Egerton MS 2419

" TRACTATUS de moribus et disciplina humane conuersacionis " : moralizations on the Game of Cards, in three parts, by ',Frater Johannes [of Reinfelden, near Basel ?] in ordine predicatorum minimus, nacione Theutonicus." In his preface he says: " Hinc est quod quidam ludus, qui ludus cartarum appellatur, hoe anno ad nos peruenit, scilicet anno domini m.ccc.lxxvii. In quo ludo status mundi nunc modernis temporibus optime describitur et figuratur. Quo tempore autem factus sit, per quem et vbi penitus ignoro"; and he continues "In quo quidem tractatu intendo facere tria: primo, ludum cartularum in se deseribere, quo ad materiam et modum ludendi; secundo, ipsum ludum ad mores trahere seu nobilibus dare nomina viuendi ; et tercio, ipsos populares instruere seu cos informare de modo virtuose operandi." The number and figures of the cards are noticed only in part i., chap. i., but nothing is said of the ways of playing; the remainder of the work being given to moralizing. The date 1377 again occurs on f. 10 b, col. ii. (For an account of the volume by Mr. E. A. Bond see the Athenæum, 19 Jan. 1878.) Paper; ff. 96. In double columns, with blank spaces left at the end of the chapters for drawings of the cards. A colophon gives the date of this transcript, " Anno domini incarnacionis lxxijo. [1472] tunc temporis regnauit pestilencia, etc." Small Folio.