Religion & Devotion / Books of hours, Missals & Prayerbooks

[ABC BOOK]. Correttissima Santa Croce per facilissima istruzzione de' fanciulli.
[Rome], Francesco Ansillioni, [ca. 1750]. Small 8vo. With 2 nearly full-page woodcuts (the Holy Virgin on the front cover and a monk with a shining nimbus containing the word "charitas" around his head on the back cover) and 7 small religious woodcuts in text. Front and back cover and the first two pages with alphabets and numbers in ornamental woodcut borders. Sewn. [16] pp. Full description

BIVERUS, Pierre. Sacrum oratorium piarum imaginum immaculatae Mariae et animae creatae, ac baptismo, poenitentia, et eucharistia innovatae: ars nova bene vivendi et moriendi.
Antwerp, Officina Plantiniana/Balthasar Moretus, 1634. 4to. With engraved title-page, 42 engraved plates by Charles de Mallery after Adam van Noort and Adriaan Collaert, 2 engravings in text, and 15 heart-shaped engraved emblems in text by Theodoor Galle. 19th-century gold-tooled brown morocco, gilt edges; bound by Émile Bosquet. [20], 769, [9] pp. Full description

[BOOK OF HOURS]. [Book of Hours - use of Rouen].
Rouen, Normandy, France, ca. 1480. Small 4to (14.3 x 19.3 cm). Latin and French illuminated manuscript on vellum. Ruled in red ink for 14 lines per page (16 in the calendar). Gothic textura, major feasts in calendar in burnished gold, others alternately red or blue. Text pages illuminated with panel borders of flowers and plants on gold, and blue and gold stylised acanthus on a plain ground. Calendar has 24 small square miniatures set into panel borders; major text divisions marked by 12 large miniatures; 2 historiated initials; hundreds of smaller initials and line-fillers throughout. 18th-century French gold-tooled red calf over pasteboards, with the title lettered in gold on the spine, gilt edges, marbled endpapers. [160] ll. Full description

[BOOK OF HOURS]. Hore [= Horae beate Marie Virginis] secundum usum Romanum ad longum.
(colophon: Paris, Thomas Kees), [ca. 1511, with an almanac for the years 1511-1530]. 8vo (18 x 12 cm). Printed on vellum in red and black throughout, with illustrations printed from (mostly metal?) relief blocks: 17 nearly full-page plus 1 repeat, 27 small plus 2 repeats in the text, many additional small in the decorated border pieces that surround nearly every page. Dark brown gold- and blind-tooled goatskin morocco (ca. 1870?), signed "HARDY-MENNIL" in the foot of the front turn-in. [216] pp. Full description

[BOOK OF HOURS - DUTCH]. [15th-century manuscript book of hours, written in Middle Dutch]. [Incipit 1r:] Here du saltste op doen mine lippen en[de] mijn mo[n]t sal voert-kundige[n] dijn lof.
[Southern Netherlands, 15th century]. Small 4to (binding 15.5 x 12 cm; leaves ca. 14.5 x 11.5 cm). Manuscript in Middle-Dutch, written in one column (18 or 19 lines to a page) in a very neat gothic textura script, by one or maybe two hands. The vellum leaves are (lightly) ruled in red ink, the main body of the text is written in black ink. Leaf 1r shows a large 9-line painted initial (blue and white on a golden field) and elaborate green vines and blue, gold, and pink leaves in the margins, all tekst on 1r is written within a blue and gold frame. With 37 3- or 4-line painted initials (gold on a blue or pink field) with the same green, blue, gold, and pink vine-and-leaves decorations in the left margins of the leaves and 7 3-, 4-, or 5-line penwork initials (green, blue, and red) with simple red and green penwork decorations in the left margin of the leaves. Further with numerous 1- and 2-line red and blue initials throughout and occasional 6-line red or blue initials in the left margin of the leaves. 17th- or 18th-century gold- and blind-tooled half mottled calf and sprinkled paper sides, red sprinkled edges. [189] ll. Full description

[BREVIARY]. Breviarium Romanum ex decreto sacrosancti concilii Tridentini restitutum, Pii V. Pont. Max. jussu editum, et Clementis VIII. primùm, nunc denuò Urbani PP. VIII. auctoritate recognitum. In quo omnia suis locis ad longum posita sunt, pro majori recitantium commoditate.
Antwerp, Typographia Plantiniana [Balthasar Moretus IV], 1714. 4 volumes. 12mo (14 x 9 cm). With engraved vignette with the Papal insignia on title-pages and 17 engraved plates. Text printed in red and black throughout. Contemporary gold-tooled calf, gilt edges. Pars hiemalis: [72], 568, 4, CCXXXII, [4] pp.; pars verna: [36], 592, 4, 8, CCXXXIIII, [6] pp.; pars aestiva: [36], 612, CCXV, [5] pp.; pars autumnalis: [36], 516, CCXLVIII, [4] pp. Full description

[COLENSO, William]. [Drop-title:] He Inoinga ma te tangate e wakaaro atu ana ki te Iriiringa.
[Heretaunga, William Colenso, ca. 1847]. Leaflet (17.2 x 11 cm). [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

CONDIO, Luigi. Preghiere. Miniature di Vittorio Vulten.
Torino, Carlo de Martini (printed by Stab. Litografico Giovanni Fraschini & C., Milan), 1902. 18mo (13.5 x 7.5 x 1.5 cm). A wholly chromolithographed Art Nouveau prayer book, printed in numerous pastel colours plus gold, with (mostly floral) decoration on every page and numerous additional illustrations. In a silver binding (hallmarked "800" at the foot of the otherwise blank back cover), with "Our Lady of the Rosary" from the shrine of the Virgin of the Rosary in Pompei depicted on the front cover in high relief (madonna and child presenting rosaries to Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine) flanked by two irises, above "Ave Maria" and a panel with "SS. Vergine di Pompei", endpapers lithographed in pastel colours plus gold, in a repeating pattern of abstracted flowers, crosses, anchors, hearts and initials "VD" or "DV", gilt edges. [104] pp. Full description

EUCHEL, Isaac Abraham. Gebete der hochdeutschen und polnischen Juden. Aus dem Hebräischen übersetzt und mit Anmerkungen versehen.
Vienna, J.B. Zweck, 1813. 8vo. With a woodcut head-piece. The book is printed in Gothic type, with the original titles also in Hebrew type. Contemporary blind-tooled half calf. [4], 394, [2] pp. Full description

EUCHEL, Isaac Abraham. Gebete der hochdeutschen und polnischen Juden. Aus dem Hebräischen übersetzt und mit Anmerkungen versehen.
Vienna, Anton Schmid, 1815. 8vo. The book is mainly printed in Gothic type with some Hebrew types to the titles and in the notes. Contemporary marbled paper over boards, with a brown label on the spine. 458 pp. Full description

[FLORIS VAN HAARLEM]. Den wech des levens. Een gheestelijc boecxken leerende hoe dat ee[n] goet kerste[n] mensch moet beginne[n] en[de] voortgaen in duechden, met veel devote ghebede[n] en[de] gheestelike corte vermaninghe[n] om tot een warachtich gheestelijc leven te comen.
[Antwerp, Heyndrick Peetersen van Middelburg, 1547?]. 8vo. With title printed in black and red, within woodcut borders. Contemporary slightly overlapping parchment, remnants of ties. [200] ll. Full description

GARCIA, Diego S.J. Sermon funebre en las exequias de la serenissima Señora D. Mariana de Austria Reyna Madre del Rey N. Señor Carlos II. Rey de las Españas. Que celebrò la nobilissima, y fidelissima ciudad de Mallorca en su Iglesia Catadral á 28. de Noviembre de 1696.
Palma de Mallorca, Miguel Capo, 1697. 4to. With the title in an ornamental frame built up from typographic ornaments (a fleur-de-lis and Vervliet vine leaf 207), three woodcut initials and a woodcut tailpiece. Modern marbled boards. [12], 26 pp. Full description

HABERMANN, Johan (Hendrik van DIEST, transl. and ed.). Christelijcke gebeden ende danck-seggingen, op 't nieuw tegen 't Hoogh-Duytsche oversien ende ten dienste der gereformeerde kercke verbetert.
Leeuwarden, Lodewijck Cres, 1661. Small 16mo in 8s (10 x 7.5 x 2 cm). Contemporary gold-tooled green parchment with an (impressed?) pebble grain (giving a sort of reptile skin pattern), sewn on 3 green parchment tapes, laced through the joints, bound for the Frisian noble families Van Harinxma thoe Slooten and Burmania, with 2 silver fastenings. 275, [8], [1 blank] pp. Full description

[HORTULUS ANIMAE - PRAYERBOOK]. [Hortulus anime cum aliis q[uam] plurimis orationibus pristine impressioni superadditis; ut tabulam in huius calce annexa[m] intue[n]ti pate[n]tissimu[m] erit.].
(colophon:) Lyon, Johannes Clein (for Johannes Koberger, Nürnberg), 15 March 1516. 8vo. With the a decorated woodcut on the title-page with a madonna and child above and a unicorn below a frame for the letterpress title printed in red, Cleins woodcut device on the final recto, further with 89 woodcut illustrations, printed from 86 blocks (in three sizes), including 52 (from 50 blocks) by Hans Springinklee (who also cut the title woodcut), 6 (from 5 blocks) by Erhard Schön and 23 other smaller woodcuts, and the text printed in red and black in gothic rotunda type, each page (except the title-page, Cleins device and a two-page table of moveable feasts), in 1 of 25 different woodcut borders (a few dated) composed of angels, putti, grotesques, vases, fountains and other emblematic and architectural details. Many of the woodcuts are partly coloured by a contemporary hand.
Contemporary blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, sewn on 3 double cords, each board with brass pieces covering the edges at the head and foot, a brass strip near the hinge on the front board (lacking on the back board) and 2 brass catch plates on the front board with traces on the back board of leather straps that would have had brass clasps. [20], CCX, [10] ll. Full description

[ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT - ALTAR CANON]. Accipiendo in manibus hostiam dicat[!].... Initium Sancti Evangelii secundum Joannem. ... Cibavit illum dominus pane vitæ et intellectus.
[Belgium?], [ca. 1790?]. Three illuminated manuscript wall panels in matching style, forming a three-part altar canon lettered in blue and red ink on parchment (one 47.5 x 57 cm & two 31 x 22 cm; image sizes 46 x 54.5 cm & 29.5 x 21 cm), the larger stretched over a wooden frame and each of the smaller two over a wooden panel. All three panels meticulously and finely lettered in the style of roman printing types with 1 line in italic capitals, all 12 initials and some of their decoration in gold. All three panels richly illuminated around and between the text blocks with a gold background and extensive gold highlights, the illumination including decorated cartouches. The principal scenes at the head (miniatures in a wide variety of colours) show the Last Supper, Saint John the Evangelist and Christ washing his apostles feet; the central scenes at the foot (ink and ink wash drawings, probably emblematic, that on the large panel in grey and those on the small panels in red) show a lamb and cross on an altar, 4 standing figures with long staffs around a table with a platter (of bread?: some of the figures are eating something) and herald angels before a kneeling figure (it doesnt look like a shepherd or the Virgin Mary). Full description

[LUYKEN, Jan]. Jezus en de ziel. Een geestelycke spiegel voor 't gemoed. Bestaande uyt veertig aangename en stichtelycke sinne-beelden.
Amsterdam, Pieter Arentsz., 1687. 8vo. With engraved frontispiece and 39 engraved emblems in text, all engraved by Jan Luyken. Contemporary vellum, sprinkled edges. 191, [5] pp. Full description

[MANUSCRIPT - SERVICE BOOK - DIVINE OFFICES]. Ordine da osservarsi nell'oratorio di Santa Maria di Passione, circa gli Essercicii Spirituali delle feste cavato dalla Regola maggiore.
[Milan], [18th-century]. Folio (27,5 x 18,5 cm). With 5 full-page and 2 half-page, hand-painted religious illustrations and 9 hand-painted initials on a blue background, heightened with gold and silver. 18th-century gold- and blind-tooled parchment, each board with a blind ornamental centre-piece ornament in a blind-tooled frame, in a larger frame of gold fillets, with a gold flower in each of the 6 spine compartments. [1 blank], [1], 66 pp. Full description

[MANUSCRIPT - PRAYERBOOK]. [1st rubric:] Form zu betten unser liebe[n] frawen mantel, Gebet. [incipit:] Cegrüest seiestu o süesse aller heiligste junckfraw maria ...
[Ravensburg?], [ca. 1670]. Small 16mo in 8s (10 x 8.5 x 4 cm; leaf: 9 x 7.5 cm). German manuscript in red and black ink on paper, written in an upright, semi-cursive gothic hand, with so-called lombardic initials in red, rubricated throughout. With 11 lines per page, text block 7 x 5.5 cm. Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin over bevelled wooden (beechwood?) boards, sewn on 3 double supports, In total more than 100 impressions of about 9 stamps. Further with 2 strap fastenings with brass clasps (each with an owners(?) stamp: 1.5 mm roman capital initials "LH" above a 3 mm head in profile, facing right), catchplates and anchor plates, plain headbands, blue edges. With 27 mm roman capital initials "BR" in brown ink on the foot edge. [423], [3 blank] pp. plus 3 endleaves at the front and 5 at the back. Full description

MCFARLAND, Samuel Gamble, ed. Siamese hymnal.
Phetchaburi (in Thailand), Samuel Gamble McFarland, 1876. 8vo. With Western round-head letterpress music notation. Set in Thai type with incidental roman. This copy with the letterpress presentation slip on blue paper tipped in (from McFarland and his wife), for people who contributed to the project. Contemporary half tanned sheepskin, probably bound for presentation. 148 pp. Full description

[MINIATURE - GERMAN]. [The Arrest of Christ].
[Flanders (Bruges?), or Nürnberg, ca. 1520]. Miniature painted on vellum (7.8 x 5.6 cm) in numerous colours, highlighted with gold and in a gold border, probably from a book of hours, but with no text. Full description

MOREAU, Pierre. Les Sainctes prieres de l'ame Chrestienne Escrites & gravées apres le naturel de la plume.
Paris, I. Henault, 1656. Small 8vo. With fine engraved calligraphic title within architectural borders, engraved dedication to the Queen of France, 31 mostly full-page illustrations, some repeated, representing Christ on the cross, Mary with child, the Seven Deadly Sins, etc., and 179 engraved pages with calligraphed prayers within richly decorated borders with flowers, fruits, animals, insects, etc. Contemporary sharkskin, spine ribbed, with silver clasps including monogram. 212 pp. Full description

NATALIS, Hieronymus (Jerónimo NADAL). Evangelicae historiae imagines ex ordine evangeliorum, quae toto anno in missae sacrificio recitantur, in ordinem temporis vitae Christi digestae.
Antwerp, [Martinus Nutius], 1593.With: (2) IDEM. Adnotationes et meditationes in evangelia quae in sacrosancto missae sacrificio toto anno leguntur. Cum evangeliorum concordantial historiae integritati sufficienti. ...
Antwerp, Martinus Nutius, 1594 (colophon dated 1595). 2 works in 1 volume. Folio. Each work with an engraved allegorical title-page, extensively highlighted in gold, and woodcut initials and headpieces. Ad 1 contains a print series showing the life of Christ in 153 full-page engravings by the Wierix brothers, Jan II and Adriaen Collaert and Charles de Malery after Bernardo Passari and Maarten de Vos. It also has an engraved allegorical and ornamental headpiece on A2, reading "IHS In nomine Jesu". Mid 19th-century light brown calf with a blind-tooled ornamental frame on both boards, a gold-tooled spine, a black morocco spine label with the title in gold, red edges and marbled endpapers. [5] ll. plus 153 engraved prints; [1], [3 blank], 595 [= 593], [5] pp. Full description

[PEIKHART, Franz (original compiler)]. Andachtsübungen eines Christen vor die Morgens- und Abendszeit, Heilige Mess, Beicht und Communion: mehrentheils aus denen Psalmen Davidis gezogen.
[Vienna?, ca. 1800]. 8vo. Manuscript in German on laid paper. 19th-century elaborately gold-tooled green morocco, spine with raised bands and red morocco label lettered "A.M.C.Z." in gold, gold-tooled turn-ins, paste-paper endleaves, gilt edges. [62] ll. Full description

[PRAYERBOOK]. Piae precationes ad missas devote celebrandas, et sacrosanctam eucharistiam sumendam. Cum variis orationibus ex bonis & probatis authoribus collectis.
Rome, Aloysius Zannettus, 1604. 8vo. With woodcut title-page and some ornamented woodcut initials in the text. Contemporary richly gold-tooled brown morocco, with gauffered edges; both sided with 2 pairs of fillets along the edges with little flowers at the corners and a floral border in between; a pattern of loose gilt stamps of flowers in a spiral line, vases with flowers, lions, stars and so-called 'foglia accartocciata' ('feuilles mortes') and a crucifixion in an oval border in the centre of the front cover and the Virgin with child in an oval border in the centre of the back cover. 272 pp. Full description

[PRAYER BOOK - BINDING]. Le tableau de la croix representé dans les ceremonies de la Ste. Messe ensemble la tresor de la devotion aux soufrances de N[ot]re. S[eigneur]. I[esus]. C[hrist]. le tout enrichi de belles figures.
Paris, Francois Mazot, "1651" (privilege dated 20 September 1652). 8vo & small 4to (16.5 x 11.5 cm). With engraved title-page and 48 engraved leaves by Guillaume de Gheyn, J. Collin, and J. Durant. Later 17th-century French red morocco, elaborately gold-tooled with pointillé tools in a panel design with 2 roll borders and hundreds of impression of numerous tools, the 6 spine compartments gold-tooled, gilt edges. [2 blank], [6], "39" [= 75], [16], [1 blank] pp. Full description

[PRAYERBOOK - SPANISH AMERICAN]. Novena del Señor de las piedades patron jurado de la valerosa ciudad de La Paz, que se venera en la iglesia auxîliar de los curas rectores, al cuidado del Colegio Seminario de ella. Reimpresa á solicitud de su humilde mayor domo Estavan de Asin.
Buenos Aires, Real Imprenta de Niños Expósitos, 1798. Small 8vo (15 x 10 cm). Modern red sheepskin. 24 pp. Full description

[PRAYERS - CHRISTIAN - MAORI]. He inoi ma nga tamariki.
[Napier?, printed by Robert Coupland Harding?, 1889?]. 8vo (18 x 12.5 cm). Single leaf, printed on 1 side. [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

[ROMAN MISSAL]. Missale ad consuetudinem Ecclesie Romane; ...
[Paris], Thielman Kerver, [colophon: anno domini 1506. x. kalendas apriles = 23 March 1507]. 8vo. Printed in red and black throughout in 2 columns, with Kervers finely executed criblée armorial device on the title-page, a crucifixion woodcut, hundreds of impressions of at least 28 finely executed lombardic initials with decorations, as well as dozens of spaces left for manuscript initials, about half with printed guide letters, and a two-impression plainchant music type. The capitals are rubricated throughout. The main text is set in a rotunda gothic type, and the Canon in a larger textura gothic. The woodcut crucifixion, Kervers device and the criblée initials are all coloured by a contemporary hand. Gold- and blind-tooled black goatskin morocco (1st half of the 18th century), the front board dated "ANNO|DOMINI|1506" in gold, and the spine-title "MISSALE|ROMANUM" in gold, marbled endpapers, gilt edges, 2 brass fastenings. [8], 233, [3] ll. Full description

[SERRARIUS, Petrus]. Goddelycke aandachten ofte vlammende begeerten eens boetvaerdige geheijligd en lief-rijcke ziele.
Amsterdam, Salomon Savrij, [1653]. 16mo. With engraved title-page, 46 engraved emblems and a full-page woodcut endpiece. Contemporary vellum. [16], 96 pp. Full description

SICHEM, Christoffel II van. 't Schat der zielen, dat is: Het geheele leven ons Heeren Jesu Christi naer de vyer Evangelisten. Naer vervolgh des tijdts by een ghevoeght, in seven stucken verdeelt. Met seer schoon figuren verciert, gesneden door C. van Sichem, voor P. J. P[aets].
Amsterdam, Pieter J[acobsz]. P[aets], 1648. With 686 woodcuts, many full-page, by Christoph van Sichem (many with his monogram), after his own designs and after drawings and paintings by Aldegrever, Goltzius, Dürer, Bloemaert, the Wierix brothers, Lucas van Leyden, Maarten van Heemskerck, Joannes Stradanus, etc. 17th-century vellum, manuscript title on smooth spine. 800, [4] pp. Full description