Graduale romanum

part 1 only (of 3), folio (515 x 360mm.), 218 leaves, π¹ a^7(8-1) b-s⁸ t¹⁰ v-z [et] [con] [rum] [rum rum]⁸, printed in red and black throughout, typeset music, woodcut historiated initials designed by Benedetto Bordon, woodcut Giunta device printed in red on title-page, eighteenth-century Spanish reversed calf over thick square-cut wooden boards, bronze metalwork over pink pattered paper, two clasps, some annotations (contemporary to eighteenth-century), some amendments to the musical notation (including paper strips pasted over some notes and words or the use of white paint), a few marginal tears and repairs, title-page somewhat stained, occasional light staining, a few headlines shaved, binding slightly rubbed, hinges broken, lacking one strap

Goff G332; HC (+Add) 7844; BMC v 541; GW 10982; Duggan 17; Meyer-Baer 20; Sander 3211

Lilian Armstrong, "Benedetto Bordon and the illumination of Venetian choir-books around 1500: patronage, production, competition", in: Wege zum Illuminierten Buch (Vienna, 2014), 221-244; L. Armstrong, "Benedetto Bordon, Aldus Manutius and Lucantonio Giunta: old links and new", in Aldus Manutius and Renaissance Culture (Florence, 1998), 161-183

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

RARE. ISTC records 38 copies, most of which are just one or two parts of the complete three parts (it is usually bound in two volumes; the second two parts contain 166 leaves in total, which would give 386 leaves in total for all three parts). The last time a copy appeared at auction was at Sotheby's in 1994; this was also just the first part of three, but it additionally lacked the title-page and the colophon; it also had the corrections made with white paint and the same vertical strokes aligning the words with the music (such as on f. XIIII).

THE LARGEST INCUNABLE PRODUCED, most probably printed on paper specially manufactured for this work and the associated Antiphonarium (4 volumes, 1503-1504) and Psalmista (1507). The Gradual contains the music for the mass, to be sung by the choir, which is why it is generally such a large book. ISTC lists just ten graduals, starting with the Constance Gradual of c. 1473.

Johannes Emericus de Spira specialised in liturgical books, and he produced more than twenty books containing printed music. "His work is of beautiful execution and design; it is therefore not surprising that he was chosen to print the music masterpieces of Venice, the Graduale and Antiphonarium published by Luca Antonio Giunta" (Duggan, p. 130). This book contains his largest size of type (Duggan's R21) which was also used for the Antiphonarium.

The woodcut initials found in this work are, in the opinion of Lilian Armstrong ("Benedetto Bordon, "Miniator", and cartography in early modern Venice", Imago mundi 48 (1996), 65-92, p.70), the work of Benedetto Bordon. He had also illuminated choir books for the convent of San Nicolò della Lattuga in Venice in the 1490s, and the designs he used for those books are similar to these woodcut initials. They were commissioned for use in this book and remained in use by Giunta for several decades (for another woodcut by Bordon, see lot 53).

This copy does not contain the two-leaf introduction to plainchant by Franciscus de Brugis; according to Duggan, this is state 1 of the printing, and the introduction was only added in state 2.

This binding is almost identical to one on a manuscript missal in the library of the Hispanic Society of America, illustrated in Penney, An Album of Selected Bookbindings (New York, 1967), plate XIV. Together with the eighteenth-century annotations, it demonstrates that this Gradual had a long lifetime of active use in a religious setting.