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paper fhould be Printed (as if S. Peter had bequeath'd them the keys of the Preffe alfo out of Paradife) unleffe it were approv'd and licenc't under the hands of 2 or 3 glutton Friers. For example:

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Let the Chancellor Cini be pleas'd to fee if in this prefent work be contain'd ought that may withstand the Printing,

Vincent Rabatta Vicar of Florence.

I have feen this prefent work, and find nothing athwart the Catholick faith and good manners: In witneffe whereof I have given, &c.

Nicolò Cini Chancellor of Florence.

Attending

Attending the precedent relation, it is allow'd that this prefent work of Davanzati may be Printed,

Vincent Rabatta, &c.

It may be printed, July 15,

Frior Simon Mompei d'Amelia Chancellor of the holy office in Flo

rence.

Sure they have a conceit, if he of the bottomleffe pit had not long fince broke prifon, that this quadruple exorcifm would barre him down. I feare their next defigne will be to get into their cuftody the licencing of that which they fay Claudius intended, but went not

* Quo veniam daret flatum crepitumque ventris in convivio emittendi. Sueton. in Claudio.

through

through with. Voutsafe to see another of their forms the Roman ftamp:

Imprimatur, If it seem good to the reverend Master of the holy Palace,

Belcaftro Vicegerent.

Imprimatur,

Friar Nicolò Rodolphi Mafter of the holy Palace.

Sometimes 5 Imprimaturs are feen together dialogue-wife in the Piatza of one Title page, complementing and ducking each to other with their fhav'n reverences, whether the Author, who ftands by in perplexity at the foot of his Epiftle, fhall to the Preffe or to the fpunge. These are the pretty refponfories, these are the deare Antiphonies that fo bewicht of late our Prelats, and their Chap

laines with the goodly Eccho they made; and befotted us to the gay imitation of a lordly Imprimatur, one from Lambeth house, another from the Weft end of Pauls; fo apifhly Romanizing, that the word of command ftill was fet downe in Latine; as if the learned Grammaticall pen that wrote it, would caft no ink without Latine: or perhaps, as they thought, because no vulgar tongue was worthy to expreffe the pure conceit of an Imprimatur; but rather, as I hope, for that our English, the language of men ever famous, and formoft in the atchievements of liberty, will not eafily finde fervile letters anow to fpell fuch a dictatorie prefumption Englifht. And thus ye have the Inventors and the ori

ginall of Book-licencing ript up, and drawn as lineally as any pedigree. We have it not, that can be heard of, from any ancient State, or politie, or Church, not by any Statute left us by our Anceftors elder or later; nor from the moderne cuftom of any reformed Citty, or Church abroad; but from the moft Antichristian Councel, and the most tyrannous Inquifition that ever inquir'd. Till then Books were ever as freely admitted into the World as any other birth; the iffue of the brain was no more ftifl'd then the iffue of the womb: no envious Juno fate crof-leg'd over the nativity of any mans intellectuall off-fpring; but if it prov'd a Monster, who denies, but that it was justly burnt, or funk into the Sea.

But

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