Trade custom of pre-dating

“The Rule in gen­eral observed among Print­ers is, that when a Book hap­pens not to be ready for pub­li­ca­tion before Novem­ber, the date of the ensu­ing year is used.” — John Nichols, Lit­er­ary Anec­dotes (Lon­don, 1812) iii, p. 249n. Accord­ing to Philip Gaskell, Nichols is describ­ing 18th cen­tury prac­tice. Evi­dently the cus­tom dated some­what ear­lier as per this exam­ple.

Nar­cis­sus Lut­trell cor­rected the imprint date in his copy of Fran­cis Manning’s Pan­e­gyrick (Lon­don: Printed for J. Weld, 1698.) Call num­ber: (Ex)3598.999q vol. 64, no. 4.

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