Item #123691 Missale Pontificis In Nativitate Domini. (The Christmas Missal of Pope Alexander VI). Facsimile.
Missale Pontificis In Nativitate Domini. (The Christmas Missal of Pope Alexander VI).

Missale Pontificis In Nativitate Domini. (The Christmas Missal of Pope Alexander VI).

1492. Valencia: Edicions Tres i Quatre, 2011.

2 vols., huge folio, 200 pp. Finely bound in red leather with decoration and gilt to covers, with commentary volume in brown cloth. Both volumes in a cork case. Fine.

§ Limited edition of 200, this is copy number 38. A luxurious facsimile of the exceptionally beautiful liturgical codex created for the use of the second Borgia pope, Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503), reproduced in full size, in full color and with gilt accents. The accompanying commentary volume provides an introduction to the manuscript in Catalan, Spanish, and English.

The first of three Libelli missae papalis intended for the three masses that the pontiffs personally sang in St. Peter's Basilica on Christmas Day, the Sunday of Easter, and St. Peter's Day. The volumes were commissioned by Alexander VI shortly after his coronation, in 1492. The pope first used the missal on Christmas Day 1495, in a mass described in the diary of the ceremonialist Johannes Burckard. Only one manuscript is preserved in the Vatican Apostolic Library, with the signature cod. Borg. Lat. 425, of the other two Libelli nothing is known since the sixteenth century. Item #123691

Price: $3,350.00

See all items in Books about Books
See all items by