Pontificale Romaum Clementis VIII Pont. Max. Iussu Restitutum atque editum

Romae: Ex Typographia Medicaea, 1611. Folio.  360 x 245 mm., [14 x 9 ¾ inches].  Printed in red and black throughout.  Illustrated with large printer's devise on the title-page, one large woodcut of the Pope conducting a confirmation of a young boy, small woodcuts reflecting the rites of the Church in the text, woodcut initial letters, and music printing.  The woodcuts appear to be original to this edition, as the woodcuts in previous editions have less detail and very little background.

Bound in an elegant red morocco decorated with a large gilt border on the boards, an inner gilt frame enclosing the coat-of-arms of the Bishop of Malaspina, spine gilt as are all edges of the text block.  Binding a bit rubbed but sound and very attractive.  Some minor discoloration to some of the paper stock.

The Pontificale Romanum of Pope Clement VIII was originally printed in 1595 and then again in 1611.  It was a version of the rites of the Church that remained the standard work, with some revisions and additions added over four centuries.  The last edition was printed in 1962.

The 1611 edition, dedicated to Clement VIII by the Papal Secretary Monsignor Vestri Barbiani, differs from the 1595 edition in that the illustrations are newly designed woodcuts, rather than fewer and larger engravings that populate the earlier text.  The work is beautifully printed in red and black by the Typographia Medicaea and is a monument to quality of their work.

British Library.  17th Century Italian Books, I, p. 495.    

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