NOTE ON CAXTON'S TRACT
This tract of Caxton's was found in the middle of a volume of black letter tracts in the Bodleian Library, and Mr Blades avers that " no other copy in any language, in print or manuscript, appears to be known."[1] It has no date, printer's name, or place, but it is in Caxton's No. 6 type, with a few lines in the No. i type of Wynkyn de Worde, who was Caxton's workman and successor. We may therefore infer that it was one of the last books printed by Caxton, or one of the first printed by de Worde. In either case it was probably issued from Caxton's House at Westminster, in 1491, the year of his death. Mr Nicholson the late librarian of Bodley's Library says " it does not answer to any of the three printed Latin treatises known as Ars Moriendi which the Bodleian possesses," but that "the heading of the treatise suggests that it was a translation of a work already known by a particular name; the name given is in Latin; and occasional turns of expression . . . suggest a Latin original for parts at least."[2]
1 think it will be evident to anyone who reads these two tracts of Caxton's, after reading the longer version of The Craft of Dying that Mr Nicholson was right about the Latin original, and that the latter must have been the Speculum or Tractatus de arte Moriendi; and also that this particular tract appears to be a further abridgment of Caxton's own already abridged version.
Only those parts of the Tract which have any reference to death are given here. The last pages contain : A singular prayer to be said at the Feast of the Dedication of any church, or at any other time; The twelve degrees of Humility; The seven degrees of Obedience; The seven degrees of Patience; and The fifteen degrees of Charity.
