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Folio (362 x 245 mm). Collation: ?6 ?6 ?4 (i4 blank) ?6 ?6 ??6 ??4; A-Z Aa-Yy6. [38], 228, 42 leaves. Double column, printed in red and black, double rule page-borders throughout. 57 pages with printed music (staves red-printed). Woodcut title illustration of Saints Peter and Paul, seven full-page woodcuts (the first in two blocks: a woodcut border and small Annunciation cut), five small woodcut vignettes including two repeats, and approximately 368 historiated initials in various sizes and from various series. Small tear to corner of title-leaf, occasional foxing, very occasional offsetting of red ink, small stains in gutters in quire O, finger-soiling in Canon (quire X), small rust-hole in f. 212 (NN2) affecting 3 letters, last few leaves with narrow marginal dampstain and slight creasing to upper fore-corners. Bound in contemporary French gold-tooled and -stamped light brown goatskin, covers paneled with double fillets, inner panel with fleurons at outer corners, inner corners with large stamp of leafy branches emerging from a small medallion with winged cherub's head, large central oval medallion of the Crucifixion on upper cover and Annunciation on lower cover, smooth spine (with recessed cords) decorated with overall double fillet panel with tiny fleurons at corners, gilt edges, plain endpapers, remains of numerous fore-edge tabs in paper, pale green or pink silk, and black silk for the Mass for the Dead. Corners bumped, slight wear, front cover slightly rubbed, a few small holes to lower cover, foxing to endpapers. Provenance: contemporary inscription in French on front flyleaf listing "Messes pour tous les iours de la sepmaine" (Masses for every day of the week); loosely inserted armorial papercut, unidentified arms (lion rampant, on a chief three roses). Unrecorded issue of an imposing post-Tridentine Missal, in a fine Parisian gold-tooled binding. The woodcut illustrations of this copy differ from the other known copies of this edition, which are illustrated with engravings. The binding tools appear on other books published by the same publishing consortium, and have been associated with religious lay confraternities founded by Henri III in the 1580s. This exceptional copy is of interest for the history of publishing, printing, illustration, and binding; it raises questions about the very concept of an edition, about the transmission of images, and about the relations between printer-publishers, bookbinders, and book buyers in the hand-press period.? In 1570, with the papal bull "Quo primum," Pope Pius V imposed uniformity on the rites of Mass, previously a hodge-podge of different local traditions. That bull was printed in all subsequent missals; it is accompanied here by papal and royal privileges which supply crucial information concerning the publishing history of this edition. Jacques Kerver was the first French libraire to obtain a privilege for the publication of liturgical works. When he died in 1583, the privilege passed to his widow, who ceded it to a consortium of booksellers: Sebastian Nivelle, Guillaume Chaudi?re, Guillaume de la Noue, Michel Sonnius, and Thomas Brumen (cf. Renouard, Imprimeurs et libraires parisiens du XVIe si?cle, IV, 22). That privilege expired on 22 December 1595. This edition includes Papal and Royal renewals of the Kerver privilege for the printing of "sacred books" (Missals, Breviaries, and Offices of the Virgin), granted respectively by Clement VIII and Henri IV, both on 4 April 1596. For Thomas Brumen, who had died in 1588, the Royal privilege substitutes his son-in-law and heir Jean Corbon II, and adds the names of Claude Chapelet, identified as bookseller to the Academy, and Jamet Mettayer and Pierre L'Huillier, respectively Royal printer and Royal bookseller (Mettayer was also the official printer for the Royal confraternities). The preliminary matter further includes the reformed (Gregorian) Paschal calendar for the years 1582 to 1700, a table of moveable feasts for 1589 to. Seller Inventory # 2945
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