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Excerpt from Chronograms Collected: More Than 4000 in Number, Since the Publication of the Two Preceding Volumes in 1882 and 1885 Although much is added to what is contained in the pages of the prior volumes, little has been discovered to define the origin or antiquity of these so-called conceits; the popularity to which they attained about the period of the sixteenth century is in some degree accounted for at page 435 infra. The earlier of those pages, and the general remarks in Chapter I. of the present volume, leave little that need be repeated now by way of preface. It may be said, however, that all the books now to be introduced to the readers notice are rare, some are very rare, and some few, I think, are perhaps unique. Nowhere can a student go to any library and realize the expectation of meeting with such a collection there as is here assembled. The three volumes will form the students guide to all that have come under my notice, and will stand as a bibliography of chronogrammatic literature for the guidance of those who may be attracted to pursue research for fresh examples, or to peruse at leisure the originals in their printed form of existence, whether as sumptuous folios or insignificant tracts and pamphlets. These works bear ample testimony to the extent to which the literature of Continental Europe was pervaded by the chronogram element, engaging the attention and approval of scholars, as well as the patronage of emperors and potentates, for at least three hundred years. To the extended use of printing must be attributed the preservation of the earlier productions, though it does not definitely fix the time of the earliest use of them. Whatever early manuscript memoranda may have contained relating to our subject is scarcely known, though it is probable that chronograms before the middle of the fifteenth century were recorded on writing materials which have perished. Inscriptions on stone monuments and memorials do not afford the desired help, though it seems that dates were so recorded in a form not strictly chronogrammatic, as is set forth at page 485, Chapter XLII, on Dates quaintly expressed in Latin Verse. Some few of those examples, certainly not all, seem to be genuine predecessors (in Europe, at least) of the true chronogram; many come down into the time when chronograms were in vogue; and some were composed long after the dates represented. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.