Perrow—The Last Will and Testament in Literature. 685 
Jean Thiery (1650) 1 contains a similar account in conjunction 
with legacies. 
This opportunity for biography was not neglected by those 
who sought to utilize the Will as a form for literature. The Tes¬ 
tament of the Twelve Patriarchs, a work now existing in four 
Greek manuscripts, and thought to have been written about the 
first century of our era, is one of the earliest examples of the 
autobiographical Testament. No Latin translation of this work 
is known earlier than that made by Robert Grosseteste (died 
3253), but the Testament seems to have been known to the 
early western Church. 2 Grosseteste’s translation became im¬ 
mensely popular. It was quoted, almost on its first appearance, 
by Vincent of Beauvais in his Speculum Historiale, and during 
the centuries immediately following it found its way into sev¬ 
eral of the modern languages. 3 
The English edition of 1811 contains in addition to the tes¬ 
taments of the twelve patriarchs an amplified version of the 
Testament of Jacob , the prototype of which is found in Genesis. 4 
The account in Genesis is probably a good example of what the 
Will was like among the early Hebrews: Jacob, about to die, 
calls his sons about him and makes his will in their presence. 
In the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs the sons of Jacob 
are imagined as making their wills in the same way. All these 
testaments seem to follow a common plan. The testator at the 
hour of death, wishing to give his last instructions to his chil¬ 
dren (1) explains who he is and what is his character, (2) con¬ 
fesses some sin (or that his life has been free from some sin), 
(3) warns his posterity against that sin, (4) prophesies that it 
i Ibid. 348. 2 See B. B. Warfield, The Testament of the Twelve 
Patriarchs; Robt. Sinker, Testamentum XII Patriarcharum (appendix), 
Cambridge, 1879; The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, London, 
1811; The Jewish Encyclopedia, XII, 113; Cyclopedia of Biblical , Theo¬ 
logical, and Eccleciastical Literature, New York, 1886, X, 291. 
s Versions occur in English (1557), in Welsh (1882), in French 
(1548), in German (1539), in Dutch (1538), in Danish (1580), in 
Bohemian (before 1376), and in Armenian (1388). There was also a 
version in Icelandic. The sect known as the Muggletonians still ac¬ 
cept this Testament as canonical. Sinker, p. 8. 
4 Gen. xlvii, 29, ff.; xlviii, 22. 
