In the case of printed books, such external evidence is as a rule more plentiful; it is often essential, since so much may turn on the accurate dating of editions.
In addition, the seller is required to state the date of the edition and the size of any prior edition, whether or not the work is numbered (and how) and if any excess casts (or proofs) have been produced and how they are numbered.
The Beckett who appears before us, in other words, in his middle to late twenties is already fully formed in his froideurs: another reason for one's annoyance at the starting date of this edition, for one would dearly like to know if there was ever a time when his narrow-eyed distrust of worldly conventions — and what many of us would embrace as conventional pleasures — was not in place.
But if nothing certain was known about Andronicus in late antiquity, how can we establish the date of his edition of Aristotle?
All the extant manuscripts of this chronicle are anonymous, and the attribution of it to "Fredegarius" dates from the edition of it by Claude Fauchet in 1579.
It was clear, however, that the continued reprinting of the out-of-date 11th edition, even with supplements, could no longer be justified, and Cox determined to produce a revised edition of the whole work, aided financially by Sears.
The coincidence of publication dates, for example, reflects synchronized cycles of edition revision.
Cicero's silence has led some scholars to date Andronicus' edition of Aristotle after the death of Cicero (43 BCE), and most likely in the 30s (Düring 1957: 420 425).
Print dates for three of the editions were known, but scholars had debated the date of the remaining edition for nearly 200 years, Hedges says.
It was the first edition to include birth and death dates of individuals and the first to contain bibliographies.
"Every one of these books I have held in my hands," he says, as we pause over the earliest dated and illustrated edition of the Passover haggadah known to exist.
