Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 218

-1495 Ars moriendi. Heinrich Quentell ca. 1495] [32] pp., 1 illus. 19.3 cm.

Although the author of Ars moriendi is not known, the book is believed to have been written in southern Germany at the time of the Council of Constance (1414-1418). About 300 manuscript copies of the book have survived and historians think the first printed edition appeared around 1465. Ars moriendi, or The art of dying, was intended to instruct the reader on the proper modes of behavior when facing death. The book was one result of the Church's effort to educate the laity in the fundamentals of Christianity during the late medieval period. Gerson's (see No. 117) Opus tripartitum is the source of much of the work, with other material being drawn from the Bible, liturgies, and devotional and doctrinal literature of the period. There is both a longer and a shorter form of the Ars moriendi. Nearly all of the manuscripts, most of the vernacular texts, and the printed editions, such as this, are of the longer version. It is divided into six parts: a selection of quotations on death from authoritative Christian sources; advice to the dying on how to overcome faithlessness, despair, impatience, pride, worldliness, and other temptations; a series of catechetical questions whose correct answers lead to salvation; instructions and prayers for imitating the dying Christ; practical advice for the dying individual; and, prayers to be said by those attending the dying. The shorter version of the book is common in block-book editions. The title page scene is a well known and frequently studied woodcut. Designed by Heinrich Quentell, Cologne's most successful and prolific printer of the late fifteenth century, it depicts St. Thomas instructing two children who are seated before him. Only the first page of the text of the University of Iowa Libraries' copy has been rubricated.

See Related Record(s): 117

Cited references: GKW 2160; Goff A 1098

Gift of John Martin, M.D.