Manual, use of York, [Rouen, 1530], contemporary panel-stamped calf binding made in York

Manual. Use of York

Manuale quoddam secundum usum matris ecclesie Eboracensis. [Rouen]: for John Gachet in York [?N. le Roux, 1530]

4to (231 x 158mm.), printed in red and black throughout, title with woodcut illustration of St John the Evangelist, woodcut of the Crucifixion on c7v, typeset music, text in Latin with parts of the wedding service in English, a few notes in English on front flyleaf, contemporary calf binding by Thomas Richardson of York, containing panels of St Barbara and St Nicholas (now quite rubbed), small hole in gutter of title with loss of a couple of letters, a few edges frayed, k2 with a tear affecting text, small wormhole in final quire, later binding retaining the original full panels (laid upside down)

RARE. A YORK BOOK IN A CONTEMPORARY YORK BINDING, NAMING THE BINDER. The French bookseller Jean Gachet commissioned several service books for the use of York from Rouen printers; he also imported books from France via Hull for sale in the town. This is the second York Manual commissioned by him, the first was dated 1509 (STC 16160).

The binding has been attributed to Thomas Richardson of Petergate, York, on the basis of the note on the rear flyleaf: "Yf thes ii books be nott for you send them againe unto Thomas Rychardsonn and they shalbe changed & they cost iiiis viiid one processioner and one manuell". The same binding panels appear on a book in Durham Cathedral Library, on a Lyon imprint from 1511; see Oldham, Blind Panels of English Binders, ST.3 and ST.38, who also quotes the inscription by Richardson.

The collation given in ESTC is a-l⁸; there is, however, an additional leaf at the end, with a list of contents and an explicit on the recto, and a woodcut of the Tree of Jesse on the verso. The list of contents has an unfortunate misprint: instead of "Ordo visitandi infirmos", it states "Ordo visitandi infernum". While it has been opined that there may be some leaves missing after l8, the Marsh copy contains the same leaves at the end so it is impossible to state how much (if anything) is lacking.

LITERATURE:

STC 16161 (ESTC lists two copies, this one and Marsh's Library)

PROVENANCE:

The English Benedictines, for the use of Brother Wilfred Helme, inscription on title-page; Ampleforth Abbey library, bookplate and ink stamp