D A T 
DA'TARY, f. [from datarius .] An officer of the 
chancery of Rome, through whofe hands benefices pafs. 
DATE, f. [ datte , Fr. from datum, I,at.] The time at 
which a letter or deed is Written, marked at the end or 
the beginning. The time at which any event happened. 
The time ftipulated when any thing (hall be done : 
My father’s promife ties me not to time ; 
And bonds without a date , they fay, are void. Dryden. 
End ; conclufion : 
What time would fpare, from fteel receives its date; 
And monuments, like,men, fubmit to fate. Pope. 
Duration; continuance: 
Tiled raife, 
From the coufla.grant mafs, purg’d and refin’d, 
New heav’ns, new earth, ages of endlefs date, 
Founded in righteoufnefs. Milton. 
f from da&ylus.~\ The fruit of the date-tree : 
Hold, take thefe keys, and fetch more fpices, nurfe. 
—They call for dates and quinces in the paftry. Shakefp. 
The tree itfelf: 
The fig and date why love they to remain 
In middle ftation and an even plain. Prior's Solomon. 
To DATE, v. a. To note with the time at which-any 
thing is written or done : 
To all their dated backs lie turns you round; 
Thefe Aldus printed, tliofe Du Sued has bound. Pope. 
To DATE, v. n. To begin dating.—The Turks date 
from their Hegira. Chcjierfield. 
DATE of a Deed, in law, the defeription of the 
time, viz. the day, month, year of our Lord, year of the 
reign, &c. in which the deed was made. But the an¬ 
cient deeds had no dates, only of the month and the 
year; to fignify that they were not made in hafte, or in 
the fpace of a day ; but upon longer and more mature 
deliberation. Blount. If in the date of a deed, the year 
of our Lord is right, though the year of the king’s reignt 
be mi (lake n, it fliall not hurt it. Cro. Jac. 261. A deed 
was dated 30th March 1701, without anno Domini and 
anno regni ; and it was adjudged that both the year of the 
Lord and of the king were implicitly in the deed. 2 Salk. 
638. A deed is good, though it hath no date of the day 
or place, or if the date be miftaken, or though it hath 
an impoflible date, as the 30th of February, &c. But 
he that doth plead flich a deed, without any date, or 
with an impoflible date, mull: fet forth and prove the 
time when it was delivered. 2 Rep. 5. 1 Injl. 46. If no 
date of a deed be fet forth, it fhall be intended that it 
had none ; and in fuch cafe it is good from the delivery ; 
for-every deed or writing hath a date in lav/, and that is 
the day in which jt is delivered : and a deed is no deed 
till the delivery, and that is the date of it. Mod. Ca. 244. 
1 Nelf. Abr. 525. 
An impoflible date of a bond, is no date at all ; but 
the plaintiff mud declare 011 the bond as made at a cer¬ 
tain time : and if the exprefs date be infenfible, the real 
date is the delivery. 2 Salk. 463. Where there is none, 
or an impoflible date, the plaintiff may count of any date, 
s Lill. Abr. 393. If there be-a miftaken date, or a date 
be impofiible, the plaintiff may furmife a legal date in 
the declaration, whereupon the defendant is to anfwer 
to the deed, and not to the date. Yelv. 194. It a deed 
bears date at a place out of the realm, it may be averred 
that the place mentioned in the deed is in fome county 
in England; and here the place'is not traverfable ; with¬ 
out this the deed cannot be tried. 1 Injl. 261. A deed 
may be da’ted at one time, and fealed and delivered'at 
another : but every deed fhall be intended to be deli¬ 
vered on the fame day it bears date, unlefs the contrary 
is proved. 2 Injl. 674. Though there can be no delivery 
of a deed before the day of the date ; yet after, there 
may. Yelv. 138. So that a deed may be dated back on 
D A T 007 
a time pad, but not at a day to come. See the article 
Deed. 
DATE-PLUM, f. in botany. See Diostyrus. 
DATE-TREE, f. in botany. See Phcenix. 
DA'TELESS, adj. Without any fixed term : 
The fly-llow hours fhall not determinate 
The datelejs limit of thy dear exile. Shakejpcare. 
DA'THAN, [Heb. laws.] A man’s name. 
D ATH'PACH, a town of Arabia : lixteen miles north- 
eaft of Medina. 
DA'TI (Auguftin), a learned Italian, the fon of a 
lawyer of Sienna, where he was born in 1420. He was 
educated under Francis Philelplius, who confidered him 
as his mod promifing fcholar. He had an impediment in 
his fpeech when young, from which he freed himfelf by 
great attention. In 1442 he was invited' by Odo-Antony, 
duke of Urbino, to teach the belles-lettres in that city. 
He was much favoured by the duke, and when that 
prince was affaflinated on account of his diforders and 
violences, Dati was near undergoing the fame fate from 
the popular odium, and difficultly efcaped to a'church, 
leaving his houfe to be pillaged. He returned to Sienna, 
where he fixed his abode, refuting the offer of an advan¬ 
tageous profefforfliip from the ifle of Sicily, and the poft 
of fecretary of the briefs offered him by pope Nicholas V. 
He opened a fchool for rhetoric and the claflics at Sienna, 
and obtained fo much reputation, that he had permiflion 
from the cardinal of Sienna to explain the feriptures 
publicly, and even to preach, though he was a married 
man. In 1458 he was made judge of Mafia, which poft 
he preferred a number of years ; and he alfo paffed 
through various civil offices in Sienna, to that of firft 
magiftrate. He was employed in feveral public negocia- 
tions, and refided a year at Rome, as agent for his ftate 
to pope Pius II. Towards the latter part of his life he 
renounced all fecular ftudies, and devoted his time to 
the reading of the feriptures and ecclefiaftical hiftory. 
He died of the plague at Sienna in 1478. His w'orks were 
collected by his fon Nicholas, and printed at Sienna in 
1503, folio; and at Venice in 1516, folio. They are in 
Latin, and confifl of ten books on the Immortality of 
the Soul, feven of Orations, three of F.piftles, a number 
of mifcellaneous trafts, and Fragments of the Hiftory of 
Sienna. 
DA'TI (Charles), born at Florence in 1619, was pro- 
feffor of the belles-lettres in his native city, and acquired 
great reputation among the learned of his time. He was 
a member of the academy Della Crufca, and paid great 
attention to the improvement of the Tufcan language. In 
1657 he publiflied. a difeourfe Dell’ Obbligo di bcnparlare 
la propria Lingua, On the Obligation of fpeaking well one’s 
native Tongue ; a literary duty to which it were to be 
wifhed more attention flio.uld be paid by fcholars than has 
ufually been done. He alfo, fora fimilar purpofe, made 
a collection of Prcje Florentine, as examples of excellence 
in writing Italian.' Together with Redi, he employed 
himfelf in refearches on the origin and etymology of the 
Tufcan ; to which, though they remained unpublifhed. 
Menage confeffed himfelf much indebted.-He was verfed 
in mathematical and aftronomical ftudies, and wrote a let¬ 
ter in defence of the difeoveries of Galileo and Torricelli. 
One of his works, by which he is belt known, is his 
Lives of ancient Painters, a learned performance, but 
unfiniftied, as he proceeded no farther than to thofe of 
Phidias, Xeuxis, Apelles, and Protogenes. An eulogy 
on Louis XIV. which he publiflied in Italian at Florence 
in 1669, obtained him the honour and emolument of 
being one of thofe foreign literati who were 'elected as 
objects of the bounty of that monarch, and he received 
an invitation to fettle in his court, as he did alfo from 
Chriftina queen ot Sweden; but he declined quitting. 
Florence. Beftdes his profefforfliip there, he enjoyed the 
poft of librarian to cardinal Gian Carlo de’ Medici; and 
no man of letters has been honoured with more enco¬ 
miums 
