Catholic Books on How to Die
Italic textArs moriendi, also known as the "Art of Dying", these books were a staple genre of religious literature. The books were written anonymously and circulated in small format cheaply illustrated with woodblocks. About 50,000 copies were printed "in the Italic text incunabula period before 1501." The genre was in its heyday in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, then its popularity waned in favor of Erasmus's treatise on preparing for death, Italic text De preperatione ad mortem in 1534. Hundreds of manuscripts of Italic text Ars moriendi survive in severl languages, along with "a series of woodcuts that circulated both as printed books and as individual engravings that could be easily pinned to the wall."
In traditional versions, angels and demons competed for the soul of the dying person. The approaching Last Judgment, with its threats and torments intended to strike terror into the sinner's heart, was a favorite theme for illustrators. "The macabre sensibility of this late medieval period generated gruesome images of corpses and prancing skeletons. The way to die well was to resist the five diabolical temptations: loss of faith, despair, impatience, pride, and avarice." Christians were urged to set up wills for charitable donations and "investing in posthumous Masses to be spoken for their souls." Ideally on one's deathbed, they were surrounded by loved ones and the clergy in order to receive the sacrament and give a final confession. "If all went well, the soul, sometimes depicted as a miniature person, would be carried up to heaven by angels. If not, the fires of hell or years in Purgatory awaited."
References[edit]
- Anonymous. "The Art of Dying Well", in Medieval Popular Religion, 1000–1500, a Reader. Ed. John Shinners, London: Broadview Press, 1997: 525-535. ISBN 1-55111-133-0, English translation.
- Campbell, Jeffrey (1995) "The Ars Moriendi": An examination, translation, and collation of the manuscripts of the shorter Latin version., Thesis (M.A.), University of Ottawa, 1995, ISBN 0-612-07840-X
- Dugdale, Lydia. Dying in the Twenty-First Century: Toward a New Ethical Framework for the Art of Dying Well (MIT Press, 2015).
- Lyons, Martyn. Books, a Living History. Thames & Hudson: 2011.
- Murray, Stuart A.P. The Library, an Illustrated History. American Library Association: 2012.
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