ABSTRACT
Although the text of The Birth of Mankind was fairly stable after 1560, a number of small adjustments were made by its various printers. The list that follows was produced through a line-by-line comparison of the following copies:
1565 Bodleian Library; P.scam.2.lower shelf.3 (1) STC (2nd edn) 21157.5 1572 British Library 235.d.7 (speculative dating) STC (2nd edn) 21158 1574 British Library 1177.h.1 (speculative dating) STC (2nd edn) 1585 Huntington Library (speculative dating) STC (2nd edn) 21159 1598 British Library 7580.aaa.37 STC (2nd edn) 21160 1604 British Library 1178.h.1 (1) STC (2nd edn) 21161 1613 Huntington Library; 40792 STC (2nd edn) 21162 1626 British Library 7580.aaa.38 STC (2nd edn) 21163 1634 British Library 7580.a.34 STC (2nd edn) 21164 1654 British Library 7580.aaa.40 Wing (2nd edn) R1782B
Such changes are noted by listing: the page and line number in the current edition where the piece of text occurs, with a period separating page number and line number (so, 15.8 indicates page 15, line 8); a brief quotation from that place in the text, putting in bold the word or words affected, followed by the symbol ]; the replacement text in bold; the date at which the change first appeared. If only one date is indicated, all later editions followed this change. If further changes were introduced later, these are then listed. Since the current edition is a modern-spelling one, all spellings have been modernised to avoid a plethora of detail that would be irrelevant in this context. To avoid needless repetition, it should be noted that all editions up to 1585 indicate most chapter numbers by (an abbreviation of) ‘Capitulo’ (Latin); from 1598 this is replaced by (an abbreviation of) ‘Chapter’.
