Be lenient, you who find some Latin flaw:
Not Latin I profess, but Hebrew law.
Jacobus Bergomensis, when he finishes his “Supplementum Chronicarum,” can boast proudly of promises performed, and gives not only the dates of its completion and printing, but his own age.
Hic igitur terminum ponam Supplementi historiarum: quam [sic] me promisi cum omni veritate traditurum. Nisus autem sum sine errore successiones regum principum et actus eorum: ac virorum in disciplinis excellentium et origines religionum: sicut ex libris hystoricorum descriptio continet. Hoc enim in exordio huius operis me facere compromisi. Perfectum autem per me opus fuit anno salutis nostre 1483. 3º Kalendas Iulii in ciuitate Bergomi: mihi vero a natiuitate quadragesimo nono. Impressum autem hoc opus in inclita Venetiarum ciuitate: per Bernardinum de Benaliis bergomensem eodem anno. die 23º Augusti.
Here, then, I will make an end of the Supplement of Histories, which I promised that I would relate with all truth. Now I have tried to set down without mistake the successions of kings and princes, and the activities of them and of the men who excelled in studies, and the origins of religions as they are embraced in the description taken from the books of the historians. For in the introduction of this work I pledged myself to do this. The work has been finished by me in the year of our salvation 1483, on June 29th, in the city of Bergamo, and as regards myself in the forty-ninth year from my birth. Now this book was printed in the renowned city of Venice by Bernardino dei Benali of Bergamo on August 23d of the same year.
When the “Supplementum Chronicarum” was reprinted in 1485-86, Bergomensis duly altered his statement as to his age to fifty-one and fifty-two. In the 1490 edition the author’s colophon still reads:
Perfectum autem est et denuo castigatum atque auctum per me opus fuit Idibus Octobris: anno a Natali Christiano M.cccc.lxxxvi, in ciuitate nostra Bergomi: mihi vero a natiuitate quinquagesimo secundo.
That of the printer, on the other hand, is duly brought up to date:
Impressum autem Venetiis per Bernardum Rizum de Nouaria anno a Natiuitate domini M.cccc.lxxxx. die decimo quinto Madii, regnante inclito duce Augustino Barbadico.
It is thus evident that with this and later editions Bergomensis, though he lived to be eighty-six, did not concern himself.