Breviarium Benedictinum, Brescia, 1488, contemporary stamped calf

Breviarium Benedictinum

Breviarium Benedictinum (Congregationis S. Justinae). Johannes Britannicus: Ad Guinifortum Boccaccinum litterae [edited by Guiniforte Boccaccino]. Brescia: Jacobus Britannicus, 17 April 1488

8vo (172 x 110mm.), 544 leaves, +⁸ [A⁴] a-z [et] [con] [rum] A-Z aarr⁸ ss⁴, [A4] and s4 blank, double column, 33 lines, gothic type, printed in red and black, woodcut printer's device of Angelus Britannicus in red beneath colophon, contemporary blind-stamped calf over wooden boards by the bindery of St Godehard in Hildesheim [EBDB w000212], numerous index tabs, spine with later lettering-pieces, remains of two clasps, a few wormholes at beginning and end and in binding, binding slightly chipped at ends, new endpapers

ONE OF TWO SURVIVING COPIES; the other is in Munich but incomplete. The Benedictine Congregation of Santa Giustina of Padua became part of the Cassinese Congregation in 1505; this is one of several liturgical works printed for Santa Giustina in the 1480s and 1490s, all of which survive in just a few copies.

LITERATURE:

ISTC ib01129300

PROVENANCE:

Benedictine monastery of St Godehard [Gotthard], Hildesheim, early inscription on first leaf; Ampleforth Abbey library, bookplate and ink stamp