The designs are more eccentric than those of any known block-book, but the designer has shown no artistic ability in the grouping of his figures. The four Evangelists are symbolized—St. John by an eagle, St. Matthew by an angel, St. Luke by a bull, St. Mark by a lion—but they are presented to us in uncouth attitudes, and are surrounded or overlaid by some of the familiar objects frequently mentioned in the Gospels. These objects are numbered with Arabic figures referring to explanations in the text. The dove, for it must be so considered, although it looks like an owl, perched on the head of the symbolized St. John, may be accepted as the emblem of the Deity. The two heads beside the eagle are to be understood as those of Moses and of Christ. The musical instruments, a lute and three bells, on the breast of the eagle, indicate the contents [p235] of the second chapter, the marriage at Cana. The fish recalls the pool of Bethesda. The numeral 3 points to the conversation with Nicodemus; the water-bucket and the crown refer to the woman of Samaria at the well; the five loaves and the two small fishes to the feeding of the multitude. The cross in the circle is the consecrated wafer of the Roman Catholic Church. The letters in the pages of text are unusually large; they are clearly cut, but are so compactly arranged that they frequently interfere with each other. The descriptive text is in Latin, but of very objectionable grammar and orthography. The knowledge it conveys of the Gospel is imperfect to the last degree, as may be more clearly seen in the following literal translation of the text provided for this illustration. The Gospel of St. John has twenty-one chapters. _First Chapter._ In the beginning was the Word, from the eternity of the Word and the Trinity. _Second Chapter._ Nuptials were made in Cana of Galilee, and how Christ overturned the tables of all the money-changers. _Third Chapter._ But there was a man among the Pharisees named Nicodemus. _Fourth Chapter._ How Jesus asked the Samaritan woman to give him to drink near the well of Jacob, and about the law. _Fifth Chapter._ About the miracle in the fish pool, when Jesus told the lame man, Take up thy bed and walk. _Sixth Chapter._ About the feeding with five loaves and two fishes, and about the Eucharist. The _Ars Memorandi_ is considered by Schelhorn as one of the oldest of block-books, “if not the first, among the first.” Von Aretin says that “it is worthy of observation that this book, one of the earliest of its kind, should be devoted to the improvement of the memory, when it was to be rendered of little consequence by the art of printing.” HOW TO DIE BECOMINGLY.[123]