There are three manuscripts of this treatise in the Bodleian Library; the Douce MS. 322, the Rawlinsun MS. C. 894, and the Bodleian MS. 423.[1] This transcription has been taken from the last of these, since it appears to be the earliest.[2] It is to be found in a large brown volume containing five different manuscripts bound together by Sir Thomas Bodley. Some are written on paper, and some on parchment. Our book is the fourth in order, written on parchment in a clear and careful hand, and dating probably from the middle of the fifteenth century. The headings to the chapters are in red, the capitals are in blue and red, and on the first page a border is outlined which has never been finished.
Like so many other English writings of this date The Craft of Dying has been ascribed to Richard Rolle. It may possibly have been translated by him into English, but the author of the older Latin original is unknown. It has been suggested that it was written by Jean le Charlier de Gerson, the famous Chancellor of Paris — known to us in connection with De Imitaiione Christi, which some have attributed to him. Gerson certainly compiled a long treatise in Latin and French which he named the Opyiculum Tripariitum de Preceptis Decalogi, de Confettione, et de Arte Moricndi.[3] But this book is very much shorter than the English version of The Craft of Dying, and there is nothing in it which corresponds to the first two chapters of the Craft; moreover, the
- ↑ Ihave collated these three MSS., and have drawn attention to differences of any interest in the footnotes.
- ↑ It is not mentioned by Dr Horstman. Besides the Douce and Rawl. MSS. his list contains: C.C.C. Oxfd. 220, Harl. 1706, Reg. 17 C. xviii., Addit. 10596, Ff. v. 45; cf The Library of Engtith Wtilers, vol. ii. p. 406.
- ↑ Published at Cologne c. 1470.
