Roman Pontifical with Beautiful Two-Color Printing, Music and Lots of Woodcuts by Pontificale Romanum ad omnes pontificias ceremonias, quibus nunc vtitur Sacrosancta Romana Ecclesia, accommodatum - 1572

Folio, 255 x 350 mm, [4], 243 leaves; early nineteenth-century gilt-decorated calf with gilt-decorated watered silk endpapers, recently rebacked; title page reinforced circa 1843; a few other small old repairs in margins; light staining throughout; a few tiny insect holes in margins; very good and attractive overall.

Inscription on the lower portion of the title page identifies this as belonging to Guido Serguidi, bishop of Volterra, Italy, from 1574 to 1598. This note is dated 1843 and signed by Giuseppe Gaetano Incontri, bishop of Volterra, 1806-1848. Bookseller's ticket of Antonio Rossi, Castel Fiorentino.

On verso of final text leaf is a hand-written (18th century?) rite, primarily in Italian, concerning the knights of Jerusalem (presumably the Knights of St. John, not the Knights Templar).

A beautifully printed and illustrated edition of this collection of rituals whose celebration is reserved to bishops, with a large part devoted to the consecration of churches. Printed in red and black throughout, with music printed in black on red staves and over 150 woodcuts. The fifth of six very similar Pontificale printed by Lucantonio Giunta and his heirs between 1510 and 1582. See Mortimer 582 for the 1561 edition; she also describes the Hofer/Houghton copy of this 1572 edition.