Earlier bibliographers got very confused over this book and made absurd mistakes as to the time which Caxton took to print it. But Mr. Blades had no difficulty in showing that the different dates follow closely on each other. Caxton received the book on February 2d, began printing it on February 3d, and finished it on March 24th, all in the same year 1479. We have a double method of proving this, by the two week-days mentioned and by the regnal year, which covered the period March 4, 1479, to March 3, 1480. The only March 24th in this twelvemonth was that in 1479, and in 1479 March 24th, as Caxton says, fell on a Wednesday. In 1479, moreover, February 2d fell on a Tuesday, in 1478 on a Sunday. It is thus clear that the Tuesday, February 2, 1478, of the colophon must be an old-style date, answering to 1479 of our reckoning. The occasional mention of the day both of the week and the month in German colophons offers us, in the absence of regnal years, almost the only proof we can obtain that German printers began their year either at Christmas or on January 1st,—I am not prepared to say which. Thus the colophon of an edition of the “De remediis utriusque fortunae” of Adrianus Carthusiensis reads: Explicit liber de remediis fortuitorum casuum nouiter compilatus et impressus Colonie per Arnoldum therhoernen, finitus Anno domini Mºccccºlxxiº die veneris octaua mensis Februarii. Deo Gracias. Ends the book of the remedies of casual haps, lately compiled and printed at Cologne by Arnold therhoernen. Finished in the year of the Lord 1471, on Friday, February 8th. Thanks be to God. In 1471 February 8th fell on a Friday, in 1472 on a Saturday. Therefore it is clear that in therhoernen’s reckoning January and February were the first months of the year, as they are with us. Before inquiring as to what printers reckoned the year as beginning at Easter, we must give the following table: EASTER DAY, 1470-1521 1470 April 22 1471 April 14 1472 March 29 1473 April 18 1474 April 10 1475 March 26 1476 April 14 1477 April 6 1478 March 22 1479 April 11 1480 April 2 1481 April 22 1482 April 7 1483 March 30 1484 April 18 1485 April 3 1486 March 26 1487 April 15 1488 April 6 1489 April 19 1490 April 11 1491 April 3 1492 April 22 1493 April 7 1494 March 30 1495 April 19 1496 April 3 1497 March 26 1498 April 15 1499 March 31 1500 April 19 1501 April 11 1502 March 27 1503 April 16 1504 April 7 1505 March 23 1506 April 12 1507 April 4 1508 April 23 1509 April 8 1510 March 31 1511 April 20 1512 April 11 1513 March 27 1514 April 16 1515 April 8 1516 March 23 1517 April 12 1518 April 4 1519 April 24 1520 April 8 1521 March 31