3:16 INTRODUCTION 



noble author may have had in mind the Centuria di 

 Secreti Politici, CimicM, e Naturali, by Francesco Scari- 

 oni of Parma, duodecimo, printed at Venice in 1626, 

 when he fixed on the quaint title of his own remarkable 

 production. 



Among the Harleian Manuscripts in the British 

 Museum Library is a manuscript copy of the &quot; Century, 

 the title of which omits the words &quot; at the instance of a 

 powerful friend,&quot; also the motto, date, dedications, and 

 author s name. It also differs in other respects from 

 the printed edition, by introducing &quot; A stamping En 

 gine&quot; as the 88th article, in place of which its author 

 has printed his account of &quot;A Brazen Head;&quot; the 

 concluding article likewise varies, especially in closing 

 with a short notice of &quot; three sorts&quot; of other inventions 

 &quot; set down in cypher,&quot; but which do not appear. The 

 top of the title page has written on it &quot; From August y e 

 29th to Sept. y e 21st 1659,&quot; probably by the copyist, to 

 notify the time occupied in writing. 



The first edition was printed in 1663, during the au 

 thor s lifetime, as he died in 1667 ; and the last edition, 

 with notes by Mr. C. F. Partington, is dated 1825. This 

 last edition professes on the title page to be &quot; from the 

 Original Manuscript&quot; ; and, at page 6, alludes to &quot; a 

 manuscript in the Marquis s handwriting, having been 

 preserved in the Harleian Collection, appended to an 

 original copy of the Century of Inventions.&quot; Now, as 

 no other manuscript is known to exist, it is important 

 to state distinctly that the Manuscript Century in ques 

 tion is neither original nor yet in the handwriting of 

 the Marquis ; it is evidently no more than one of those 

 copies, which it was then a common practice to circulate ; 

 and the MS. bound up in the same volume with this in 

 teresting document, relating to a method of u Cypher 

 writing,&quot; is not in the Marquis s handwriting. 



