Cicero are also repro­duced in their exact original form, accom­pa­nied by English versions from the 1914 trans­la­tion by H. Rackham.