![MISSALE SPECIALE. [Basel: Printer of the Missale Speciale (?Johann Meister [Hans Koch]), autumn 1473].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2003/CKS/2003_CKS_06704_0085_000(054430).jpg?w=1)
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MISSALE SPECIALE. [Basel: Printer of the Missale Speciale (?Johann Meister [Hans Koch]), autumn 1473].
Chancery 2°. Fragment of 7/2.9, consisting of top 5 lines of fo. 67 and a section of its conjugate, fo. 74 (89 x 215mm). Printed in red and black, the red in a separate pull after black. Foliation and capital strokes in red. Recovered from a binding covering Georgius Reisch, Margarita Philosophica, Basel: Michael Furter and Johann Schott, 16 February 1508. (Tears, minor repairs, old paste stains.) Tipped into a paper display folder, 20th-century red linen folding case in red morocco slipcase, ruled and lettered in gilt. Provenance: Josephine Waldis, Luzern (sold in 1941 to:) -- Baron Ferdinand von Neufforge of Davos, Switzerland (on his death in 1942, passed to his widow:) -- Baroness Vera von Neufforge (sold in 1953 to:) -- New York, Pierpont Morgan Library (sold to:) -- H.P. Kraus (sold April 1963 to:) -- Count Seilern.
A rare fragment from THE FIRST PRINTED MISSAL. The Missale speciale has been celebrated as the first book ever printed, pre-dating even the Gutenberg Bible. It owed this claim to primacy principally to its type, a primitive form of the smaller Canon type of the 1457 Mainz Psalter. However, Allan Stevenson, in one of the 20th century's most thorough and masterly bibliographical investigations, showed that it was printed in 1473 at Basel by Johann Meister. Overwhelming paper evidence (confirmed by independent paper researches of Piccard and Gerardy) formed the basis of his conclusion, supported by textual and circumstantial evidence.
The Seilern fragment played its part in building Stevenson's case. It, together with seven other whole or partial leaves, was discovered in a binding of a work printed at Basel in 1508; in the 1940s they were owned by Baron and Baroness Neufforge, who subsequently sold all but two to the Morgan Library, whence they were again dispersed. These Neufforge fragments appear to represent part of a formerly bound (and whole) copy, which was in or near Basel only a few decades after being printed, so that, in Stevenson's own words, 'these fragments add materially to the persuasiveness' of his argument in favour of Basel.
The Missale speciale has also been known - erroneously - as the Constance missal. In fact it contains a selection of offices (hence 'special') for the celebration of mass on Sundays and principal feast days which were not specific to any diocese. These smaller compilations were common in parishes in the upper Rhine valley, and Stevenson found exact correspondence between some of its offices and those appearing in Meister's missal for Basel use of c. 1480.
RARE, the edition is known in only four copies (New York PML, Munich, Augsburg, Zurich), and at least nine fragments (eight Waldis-Neufforge fragments recovered from the one binding and an independent fragment at Wolfenbüttel). NO COPY OR FRAGMENT HAS EVER BEEN SOLD AT AUCTION. One fragment remains at the Morgan Library and others are now at Yale University Library, Lilly Library at Indiana University, Bridwell Library at Southern Methodist University, Gutenberg Museum at Mainz. Baroness von Neufforge gave one of her fragments directly to the University of Basel. C(+Add) 4075; Hubay, Augsburg 1437; Weale-Bohatta 304; BSB-Ink M-488; Goff (+Suppl) M-655.
Chancery 2°. Fragment of 7/2.9, consisting of top 5 lines of fo. 67 and a section of its conjugate, fo. 74 (89 x 215mm). Printed in red and black, the red in a separate pull after black. Foliation and capital strokes in red. Recovered from a binding covering Georgius Reisch, Margarita Philosophica, Basel: Michael Furter and Johann Schott, 16 February 1508. (Tears, minor repairs, old paste stains.) Tipped into a paper display folder, 20th-century red linen folding case in red morocco slipcase, ruled and lettered in gilt. Provenance: Josephine Waldis, Luzern (sold in 1941 to:) -- Baron Ferdinand von Neufforge of Davos, Switzerland (on his death in 1942, passed to his widow:) -- Baroness Vera von Neufforge (sold in 1953 to:) -- New York, Pierpont Morgan Library (sold to:) -- H.P. Kraus (sold April 1963 to:) -- Count Seilern.
A rare fragment from THE FIRST PRINTED MISSAL. The Missale speciale has been celebrated as the first book ever printed, pre-dating even the Gutenberg Bible. It owed this claim to primacy principally to its type, a primitive form of the smaller Canon type of the 1457 Mainz Psalter. However, Allan Stevenson, in one of the 20th century's most thorough and masterly bibliographical investigations, showed that it was printed in 1473 at Basel by Johann Meister. Overwhelming paper evidence (confirmed by independent paper researches of Piccard and Gerardy) formed the basis of his conclusion, supported by textual and circumstantial evidence.
The Seilern fragment played its part in building Stevenson's case. It, together with seven other whole or partial leaves, was discovered in a binding of a work printed at Basel in 1508; in the 1940s they were owned by Baron and Baroness Neufforge, who subsequently sold all but two to the Morgan Library, whence they were again dispersed. These Neufforge fragments appear to represent part of a formerly bound (and whole) copy, which was in or near Basel only a few decades after being printed, so that, in Stevenson's own words, 'these fragments add materially to the persuasiveness' of his argument in favour of Basel.
The Missale speciale has also been known - erroneously - as the Constance missal. In fact it contains a selection of offices (hence 'special') for the celebration of mass on Sundays and principal feast days which were not specific to any diocese. These smaller compilations were common in parishes in the upper Rhine valley, and Stevenson found exact correspondence between some of its offices and those appearing in Meister's missal for Basel use of c. 1480.
RARE, the edition is known in only four copies (New York PML, Munich, Augsburg, Zurich), and at least nine fragments (eight Waldis-Neufforge fragments recovered from the one binding and an independent fragment at Wolfenbüttel). NO COPY OR FRAGMENT HAS EVER BEEN SOLD AT AUCTION. One fragment remains at the Morgan Library and others are now at Yale University Library, Lilly Library at Indiana University, Bridwell Library at Southern Methodist University, Gutenberg Museum at Mainz. Baroness von Neufforge gave one of her fragments directly to the University of Basel. C(+Add) 4075; Hubay, Augsburg 1437; Weale-Bohatta 304; BSB-Ink M-488; Goff (+Suppl) M-655.
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