There is no doubt therefore that a mistake of date in an early book has many parallels, and so far the improbability of it happening in other books is diminished. At the same time one would expect the first printers in a place of learning to be careful enough, even if an initial blunder of this magnitude were committed, to correct it in some copies before issue. It is of course conceivable that the date was deliberately falsified, to avoid expected unpleasant consequences of being found flagrante delicto, but this hypothesis may be left to be dealt with when some one maintains it.
5. Books bound with the Jerome.
There remains a consideration of some weight. Until this century it was common to bind together several books (not merely pamphlets) in one volume. What books have been found in the same binding with the “1468” volume? Four copies of the Jerome are, or are known to have been, bound with several other treatises (see p. [252]). One is bound with (and before) the Aretinus of 1479, and it is interesting that though a few leaves of modern paper now separate them there is an offset of the first page of the Aretinus on the last page of the Jerome, showing that the Aretinus was bound with the Jerome before the former was entirely dry. No conclusion however about the date of the Jerome can be drawn from this and whatever presumption of synchronism might be raised is removed by the fact that the well defined stains at the end of the Jerome and beginning of the Aretinus do not run from the one to the other. A second copy was bound with seven others, only two of which are dated, 1478 and (the Oxford Aegidius) 1479: one of the undated is about 1485 (Perottus). A third copy was bound with four preceding treatises, of which the only dated one was the first, the Oxford Aegidius of 1479. A fourth has five pieces with it, the first two of which are of about 1480, the Jerome is third, the fourth is of 1485, the fifth is undated, and the last is of 1486 or 1487.
Clearly we are on very unsafe ground when we base any conclusion on these companion treatises, and our hesitation is not lessened when we notice that the only copy of the Vulgaria Terentii (Oxf., not later than 1483) which is bound with other treatises, occurs after books dated 1488 and 1486, the rest being without a date.
6. First printing in Europe.
The following list of places and dates will show how far it is likely, if we turn from facts to probabilities, that Oxford should have started printing in 1468. Only the first two towns of each country are given, with the exception of England: and the claim of Oxford is purposely ignored.
1. Germany (Mainz, not after 1454: Strassburg, before 1460: Cologne began not later than 1466).
2. Italy (Subiaco, 1465: Rome, 1467).
3. Switzerland (Basel, not after 1468: Beromünster, 1470).
4. France (Paris, 1470: Lyon, not after 1473).