of the second chapter, the marriage at Cana. The fish recalls the pool of Bethesda. The numeral 3 points to the conversation with Nicodemus; the water-bucket and the crown refer to the woman of Samaria at the well; the five loaves and the two small fishes to the feeding of the multitude. The cross in the circle is the consecrated wafer of the Roman Catholic Church. The letters in the pages of text are unusually large; they are clearly cut, but are so compactly arranged that they frequently interfere with each other. The descriptive text is in Latin, but of very objectionable grammar and orthography. The knowledge it conveys of the Gospel is imperfect to the last degree, as may be more clearly seen in the following literal translation of the text provided for this illustration.
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The Gospel of St. John has twenty-one chapters. First Chapter. In the beginning was the Word, from the eternity of the Word and the Trinity. Second Chapter. Nuptials were made in Cana of Galilee, and how Christ overturned the tables of all the money-changers. Third Chapter But there was a man among the Pharisees named Nicodemus.
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Fourth Chapter. How Jesus asked the Samaritan woman to give him to drink near the well of Jacob, and about the law. Fifth Chapter. About the miracle in the fish pool, when Jesus told the lame man, Take up thy bed and walk. Sixth Chapter. About the feeding with five loaves and two fishes, and about the Eucharist.
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The Ars Memorandi is considered by Schelhorn as one of the oldest of block-books, "if not the first, among the first." Von Aretin says that "it is worthy of observation that this book, one of the earliest of its kind, should be devoted to the improvement of the memory, when it was to be rendered of little consequence by the art of printing."
HOW TO DIE BECOMINGLY.[1]
At least ten distinct xylographic editions of this popular block-book have been identified, seven of which are in Latin and three in German. The text of the book is substantially the same in all editions, but the designs are dissimilar, and the engraving and printing are of unequal merit. Some copies are in black and others in brown ink; some are printed on
- ↑ The bibliographic title is Ars Moriendi, or, literally, The Art of Dying, but the work is more clearly described by the paraphrase How to Die Becomingly. It is also known as The Temptations of Demons.
