Editor's Pick Sacrarum Cerimoniarum Romanae Ecclesiae Libri Tres Non Ante Impressi. (venice: Gregorio De' Gregorii, 21 September 1516) [limited Qty] [AL9b2zV0]

First edition of the Ceremoniale Romanum, the collection of ceremonial directions for the performance of the Roman rite by the Papal curia, here with three handsome woodcuts of the Pope and cardinals at the beginning of each book.

Compiled in 1485 by Agostino Patrizi Piccolomini, Bishop of Pienza, and papal master of ceremonies, with an introduction addressed to Innocent VIII, it was not published until 1516 by Cristoforo Marcello, Archbishop-elect of Corfu. His dedication was instead addressed to Leo X, and the text - reproduced verbatim from Patrizi’s edition - was printed with neither the consent nor acknowledgement of Patrizi or his successors as masters of ceremonies, Johann Burchard and Paris de Grassis.

“The fact that Marcello did not give recognition to Patrizi on the title page, that he failed to correct printing mistakes, and that he published for all the world to read the sacred ceremonies of the papal chapel led de Grassis to urge in a letter to Leo X that “librum…omnio comburi simul cum falso auctore”. De Grassis himself set out on a personal crusade to burn every printed copy of the Caeremoniale he could find in Rome” (Minnich & Pfeiffer, p.183). Discovering the true authorship of the work Leo X commissioned a Vatican enquiry, though ultimately did not suppress the printing of this edition.

Perhaps due to this fraught early history, the present copy has a variant title-page; multiple copies of a textually identical edition, save for different text on the verso of the title page – Leo X’s papal privilege, dated 17 December, 1516, rather than Marcello’s undated dedicatory letter, as here - and the title Rituum Ecclesiasticorum sive sacrarum cerimoniarum are listed on Edit16. We have identified only four other copies described with the title as here, at the Bibliotheque Mazarine, Complutense University in Madrid, Bern and Tilburg University libraries, along with one fully digitised via google books (open access).

Provenance: Twentieth-century bookplate and exlibris of M. Burlamacchi.

Ref: N. H. Minnich, H.W. Pfeiffer, ‘Two woodcuts of Lateran V’, Archivum Historiae Pontificiae (1970), pp.179-214. cf. Edit16 11928 (with the title starting Rituum Ecclesiasticum). BMSTC (Italian), 383. Essling II, 1905. Sander 5662. Adams L 976 (with colophon ‘Gregorii de Gregoriis excusere’).