The handsome, illustrated sole edition of a separately-printed Office of the Dead from the Narbonne Missal, printed 'ad majorem celebrantium commoditatem seorsim positae', for the greatest convenience of the celebrants presiding over the service. It is very rare: we have found just one other copy, at the BNF.
This slim volume is a practical book, printed for regular use; it would have been lighter and more portable than the full Missal, and therefore would be suitable for use at burials. Especially notable are the prominent woodcuts, on the title page and throughout, in particular the striking, full-page crucifixion scene. It is signed 'Raynaud Sc.' beneath the scythe at the foot of the block; we have identified a series of smaller woodcuts of the stations of the Cross by the same woodcutter, signed 'J. Raynaud', in a similarly vernacular style.
The printer-bookseller, Jean Besse, received the contract for the printing of the Missal, in an edition of 1500 copies, from clergy of the Narbonne diocese in 1775; their instructions were exacting, and no expense was to be spared. They requested it be printed 'in a new type which Mr Besse will have made in Paris by the most skilled engravers and typefounders', asking specifically for, among other things, 'a large roman typeface', 'large and small canon typefaces, a plainchant note matching the work, and finally all embellishments to perfect this edition, such as...tailpieces, vignettes and others, which the said Mr Besse undertakes to have brought and transported at his own expense', and all printed on the highest quality paper. Unsurprisingly, it appears not to have been a lucrative job for the printer, Besse, who wrote of his small margins in 1777, a year before the present work and the full missal, issued from his press.
Some browning, offsetting from full-page woodcut but overall a lovely copy, printed in strong impression on good paper.
OCLC: BNF only.
L. Narbonne, La cathe´drale Saint-Just de Narbonne, guide historique, arche´ologique et descriptif (Narbonne, Caillard, 1901), pp.256-72.
