[PONTIFICAL.] Pontificale majoris hebdomadæ officia et missas complectens pro faciliori pontificum usu.

Inventively Rebound

[PONTIFICAL.] Pontificale majoris hebdomadæ officia et missas complectens pro faciliori pontificum usu. Urbino: Antonio Fantauzzi for Typis Venerabilis Cappellæ SS. Sacramenti. 1727.

One volume bound in two, folio. Contemporary sheep panelled in blind with central lozenge, raised bands; pp. 787, [1]; printed in red and black throughout within double-ruled frames; full-page copper-engraved illustrations, copper-engraved historiated initials, large copper-engraved head- and tailpieces after Guido Reni and Giovanni Lanfranco (see below), engraved papal arms of Benedict XIII to title-page and occasional square musical notation in black on red four-line staves; large abrasions to boards, small chip to foot of spine of vol. II, endbands of vol. I frayed and coming loose, tailband of vol. II perished, rear pastedown of vol. II lifted (revealing guards reusing old printed waste), joints and edges somewhat rubbed; some soiling and offsetting to endpapers, light marginal spotting and marks to a few ff., light dampstain to last 30 pp. of vol. I (heavier to last few ff.), a few pawprints in ink to verso of final leaf of vol. I, a few small wormholes to pastedowns, marginal loss to fore-edge of f. 2A2; invented title-page for vol. II supplied in manuscript, p. 399 replicated in manuscript at end of vol. I, with verso blank (see below); bookplate of Jac. E. Lister-Empson with motto ‘Christus est corona mea’ to front pastedowns with manuscript shelfmarks.

A finely illustrated eighteenth-century Holy Week pontifical, with designs by Pier Leone Ghezzi, and engravings after Guido Reni and Giovanni Lanfranco.

Printed in Urbino in 1727, during the pontificate of Benedict XIII (1724–1730), the Pontificale contains the offices and Masses of Holy Week for use by bishops and was intended to facilitate the celebration of some of the most solemn ceremonies of the Catholic liturgical year. Its publication coincided with Benedict XIII’s efforts to reinforce ecclesiastical discipline, exemplified by the Roman provincial council of 1725. Originally issued as a single volume, this copy has been inventively bound in two volumes, with p. 399 (the final page of text to vol. I) replicated in manuscript at the end of vol. I.

The original leaf, with a full-page copper engraving to the verso, has been preserved, bound after a manuscript facsimile mock title made at the time of binding; a blank page has been pasted to the recto, but has since come away, rendering the original text visible. The manuscript facsimile title-page, beautifully executed, features a fine ink rendering of the papal arms of Benedict XIII Orsini (r. 1724–1730), Pope at the time of the work’s publication, meticulously copied from the engraved vignette to the title. The drawing is inscribed, in a minute hand, ‘Fra[ncesco] Feri deli. et fecit’.

The two volumes are distinguished by their elaborate engraved decorations and illustrations that depict biblical scenes associated with Holy Week and Easter including Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Several of the engravings were executed after designs by Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674–1755), a Roman painter, often regarded as the first professional caricaturist.

Closely associated with the Albani family, an extremely renowned family of ecclesiastical and artistic patrons from Ubrino, he received important commissions from Clement XI. Ghezzi is particularly celebrated for his caricatures of Roman society, depicting figures ranging from aristocrats and churchmen to artists and musicians. Many of these drawings were collected in Mondo Nuovo, a series of eight albums now preserved at the Vatican Library, offering a record of eighteenth-century Roman life.

Provenance: Nineteenth-century bookplate of James E. E. Lister-Empson, of the Yorkshire landowning family associated with Ousefleet Hall, near Goole, Yorkshire.

OCLC finds only a handful of copies in continental Europe; Library Hub finds a single copy, at Oxford (Bodleian); no copies traced in the US.

Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Ottob. lat. 3116, fol. 55; Laura Di Calisto, ‘Massi, Gaspare’, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 71 (2008); Anna Lo Bianco, ‘Ghezzi, Pier Leone’, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 53 (2000); Giovanni Gori Gandellini, Notizie istoriche degli intagliatori (Siena: Onorato Porri, 1808), vols I-II.

SKU: 2125791