Labe repurgatum (crede) uolumen emis.
Impressum est Sixto sacrorum antistite quarto,
Et Veneto Troni principis imperio.
Sixtus IV became pope early in August, 1471, Nicolò Tron was elected doge on November 23d of the same year, and died in July, 1473. We can thus date the book as “about 1472” with absolute confidence.
Writers of poetical colophons are naturally more inclined to use regnal dates than the year of the Lord, which it is seldom easy to get into a verse. In the “Moral Prouerbes of Cristyne” Caxton gives us the month, the day, and the regnal year, together making a precise date. This colophon runs:
Of these sayynges Cristyne was the aucturesse,
Whiche in makyn[g] hadde suche intelligence,
That thereof she was mireur and maistresse;
Hire werkes testifie thexperience;
In Frenssh languaige was writen this sentence,