references in Chapters III. and V. of the Craft to " the noble" and "great clerk, the Chancellor of Paris,"[1] must be to Gerson.[2]
Indeed the whole question of the authorship and the various versions of the treatises which are in the catalogues generally included under the title Ars Mor'undi is one of some difficulty and obscurity. There seem to be at the least three distinct books: the Latin treatise, of which this is a translation; the very popular block-books of the Art Moritndl, of which many copies exist; and a rarer French book, L'Art de bien Vi-ure et bien Mourlre, which seems to be related to the block-books.
The Latin treatise is found under three titles: De Arte Moriendi; Tractatus de Arte MorUndi; and Speculum Artit Morlendl. Many printed versions exist, the oldest of which is ascribed to Mathieu de Cracovie, Bishop of Worms, the date given being 1470 or 1472. Another edition was printed at Venice in 1478, and called: Tractatui brevit ac valde utilis de arte et tcientia bene moriendi. it seems to be a compendium of the older version, and was attributed to Dom Caprianica, Cardinal de Fermo. Most of the later editions were printed at Paris, and contain additional prayers and admonitions, and in some cases verses, which are not found in any of the manuscripts nor in the earlier printed versions, and which I have not included here since they are of no special interest. When it has been necessary to refer to the Latin original I have had recourse to a beautiful manuscript in Magdalen College, Oxford, from which I have made an occasional quotation in a footnote.
I have not yet been able to trace the French versions from which Caxton tells us he has translated his tract "abridged of the art to learn well to die." L'Art de bien Vi-ore et bien Mourire is quite another book. It was published by Verard in Paris in 1493, and translated into very bad English in 1503, this translation being also issued by Verard. There are copies of both these in the Bodleian; and written on the cover of the English translation is a note stating that "This
