“That’s an unusual name for that animal, MDCXL” said someone recently.
I was floored; he thought those letters spelled the name of a fantasy creature, a griffin of sorts!
Those are letters of the Roman Alphabet representing a year date. This is a publisher’s logo of old inserted on the front title page of a book, showing the founding year of that publisher. ——1640.
Pretty soon the pages of our calendar will reveal the new year —– MMXIX —— in just 19 more days.
