The _Dies Iræ_ is truly said by Mr. SPARROW SIMPSON (Vol. ii., p. 72.)
to be an extremely beautiful hymn. Who was its author is very doubtful,
but the probabilities are in favour of Thomas de Celano, a Minorite
friar, who lived during the second half of the fourteenth century. It
consists of nineteen strophes, each having three lines. Bartholomew of
Pisa, A.D. 1401, in his _Liber Conformitatum_, speaks of it; but the
earliest printed book in which I have ever seen this hymn, is the
_Missale Romanum_, printed at Pavia, A.D. 1491, in 8vo., a copy of which
I have in my possession.