The title-page has an engraving of angels before a monstrance, two with censers. The masses begin with a small charming woodcut initial, and the major feasts and the Canon are each preceded by a full-page engraving, some of which are signed by Iottain: these are the Annunciation (First Sunday of Advent), Nativity of our Lord, Adoration of the Magi (Epiphany), Crucifixion (Canon), Risen Christ (Easter Day), Ascension, Pentecost, Last Supper (Corpus Christi), Assumption, and All Saints. There are more than 50 pp. of music, including the Exsultet and the prefaces, printed with black square notes on a red four line staff, as usual.

Provenance: On the title-page below the engraved vignette is the following inscription: “Pro Monasterio B.M.V. in Plass S.O.Cist comparavit R[everendissimus] D[ominus] Benedict Engelken loci abbas . . . Anno D[omin]i 1673.” Plass or Plasy is a Cistercian abbey (now redundant) in western Bohemia, founded ca. 1144. On the verso of second front flyleaf is inscribed in ink “Sacristiæ S. Thomæ a 1 Julii 1804.”

•  Mottled calf with remnants of sumptuous gilt; rebacked, leather with holes for hardware not present; stained and peeling in places. Leaves in good condition for a missal; some paper repairs in margins with loss of rules, a few small holes in bottom margins, expected soiling on most used pages and some in margins elsewhere, no obscured or lost text. Marbled endpapers. Vellum tabs for leaves of canon. Six silk placemarkers attached to a red and green silk headband (not part of binding). All edges gauffered and gilt.

•  On the Pontifical, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, XI, 549–50. Later speckled sheep, spine sumptuously gilt with white leather title label, gilt lettered. All edges speckled red and blue. Leather with fine pitting, with peelings and scratches; spine leather dry and rubbed with some loss of gilt. Browning on pastedowns, front pastedown with wormhole. Paper generally clean with occasional spots of of soiling or staining on first and last few leaves. Pages closely trimmed by binder, shaving some headers. This copy was obviously used, as there is a goodly amount of marginalia (some cut off by the binder’s trimming), including supplemental directions for the rite and forms for the Latin singular when this is not provided by the text. Despite its use, it is in very good condition for a liturgical book and indeed most impressive and engaging.

The main title-page is printed in red and black; the separate title-page for the Psalter has a neat woodcut printer's vignette and blazons (in Greek type) Psalterion prophetou kai basileos tou Dabid. The elegant Greek type is set in double columns, with some nicely laid in typographic ornaments and decorated capitals. The signing is erratic, but the collation of this example matches most recorded descriptions: Leaf α1, apparently a cancel in a few copies but lacking in most reported examples and not present here, was a supplemental title-page giving Biblos dēmosiōn euchōn, kai leitourgēseōs mystēriōn; Griffiths calls for only one preliminary leaf, as is found here, with the other leaf in the gathering being a blank. Leaf 1C2 is a cancel.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of Twistleton Fiennes, with that family's motto: “Fortem posce animum”; front free endpaper rubber-stamped “Birch” and front fly-leaf inked “Tho.s Birch e Coll. Herts. Oxon.” (apparently neither the historian nor the marine painter); title-page with inked monogram (obscure).

•  ESTC S108726; STC (rev. ed.) 16432 & 2353; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, (Other Languages) 45/2. Psalter: Darlow & Moule 4683. See: Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer 57.   Contemporary speckled calf, covers framed in gilt double fillets, rebacked with speckled calf quite plainly (without labels but with gilt-dotted raised bands); corners rubbed, original leather showing expectable acid-pitting. One preliminary blank (only) lacking; title-pages trimmed closely at outer edge, affecting typographical border and (on main page) one letter of publication information. Ownership marks as above. Pages lightly age-toned, otherwise clean; tiny spot of worming in lower inner margin, not affecting text. A handsome and evocative little book.  (26373)

Provenance: The front fly-leaf bears an inked inscription reading “From this Book our 4 Dear Children were Babtized [sic] by the Rev. S. Good, Rector of St. Anns Blk. Friars, And afterwards Christened by their Dear Uncle the Rev. Charles Brown, Rector of Whitestone, near Exeter, Devon.” The children's baptismal dates range from 1806 through 1814.

•  ESTC T93069; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1791/7. Binding as above, leather slightly worn over joints and extremities. Front fly-leaf with collector's small bookplate, reverse with inscription as above, title-page with owner's name and date (1806) inked in upper margin. Pages clean.

The typography is by the Royal Press and is handsome, employing roman and italic faces in a variety of point sizes. The text is presented in single and double-column format with finely engraved initials, and head- and tailpieces. The title-pages are printed in red and black with an engraved vignette.

Binding:  Contemporary treed sheep, covers framed in double gilt fillets, spines with gilt-stamped red leather label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and elaborately gilt-tooled floral decorations in compartments.   A most pleasing production!

•  Bound as above, covers with some cuts/abrasions, rubbing at corners and joints, surface cracks on spines; spines of vols. I and II with head and foot chipped. Front pastedowns with institutional bookplates; front free endpapers with early inked ownership inscriptions. Ex-library with old shelf labels to spines, and pressure-stamps (not rubber-stamps) including some on title-pages. All edges marbled, and marbled endpapers. Imposing.  (21444)

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Hymnal: Shaw & Shoemaker 31426; Arndt, The First Century of German Language Printing in the United States of America, 2032. Kurze Andachten: Shaw & Shoemaker 31686; Arndt, The First Century of German Language Printing in the United States of America, 2034.   Contemporary sheep over wooden boards withworking brass clasps, abraded; spine with raised bands and later spine labels. Leather of top spine compartment damaged with loss of leather; front joint abraded and starting. Spots of browning throughout as usual in German imprints of this period, not worse and indeed better than is often the case.  (26967)

Click either image for an enlargement.

This particular choirbook was printed with 10 lines of text and music per page. Each leaf contains music and words, and is printed in black and red; text is in black, with an occasional small letter in red, and the music is provided in black square notation on a four-line red staff. Antiphons begin with a tall decorative initial printed in red, as high as the text and music together. The initials vary from leaf to leaf.

•  Crisp, wide margined leaf with slightest bleed-through from one side to another. Printed on handmade paper of 100% rag. A marvelous display, accent, or gift item.