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The Dance of Death.
1. No. 1849, a Colbert MS. in the King of France's library,appears to have been written towards the end of thefifteenth century, and is splendidly illuminated on vellum,with figures of men and women led by Death, the designsnot much differing from those in Verard's printed copy.
2. Another manuscript in the same library, formerlyNo. 543 in that of Saint Victor, is at the end of a small
v ume of miscellanies written on paper about the year1520 ; the text resembles that of the immediately precedingarticle, and occasionally varies from the printed editions.It has no illuminations. These are the only manuscriptMacaber Dances in the royal library at Paris.
3. A manuscript of the Dance of Death, in German, isin the library of Munich. See Dr. Dibdin's BibliographicalTour, vol. iii. 278 ; and Vonder Hagen's History of GermanPoetry. Berlin, 1812, 8vo. p. 459. The date of 1450 isgiven to this manuscript on the authority of Docen, in hisMiscellanies, vol. ii. p. 148, and new Literary Advertiserfor 1806, No. 22, p. 348. Vonder Hager also states thatDocen has printed it in his Miscellanies, pp. 349—352,and 412—416.
4. A manuscript in the Vatican, No. 314. See Von-der Hagen, ubi supra, who refers to Adelung, vol. ii. pp. 317,318, where the beginning and other extracts are given.
5. In the Duke de la Valliere's catal. No. 2801, is " LaDanse Macabre par personnages, in 4to. Sur papier duxv siecle, contenant 12 feuillets."
In the course of this inquiry no manuscript, decoratedwith a regular series of a Dance of Death, has beendiscovered.
The Abbe Rive left, in manuscript, a bibliography of allthe editions of the Macaber Dance, which is at present,with other manuscripts by the Abbe, in the hands of M.Achard, a bookseller at Marseilles. See Peignot, Diction,de Bibliologie, iii. 284.
The following articles, accompanied by letter-press, anddistinguishable from single prints, appear to relate to theMacaber Dance.
1. The Dance and song of Death is among bookslicensed to John Awdeley. 3
3 Herbert's typogr. antiq. p. 888,