Nuremberg Chronicle, published by A. Koberger in 1493, seems to me to be an enlightened outcome, perhaps suggested by the physician Hartmann Schedel, of the ordinary Mediaeval teaching of the "Dance of Death," but is not to be confused with a true "Dance of Death." Now, it is quite certain that the ancients, in later Roman and Graeco-Roman art (witness the Boscoreale wine-cups already described, and the cups, gems, and other objects which will be described in Part IV.), represented their ghosts or "larvae" in the form of skeletons or shrivelled mummy-like "animated corpses (the German Hautskelett), though they never personified death itself in this way (nor fate-doom-either, unless the minute figure of Clotho on one of the Boscoreale cups is taken to be a Hautskelett of this kind). Moreover, the ancient significance of such larva-figures, as is sufficiently manifest (see back, and further on, in Part IV.), was generally likewise a memento mori one, though the Roman memento mori meant something very different from the Mediaeval Christian memento mori; it usually meant a so-called "Epicurean" suggestion to "enjoy life," and to make the play in life's theatre pleasant before death closes the scene and puts an end to all corporeal enjoyment. In late Roman and Graeco-Roman art we have the skeleton-like "larvae" figuring from this memento mori point of view. They occur, singly, as on various gems described in Part IV. (in one case at least the skeleton holds a knife or dagger, and is assuming a threatening attitude), or two or three of them together, or many together a regular "danse des morts" scene-as on the Boscoreale wine-cups (already described), &c. It seems to me almost certain that Mediaeval Christian art, as C. W. King suggests, derived its idea of representing death in the above-mentioned way from the late Roman and Graeco-Roman method of representing “larvae” (especially malevolent larvae) as skeletons or skin-and-bone figures. The "Ars Moriendi" Designs. Like the "Tale of the Three Dead and the Three Living," and the "Dance of Death" poems, and the "morality" plays of these types, the Mediaeval treatise termed the Ars Moriendi formed an important subject for woodcuts and engravings of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Lionel Cust writes 75: "The Ars Moriendi, or Speculum Artis bene Moriendi, the Art of Good or Evil Dying,' was a religious treatise, used with conspicuous force and authority by the Church during its long ascendancy in the Middle Ages. At this date the keys of knowledge, as of salvation, were entirely in the hands of the Church, and the lay public, both high and low were, generally speaking, ignorant and illiterate. One of the secrets of the great power exercised by the Church lay in its ability to represent the life of man. as environed from the outset by legions of horrible and insidious demons, who beset his path throughout life at every stage up to his very last breath, and are eminently active and often triumphant when man's fortitude is undermined by sickness, suffering, and the prospect of dissolution. From such attacks and pitfalls only the continuous presence and protection of the Church could protect the hapless pilgrim through life. In aid of such a mission certain doctrines were adopted by the leaders of Lionel Cust, The Master E.S. and the Ars Moriendi: A Chapter in the History of Engraving during the XVth Century, Oxford (Clarendon Press), 1898, p. 9. I am indebted to Mr. Cust for his kind permission to quote this passage, and to the Oxford University Press for kind permission to copy the four illustrations which I have figured here. the Church, and inculcated in treatises drawn up by the most eminent divines of the day, such as the famous Jean Gerson, Chancellor of the University of Paris. In this teaching the Ars Moriendi, linked as it was with the doctrine of eternal punishment, played a most important part. It was on his death-bed that a man was most amenable to advice, and in need of consolation to give him hope at the moment when his soul was about to depart into the unknown. When pictorial art began to lend its aid to the minister of religion, it was of great service, for often, when the mind was too illiterate to understand or the ear too feeble to comprehend the good doctrine which was being expounded at the bedside, the eye could follow in the print or illuminated page the subject to which the patient's thoughts were to be directed." The illustrations of the Ars Moriendi amply justify these views. To convince ourselves we need only examine those of the famous block-book of the middle of the fifteenth century (printed in the Netherlands about 1460) now in the British Museum, a reproduction of which was published in 1881 by the Holbein Society in London, edited by W. H. Rylands, with an introduction by George Bullen.76 The illustrations of this blockbook served as prototypes for the woodcuts illustrating many printed editions of the Ars Moriendi issued in 76 The Ars Moriendi (Editio Princeps, circa 1450)-A Reproduction of the Copy in the British Museum, edited by W. H. Rylands, F.S.A., with an introduction by George Bullen, F.S.A. Printed for the Holbein Society by Wyman & Sons, London, 1881. In his introduction Mr. Bullen gives also a good deal of information concerning the probable origin of the text of the Ars Moriendi. There are various Latin versions and various English versions of the literary matter. Cf. The Book of The Craft of Dying and other Early English Tracts concerning Death, edited by F. M. M. Comper, with preface by Rev. G. Congreve, London, 1917. various countries of Europe, but Lionel Cust thinks that the designs in the block-book were themselves only modified versions of a series of copper-plate prints by the "Master F.S.," also known as the "Master of 1466," a German engraver of the middle of the fifteenth century. A complete series of these engravings by the Master E.S.," illustrating the Ars Moriendi, forms part of the Francis Douce Collection in the University Galleries at Oxford. The illustrations in the British Museum block-book of the temptation by pride or vainglory, the fourth temptation to which the dying man is exposed (see Fig. 15) gives a fair idea of the significance and scope of the Ars Moriendi treatise and of how greatly its teaching was strengthened by the addition of such forcible illustrations. The dying man, lying in his bed, is assailed by five hideous demons, three of whom offer him crowns. One of them, as we learn from the attached scroll, tells him that he has deserved a crown: "Coronam meruisti." Another exhorts him to boast: "Gloriare" and another to exalt himself: "Exaltate ipsum." The remaining two also flatter him with the words: "In paciencia perseverasti" ("You have persevered in patience"), and "Tu es firmus in fida" ("You are firm in faith"). On the far side of the bed are figures of God. the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Virgin Mary; also three little children, emblematic of simplicity. In the next illustration (see Fig. 16), representing the triumph over vain-glory, three angels stand around the bed with advice and comfort for the dying man. One tells him to humble himself: "Sis humilis"; another is in an attitude of prayer; whilst the third points to three human figures (one with the tonsure of a monk) engulfed in the wide-open flaming mouth of a monster (emblematic of the "jaws of hell "), above which is a scroll with the inscription: "Superbos punio" ("I punish the proud "). FIG. 15.-The "Ars Moriendi."-The temptation by vain-glory, from the British Museum block-book (about 1460). In the front of the picture a demon is represented |