Illustrated daily and weekly devotionals. 1584 Sanctorum Kalendarii... and Evangeliorum Dominicalium... Plantin Press, Antwerp

A handsome and well-regarded richly illustrated devotional work, issued (by the venerable Plantin press) in two books (with separate title pages), in a small personal size, with many of the woodcuts designed by Petrus van der Bocht and engraved by Paulus Wtewael.

This copy collates complete (although the first title page is a little rough), which is harder to find; at the time of listing this book, other copies on the market note missing pages, which may reflect the nice illustrations, personal use size and daily assignments making it easy to withdraw a page and give it to a friend, loved one, or keep the page for oneself for special reasons related to a date.

There are two devotionals, the devotional bound first (Evangeliorum Dominicalium Summaria...) is designed for weakly readings on saints. Each recto page has an "icon" (illustration) with a short accompanying text, the versos are blank. There are more than fifty-two readings (fifty-four) because the work follows the "Roman" liturgical calendar and there is some overlap of the liturgical seasons based on factors (year's day structure, leap year, etc).

The second work is a day-by-day devotional, with each page devoted to a day of the year. The illustration format is the same, and it's very similar to some modern day-by-day devotionals (there is nothing new under the sun).

The engravings are of a higher quality than some small-format books for the period, reflective of the skilled (and well-respected) artist, engraver and printer that produced the work.

Bibliographic Details -

USTC records the works separately. For Evangeliorum there are 13 copies recorded in the world's libraries, and it's catalogued as 406655. For Sanctorum, there are nine copies recorded, and it's catalogued as 406677. Copies are held at the Plantin Museum, the Bodleian and The Morgan, among other important libraries.

Pettegree, Walsby catalogued Evangeliorum as 4953 and Sanctorum as 6379

Brunet called out the printing in his 5th edition, volume 7, column 467.

Physical Attributes -

Measures approx.. 11 x 6 x 3.5 cm. Signed in eight. Vellum binding. Printer’s mark on title page. Each devotional page illustrated, versos blank. Books collated separately, with individual title pages, but catalogues say they were issued together; collate complete -

1584 Evangeliorum

Pages – 1-112 (112 misnumbered 212)

Collation – a-g8

1584 Sanctorum Kalendarii Romani

Pages – 1-464

Collation – A-Z8, Aa-Ff8

Condition -

See pictures. Some rubbing, darkening, lightly bumped corners to binding. Manuscript title on spine very faded. Red ink spot on front board. Some ex-libris marks to pastedown and flyleaf. Occasional moisture mark from edges throughout. Text block with toning throughout; occasional fox spot, dog-eared page, page-edge chip, thumbing, etc. Title page repaired (backing applied), mounted, with some loss of text, manuscript replacement of text, rubbing, etc. 1st handful of leaves with some chipping to page edges/corners. “R” written on rear blank binder’s endpaper.