The source of the play is the Latin treatise (On True Nobility) by the Italian humanist Bonaccorso or Buonaccorso da Montemagno of Pistoia, written in 1438. This treatise had been translated into French by as and printed by William Caxton's friend, Colard Mansion, in Bruges around 1475. The French version was later translated into English by John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester and printed by Caxton in 1481, on the last pages of Cicero of Old Age and Friendship. Medwall used Tiptoft's translation as his source.Ernst Philip Goldschmidt: Medieval Texts and their First Appearance in Print. 1943, reprinted Biblio-Moser, 1969, , p. 5.
