( 15^4 ) 
The Cuftom of putting the Dates of Printed Booh at the 
Endoi them, was taken up in Imitation of divers the middle- 
aged and recenter Manufcripts (for I never faw or heard of 
any aritjent Manufcript in Capital Letters^ either Geeck or La- 
tin^ which has a "prof efs d Date v^nittmn th^ fir ft hand ) but 
here the Infpeftor ought to be cautious, left he be led into 
an Error : Forfeveral Manufcripts at the End have a Date, 
which may be by forae underftood ot the time when thofe 
individual Copies were vpritten^ wh.nas they only notifie 
the time when the Jnthor f.n'iflid his IVork^ And fome 
of thefe Dates, being printed from the Manufcripts, have 
deceived many curious men. For Example, the (irft Edi- 
tion of Lyndwood^ Paulus a SanUa Maria^ and others which 
i could name. Befides, fome Dates in antient Printed 
Books, being not correfted, are falfe 5 fuch as a Book 
printed in the beginning of the i6th Century, in th« 
Library belonging to the Apmok::n Mtif<£Hm at Oxford,, 
which thus pretends to 400 or 500 years of Age- A JuUui 
Hyginus once file wed to me by Mi Mdlington the Beokfellert 
printed at P-aris fas there put down) An. Dom. MCCCCXII. 
inftead of MCCCCCXII. For the Printer is memion'd as 
then living in I' Origine de t Imprimerie de Paris. I have 
indeed a Book wherein, amongft other Trafts, is one of 
an old Print, at the end of which there feems to be fuch a- 
Miftake, tho not fo eafily reftified as the former. The 
words are thefe. Explicit opufcnlum Enee Sylvii de daohus- 
muintihtis in Civitate Leydenfi Anno Domini MUleJinw QCQC 
quadragefmo tertio LEI EN. Now the' Leydeti feems to 
be the place where 'twas printed, yet 1449 car^not be the 
time when I for juft before Syhiiis ftys himfelf, /'///e, ex 
Vien/za quint 0 Nonas Julias Mo QQCC quadragejimQ quarto* 
Sylvius was elefted Pope by the name oiPius ]. A D. i45§; 
and died J. A 1464* Now it may feem probable, that if 
this Traft was printed after his Eletftion (as fuppofe^. D* 
1 46 3. J or even after his Deceafe, his Papal Dignity might 
have been remembred 5 If it be judged to have been- 
printed 
