Speciale opus Missarum de officiis domincalibus : per anni circulum, de summis festivitatibus, de q[uam] patronis. adiunctis principali oribus sanctis, una cu[m] co[m]mune sanctor[um].

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Accession number: 
PML 79770
Published: 
[Strasbourg] : [Johann (Reinhard) Grüninger], 13 November 1493.
Description: 
[10], I-LXVII, [8], LXVIII-XCIIII; I-XC, CXI-CXXVI leaves : ill. (woodcut) ; 32 cm (fol.)
Credit Line: 
Purchased on the Fellows Endowment Fund, 1988.
Notes: 

British Library copy (IB.1418) also has small woodcut of Christ's face on leaf [2]/5v of Canon Missae, also by Dürer.
Collation: [1]¹⁰; A⁸ B-L⁶ [2]⁸ M⁸ N-P⁶ a¹⁰ b-d⁸ e⁶ f⁸ g⁶ h⁸ i-k⁶ l-m⁸ n-o⁶ p⁴: 218 leaves.
Colophon (leaf p4r), printed in red: "Opus hoc qua[m] preclar[um] d[omi]nice nativitatis anno Millesimo quadringe[n]tesimo nonogesimotertio. Idibus deniq[ue]: Novembris consumatrum."
Errors in foliation from XC to CXI. Leaves b2-4 signed a2-4.
Goff, "A Few Proof Sheets of the Fifteenth Century," Gutenberg Jahrbuch (1963): 81-84 discusses a proof-sheet attributable to this edition in Library of Congress (= M735a).
Paper format: Chancery folio
PML copy leaf dimensions: 30.2 x 20.9 cm
Rubrics and most initials printed in red; larger initials (3-line and larger) left blank for hand completion.
The Crucifixion woodcut (leaf [2]/1v) is by Albrecht Dürer and is one of his earliest book illustrations (see Hess and Eser, The Early Dürer, 43 and Schoch, Mende, and Scherbaum, Albercht Dürer: die druckgraphische Werk, 264.1).
Title from half-title page (leaf [1]/1r), printed in red.

Binding: 
15th-century blind-tooled German pigskin over wooden boards (32 x 22 cm), sewn on 3 supports, possibly bound in Strasbourg. Plain paper pastedowns and fly leaves with some manuscript waste; decorative endbands. 2 Y-shaped clasps. 13th-century, south German missal fragment under front pastedown, includes Eph. 6:16-17; 14th/early-15th-century south German psalter bifolium and single leaf as rear pastedown (now fly), includes Ps. 68:23-32, 68:34-69:5 (single leaf) and Ps. 68:18-23, 63:10-64:6 and 61:10-14, 68:10-15 (bifolium).
Variant Title: 

Missale speciale.

Inscriptions/Markings: 

Hand decoration: Unrubricated, initials unrealized. Crucifixion woodcut (leaf [2]/1v) hand colored. Annotations: Contemporary manuscript prayers in Latin from the Manuale curatorum (front fly leaf recto): 1) "Benedictio vini in die Joha[n]nis ewa[gelis]te. De[us] me[us] et p[ate]r dom[in]i mei Ih[es]u Xr[ist]i c[uius] verbo caeli firmati sunt...," 2) "D[omi]n[us] vobiscu[m] ore[mus]. Te ergo dom[in]e supplices d[e]p[re]cam[ur] ut benedic[er]e et sanctific[ar]e digneris hanc creat[ur]am vini...," and 3) "Ore[mus]. Do[min]e de[us] op[eri]s q[ui] qui[n]q[ue] pa[n]ib[us] et duob[us] piscib[us] qui[n]q[ue] milia ho[minu]m saciasti...." Contemporary German note mentioning "Syffen Gurck(?)" and his wife, Elsa (leaf [1]/1r). German note recording annual mass by Hannis and Brigida Schinder(?) to the church of Heiligen-Kreuz in Hohenwart on the Friday before or after St. George's Day (Baden-Württemberg), 1522 (leaf [1]/6r); note recording an annual mass of the dead for members of the Schwenk/en family at the chapel at Hohenwart (leaf [1]/8v). Parchment tabs at textual sections and on each leaf of the Canon.

Provenance: 
Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, Hohenwart (Baden-Württemberg), sixteenth-century inscriptions; Schellbronn (Baden-Württemberg), seventeenth/eighteenth-century inscription, abraded: Schellbronn crossed out and replaced with Spessart (Hesse?) (leaf p4v); Pierpont Morgan Library, purchased from E.K. Schreiber on the Fellows Endowment Fund, 1988.
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