268 folios (stubs of paper flyleaves at the back), on paper except for two leaves on parchment, foliation for two sections printed in roman numerals in the running titles, remaining leaves unfoliated (in brackets); in six sections, [8] lxxxii [32] [24] [48] lxxiiii, in-folio, complete (collation †8; a8 [a i unsigned] b-i8 k6 [4 signed k iiii] l4 [3 signed l iii]; A-D8 [letters in red]; A8 [5 signed A v] B6 [4 signed B iiii] C6 [3 and 4 on parchment, 4 signed C iiii] D4; A-F8 [first 5 leaves of each quire signed] A-H8 I10 [letters in red], signed in the first half of each quire, except part 1, k and l, part 3, B , C, part 4, A-F, where the first leaf in the second half of the quire are also signed, most quires also signed “Ro” (ie. Roman Use), (justification 234 x 155 mm.), printed in red and black in Gothic type in two columns of 42 lines, Canon in larger type with two columns of 21 lines, 13 pages with square musical notation on red four-line staves, running titles printed in red and black, 4- to 6-line engraved initials, decorative and figurative, throughout, small 6- to 9-line metalcuts throughout, TWENTY-FIVE METALCUT ILLUSTRATIONS (one column), TWO LARGE METALCUTS WITH FULL BORDERS; FULL-PAGE HAND-COLORED WOODCUT OF THE CRUCIFIXION printed on parchment (described in detail below), some signs of use especially in the Ordinary and Canon, including small holes ff. B iii, B iv, C iii and C iv (text is intact), f. xxx (Temporal) with small tear lower margin, small tear outer margin title page, a few stains upper margins, somewhat cockled, overall in excellent condition. CONTEMPORARY full leather binding over stout wooden boards, blind-tooled with geometrical and floral decorations, metal fore edge guards, outer top and bottom corners, knotted leather bookmarks mark major textual divisions, once with thirteenth-century manuscript leaves used as pastedowns, leaves are now missing, but both boards are covered with very good off-sets from the leaves, with restorations, including early (eighteenth century?) replacement of the spine, now with four raised bands, decoratively tooled in gold and with gold title, “Missale Romanum,”with paper label, “1523,”missing two clasps, a few scuffs to the leather, tooling rubbed and indistinct, but very sturdy and overall in excellent condition. Dimensions 320 x 210 mm.
Liturgical books were the bread and butter of Parisian printers in the sixteenth century; Jean Kebriant specialized in Missals, producing as many as forty different editions from 1516 to 1550. This is a rare imprint, perhaps the sole surviving copy of a previously unrecorded edition or state. Moreover, it is an impressive book, still in an early blind-tooled binding, and abundantly illustrated with wood- and metalcuts from many different sources, including the famous Verdun Missal printed by Jean du Pré in 1481(?). In contrast with early printed Books of Hours, the textual and illustrative traditions of printed Missals such as this have not been studied extensively, and this volume offers abundant avenues for further research.
Provenance
1. Printed in Paris by the Jean Kerbriant (alis Huguelin) and Didier Maheu, dated January 7, 1524 on the title page: “Impressum a Johanne Kerbriand & Desiderio Maheu in alma Parisiorum academia. Anno Domini … Millesimo quingentesimo xxiiii. Id. Januarii/ vii …”; the colophon, presumably reused from an earlier edition, is dated February 11, 1423: “Impressum in alma Parisiorum academia per Desiderium Maheu et Johannem Kerbriant alias Huguelin, Anno M. ccccc.xxiii. xi Februarii.”
2. Evidence of use include a few brief marginal notes; part of the text for the Visitation (Part IV, f. D1) has been cancelled with pen strokes, apparently to shorten the reading from Luke 1(text remains legible).
3. Private Collection.
TEXT
Part 1:
f. †, [Title page] Missale ad sacros[an]cte[m] Ro=/mane ecclesie usum cum variis additamentis./ Missale hoc p[er]multa sparsim co[n]tinet q[ue] in cete/ris desidera[n]t[is]. Multa etia[m] errata plerisque in locis/ in aliis co[m]missa recognita sunt atq[ue] eme[n]data; ut/ diligens lectore facile percipiet. Impressum a Jo=/han[n]e Kerbria[n]d & Desiderio Maheu: in alma Pa/risioru[m] academia. Anno D[omi]ni virtutu[m] co[n]ditiorisq[ue]/ mu[n]di. Millesimo q[ui]nge[n]tesimo xxiiii. Id. Januarii/ vii./ Venale habetur in vico/ sancti jacobi sub signo Craticule et divi Nicolai.”;
f. † i, verso, Text explaining dominical letters and golden numbers, with accompanying circular diagrams (“rotae”); text in the lower paragraph mentions “the present year,” 1521 (“hoc anno presenti M.CCCCC.XXI”);
ff. † i ii-i vii verso, Calendar in red and black; Latin month verses used as running titles for each month (January, incipit, “Pocula ianus amat …”); each month concludes with the verses giving health advice for each month including bloodletting, bathing, nutrition, and treatments for different health problems. In January, for instance, one should eat hot meals, drink sufficiently, take healthy baths, and do some bloodletting (incipit, “In iano claris calidisque cibis potiaris/ …”; recorded in Thorndike and Kibre, 1937, col. 683).
f. † viii r-v, Exorcism of salt and water, and Blessing of bread.
Part 2:
ff. i-lxxxii, Missale secundum usum Romanum, Temporal from the first Sunday in Advent through Holy Saturday.
Part 3:
ff. A i- D viii verso, Temporal from Easter to the 24th Sunday after Pentecost.
Part 4:
ff. A i- D iv verso, Ordinarium misse, beginning with prefatory material (instructions and warnings to priests to say the Mass properly, Cautele misse, Speculum Sacerdotum, Prayers Before Mass, Orationes Gregorii) with the Ordinary of the Mass proper beginning on f f. B ii; B iii verso, Conclusiones missae, noted, followed by noted Prefaces on ff. B iiii-C iii. Ff. C iii and C iv are parchment; f. C iii verso, full page Crucifixion, with the Canon in a larger font on ff. C iv to D iii verso; concluding with prayers after Communion, in the smaller font.
Part 5:
ff. A i-F viii, Sanctoral from the Vigil of St. Andrew to St. Katherine.
Part 6:
ff. i-lxxiiii, Common of Saints concluding with the Dedication of a Church; f. viii verso, Votive Masses; f. xxxi, Mass for the Dead, followed by prayers for the Dead; f. xxxv, additional Masses, including for the Five Wounds of Christ, On the Name of Jesus, and others; f. xlvi verso, Trentenarium of St. Gregory;
f. lxxiiii, Colophon], incipit, “Missale ad consuetudinem ecclesie romane. Missale hoc permulta sparsim continet que in ceteris desiderantur: multa etiam errata plerisque in locis recognita sunt et emendata; ut diligens lector facile inveniet. Impressum in alma Parisiorum academia per Desiderium Maheu et Johannem Kerbriant alias Huguelin. Anno M. ccccc. xxiii. xi Februarii” [f. lxxiiii verso, blank].
An edition printed by Jean Kerbriant (alis Huguelin) and Didier Maheu, dated January 7, 1524 on the title page and February 11, 1523 in the colophon is recorded in BP16, no. 104891 (Bibliographie des éditions parisiennes du 16e siècle; Online Resources), recording four copies, Paris, BnF, RLR, Vélins 782 (Online Resources), Paris, Bibliothèque St. Geneviève, FOL BB 48(2) INV 52 RES (Online Resources), Dole, Mediathèques de Grand Dole (Online Resources), and Rome, Biblioteca Angelica, H.17.6 (unverified). It is also recorded in Moreau-Renouard, 1972-2004, vol. III, p. 226, no. 717 (1524), again listing these copies. Amiet,1990, pp. 68-69, no. 1053B, puzzlingly lists these same four copies and cites Moreau-Renouard but lists the date as February 13, 1523 (Weale and Bohatta, 1928, no. 1053, is an unrelated Roman Missal, printed January 10, 1523, but not by Kerbriant and Maheu).
USTC (Online Resources) and Pettegree and Walsby (2012) instead record two editions, one dated 1523 (USTC 186918; Pettegree and Walsby, 2012, no. 68301), with one copy, St. Geneviève, FOL BB 48(2) INV 52 RES, and one dated 1524 (USTC 184429; Pettegree and Walsby, 2012, no. 68302), recording no known copies. Paris, Bibliothèque St. Geneviève, FOL BB 48(2) INV 52 RES was not available for comparison, but its catalogue states that the date at the end of the volume in this edition is 1524, but that it is dated 1523 on the title page (“Impressum a Johanne Kerbriand et Desiderium Maheu in alma Parisiorum academia, anno Domini virtutum... millesimo quingentesimo XXIII. ed. Januarii), with an added note, “[Parisiis], [1523] [l'in fine indique 1524]” citing Weale et Bohatta n. 1053A. Since we were not able to consult this volume directly, we have not been able to verify this information.
Significantly, comparing the copy at the BnF, which has been digitized, with our copy, reveals an important difference between the two. Their title pages, which at first appear identical, differ in the details provided about the printers. The imprint at the BnF records the location as the “sign” of the Parisian printer Pierre Roffet: “Venale habetur in vico novo beate Marie sub signo Falcarii,” and not, as in the present copy, the joint “sign” of Kerbriant and Maheu, “in vico sancti jacobi” “sub signo Craticule [Kerbriant] et divi Nicolai [Maheu].” The copy at the the Bibliothèque St. Geneviève agrees with the BnF copy and records the location “sub signo Falcarii” (verified in a partial image of its title page). To our knowledge, the variant in our volume, identified to date only in our volume, has never been recorded in the scholarly literature.
The contents of these two books are also arranged in a different order. This Missal was printed modularly, with six distinct sections (most concluding “finis”), each with its own series of signatures (see above for the foliation and collation of our copy). The BnF copy is arranged with the Temporal interrupted by the Canon (following the order found in most Missals); in our volume, the two parts of the Temporal follow one another, and then are followed by the Canon. Further comparisons, including not only these two books, but also the St. Geneviève volume, and the volumes in Dole (its brief online description confirms the 1524 date on the title page and the 1523 date in the colophon), and in Rome, are needed to sort out the inter-relationship between these books and to establish how many different editions or states they represent.
Illustration
The text is abundantly illustrated; 4- to 6-line decorative initials appear throughout, many are historiated, others are infilled with flowers or vines; numerous small 6- to 9-line miniatures are also used as alternatives to initials at key places in the text. In section 2, the printer has curiously used the same small miniature of Christ teaching eleven times, and there are occasionally other repetitions, but generally the subject fits the text. All are uncolored, except the Crucifixion and the historiated initial for “Te igitur” on the facing page in the Canon.
There are 28 wood- and metalcuts (including two used twice), drawn from different sources, some dating back to the famous Verdun Missal printed by Jean Dupré (GW M24836), one of the first illustrated books printed in Paris, including the image of the Mass, here used at the beginning of the Temporal with a full border, and the lovely full-page Crucifixion in the Canon, printed on vellum and carefully hand-colored with many colors and gold, in a gold architectural frame. The colophon of the Verdun Missal states it was printed in 1481, but it has been suggested that this should be seen as an error for 1491 (Baurmeister, 1999). Its illustrations were once attributed to Pierre Le Rouge, an illuminator and printer, active in Chablis in 1478, and then in Paris until his death in 1493, but more recent scholars have suggested that they are the work of the Master of the Très Petites Heures of Anne of Brittany (Bober, 1947-1949, rejected the attribution to Pierre Le Rouge; see Baurmeister, 1999, pp. 484-488, for the new attribution). The Master of the Très Petites Heures of Anne of Brittany (named after one of his manuscripts, Paris, BnF, MS n.a.l. 3120, and probably identified as Jean d’Ypres, fl. in Paris, c. 1480-1510), is also known as the Master of the Apocalypse Rose for his designs made for the rose window of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Working for numerous printers, he supplied many series of woodcuts to illustrate printed Books of Hours, designs that are also found in manuscripts he painted (see Avril and Reynaud, 1993, no. 147, pp. 268-270, and Nettekoven, 2004).
Other prints in this Missal are more recent works, including some in the style of Gabriel Salmon (active 1513-1532, or as late as 1542) in Paris and Nancy (Adhémar, 1939, vol. 2, p. 92; cf. Jacobson, 1994, p. 478). Salmon is most well-known today for his series of the Labors of Hercules; his style is distinctive and marked by “une vigeur rare” for his time (Adhémar, 1939, vol. 2, pp. 92-93, our Missal is no. 3); a modern scholar has called his style “somewhat harsh and violent” (Jacobson, ed., 1994, p. 199, see cat. nos. 7 and 8). Adhémar states that “many anonymous blocks” are close to Salmon in style (we suggest that the blocks he specifies, on ff. i, viii, xii verso, lxviii verso, are not good examples of this; see instead the striking illustrations on part 1, f. lxix and lxii). The sources for most of the illustrations in our volume have not yet been identified, although they can almost certainly be found among wood- and metalcuts used in printed Books of Hours from the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
Subjects as follows:
f. † i, Title page in red and black, with large metalcut of the Virgin and Child, 117 x 90 mm., and a full metalcut border with figurative decoration; coat of arms in the lower margin has been left blank;
Part 2, Temporal:
f. i (Temporal) Large wood- or metalcut of the Mass (often described as the Mass of St. Gregory), 152 x 152 mm., full metalcut border with figurative scenes; coat of arms lower margin left blank.
This is the well-known print also found in the Verdun Missal printed in Paris by Jean Dupré (GW M24836) and dated 1481 [perhaps an error for 1491]. This print was used by printers, both in Paris and in the provinces numerous times, and was still in use in the mid-sixteenth century (Courboin, pp. 26-28, plate 41). Traditionally ascribed to the Burgundian artist, Pierre Le Rouge, it more likely by the Master of the Très Petites Heures of Anne of Brittany. Here the main image is reused (or perhaps recut) from the earlier Missal, but with a different border.
f. viii, Nativity within an architectural border, 105 x 75 mm. (series 1);
f. xii verso, Nativity used on f. viii, repeated.;
f. lv, Betrayal of Christ within an architectural border, 105 x 75 mm. (series 1);
f. lix, Crucifixion, 122 x 78 mm. (Series 2; crowded composition, more modern in feel in the style of Gabriel Salmon, exaggerating the anatomy of the bare chests of male figures, swooping curves, and facial expressions);
f. lxii, Carrying the Cross, 122 x 78 mm. (series 2, style of Gabriel Salmon);
f. lxvii, Betrayal of Christ, 122 x 78 mm. (series 3?; partial frame)
f. lxvi verso, Christ carrying the cross, 122 x 78 mm. (Although not a direct copy, based on The Bearing of the Cross, from The Large Passion by Albrecht Dürer, 1511);
f. lxix, Crucifixion, 122 x 78 mm. (series 3?, partial frame);
Part 3, Temporal, continued, beginning with Easter (unfoliated):
f. A i, Resurrection, 115 x 76 mm. (series 4);
f. B i, Ascension, 115 x 76 mm. (series 4);
f. B iii verso, Ascension, 105 x 75 mm. (series 1, with architectural border);
Part 4, Ordinary and Canon (unfoliated):
C iii verso, Full page miniature of the Crucifixion, within a full Renaissance architectural border, hand colored and on parchment.
Like the Mass, this is from the Verdun Missal printed in Paris by Jean Dupré in 1481 [or 1491] (within a different frame).
Part 5, Sanctoral (unfoliated):
f. A i, St Andrew, 100 x 70 mm. (series 5);
f. A ii verso, Immaculate Conception or The Virgin of the Litanies, 118 x 78 mm.
This print is also found in a 1510 Book of Hours by Thielman Kerver, see Mcgehee, 2008, fig. 16.
f. A viii verso, Presentation of Christ, 105 x 75 mm. (series 1);
f. C v verso, Annunciation, 78 x 75 mm. (series 1, but printed without the top and bottom border);
f. E iii, Coronation of the Virgin, 105 x 75 mm. (series 1);
f. E vii, Virgin and Child flanked by angels, 105 x 75 mm. (series 1);
f. F vi, All Saints, 118 x 78 mm.
Part 6, Common of Saints:
f. i, All Saints, also used on f. F vi, repeated here;
f. xvii v, Trinity and Communion of Saints, 123 x 80 mm.;
f. xviii v, Trinity, 105 x 75 mm. (series 1);
f. xix, Pentecost, 105 x 75 mm. (series 1);
f. xx, Crucifixion, repeating print found in part one, f. 59;
f. xx verso, Annunciation, 105 x 75 mm. (series 1, as f. C verso part IV, but with complete frame);
f. xxxi, Christ in Judgment and demons, 105 x 75 mm. (series 1).
Missals are the liturgical book for the celebrant that includes all the texts necessary to celebrate the Mass throughout the year. Our Missal, as the title page states, follows the use of the holy Roman church (“ad sacrosanctem [sic] Romane ecclesie usum”). The earliest printed edition of a Missal for use of Rome book is Milan, 1474 (GW M23949), and many hundreds of editions followed, first in Italy (Venice, Rome, Milan, and elsewhere), and then in Germany, and France, in Lyon and Paris, producing Missals answering the local liturgical needs of various dioceses and religious orders throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The 1497 Venice edition, revised and corrected, was taken as base for the official version of Missal of the Roman Church, printed under the approval of Pope Pius V by decree of the Council of Trent in 1570. One of the earliest illustrated Missals printed in Paris was the famous Missal for the use of Verdun printed by Jean du Pré in 1481 or 1491, which influenced many later Missals printed in Paris through the first half of the sixteenth century, including the Missal described here (see Illustration, above).
Liturgical books were the bread and butter of many Parisian printers in the sixteenth century; Jean Kerbriant specialized in Missals, producing as many as forty different editions from 1516 to 1550 (USTC, Online Resources). Kerbriant, also known as Huguelin, was a libraire-juré and printer, who worked in Paris from 1516 to 1550 (Renouard, 1995). He was associated with Jean Adam until 1518; in 1523 he was established at the rue St.-Jacques au Gril, “sub signo Craticule” (variants, “sub signo cratis ferreae,” “in signo cratulae ferreae”), where he remained at least until 1544, when he began to print on the rue St.-Jacques at the sign of St. Louis. The title page in our volume suggests that Kerbriant and Maheu independently printed this new edition of their Missal under a new “sign,” without the involvement of Pierre Roffet, soon after Kerbriant’s move to the rue St-Jacques.
Collaboration between Parisian printers and booksellers like that seen in the production of our volume was frequent in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Didier Maheu, whom we see working with Kerbriant in 1524, was born in 1474, and worked as a printer in Paris between 1510 and 1543 under the “sign” of St. Nicholas, “sub signo divi Nicolai” (variant, “in vico Jacobeo ad signe beate Nicolai” (Renouard, 1995, pp. 289-290). The 1524 edition in the BnF, as noted earlier, was printed by Kerbriant and Maheu at Pierre Roffet’s premises. Roffet, “Faulcheur,” was a bookseller and bookbinder for the kings of France; nothing is known about his work before 1523; from that date to 1530 he worked mainly with Nicole Vostre and Estienne Auffray with some exceptions, “sub signo Falcarii.”
Literature
Adhémar, Jean. Inventaire du fonds français. Graveurs du XVIe siècle, Paris, 1939, volume 2, p. 93, no. 3 (Imprimés velins, 782).
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5488468m/f110.item.r=Inventaire%20du%20fonds%20fran%C3%A7ais
Amiet Robert. Missels et bréviaires imprimés (Supplément aux catalogues de Weale et Bohatta). Propres des Saints (édition princeps), Documents, études et répertoires de l'Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes 4, Aubervilliers, 1990, cf. pp. 68-69, no. 1053B, and p. 553, 1053A.
Baurmeister, Urusula, “1481: a false landmark in the history of French illustration? The Paris and Verdun missals of Jean Du Pré,” in Incunabula: studies in fifteenth-century printed books presented to Lotte Hellinga (London, 1999) pp. 469-491.
Bober, Harry. “The ‘First’ Illustrated Books of Paris Printing: A Study of the Paris and Verdun Missals of 1481 by Jean Du Pré,” Marsyas: Studies in the History of Art 5 (1947-1949), pp. 87-104.
Claudin, A., et al. Histoire de l'imprimerie en France au XVe au XVIe siècle, Paris, 1900-1904.
Courboin, François. Histoire illustrée de la gravure en France .. M. Le Garrec, 1923.
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3040179d/f60.item
Jacobson, Karen, ed. The French Renaissance in Prints, from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Los Angeles, 1994.
Mcgehee, Abby. “The Virgin Chapel at Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais: Embellishment and Devotion in Late Gothic Paris,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 67, No. 3 (2008), pp. 362-387.
Monceaux, H. Les Le Rouge de Chablis, calligraphes et miniaturistes, graveurs et imprimeurs, Paris, 1896.
“Pierre Le Rouge en Paris (1479-1493), available online,
http://echo.auxerre.free.fr/dossier_telechargement/Bulletin_SSHNY/1895_bulletin_sshny.pdf
Moreau, Brigitte, Philippe Renouard, et al. Inventaire Chronologique des Éditions Parisiennes du XVIe siècle, Paris, 1972-2004, vol. III, p. 226, no. 717.
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k58392059/f231.item
Pettegree, Andrew and Malcolm. Walsby. French Books III & IV: Books Published in France before 1601 in Latin and Languages Other Than French, Brill, 2012, nos. 68301, 68302.
Renouard, Philippe. Repertoire des Imprimeurs Parisiens, 1995, p. 223 (Kerbriant).
Thorndike, L. and P. Kibre. A Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin, Cambridge (Mass.), 1937.
Weale, W. H. James, and Hanns Bohatta. Bibliographia liturgica : catalogus missalium ritus Latini, ab anno 1474 impressorum, second edition, London, Leipzig, 1928.
Online Resources
BnF, Impr, Réserve des livres rares, VELINS-782 FRBNF36814257
https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb368142578
Paris, Bibliothèque St. Geneviève, Magasin Réserve ; FOL BB 48 (2) INV 52 RES
https://catalogue.bsg.univ-paris3.fr/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991007773179705804&context=L&vid=33USPC_BSG:BSG&lang=fr&search_scope=Alma_pci_sansebsco&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=alma_pci_noebsco&query=any,contains,missale%20romanae&offset=0
Mediatheques du Grand Dole, 16G/19
https://www.jumel39.fr/detail-d-une-notice/notice/2000549682-3917
BP16_104891 (Bibliographie des éditions parisiennes du 16e siècle)
https://bp16.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb418779040/
USTC, no. 186918, [Paris], impressum Jean Kerbriant et Didier Maheu, 1523
https://www.ustc.ac.uk/editions/186918
USTC, no 184429, Paris, Jean Kerbriant [et] [Didier Maheu et Pierre Roffet], 1524
https://www.ustc.ac.uk/editions/184429
Gabriel Salmon, “Labors of Hercules” (Art Institute of Chicago)
https://www.artic.edu/collection?artist_ids=Gabriel%20Salmon
Kerbriant Missals (USTC)
https://www.ustc.ac.uk/explore?pg=2&q=Missale%20Kerbriant&fqa=&fqt=&fqr=&fqc=France&fqp=&fqf=&fql=&fqs=&fqyf=&fqyt=&srt=7&fqlo=&fqis=&fqpf=&fqd=&fqo=&fqn=
TM 1251
