Missal, Missale Constantiense ad Romani formam & normam revocatum, 1603

An impressive Missal, with multiple strikingly designed full page woodblocks, numerous smaller illustrations, along with musical notations.
 
4to. Printed in red and black throughout in Roman and Gothic types. With several full-page woodcut illustrations, including a large architectural title border, together with numerous woodcut initials and ornaments; musical notations on four-line staves.
 
The official post-Tridentine missal of the Diocese of Constance, revised ad formam Missalis Romani while preserving local saints and usages. As such, it represents a key moment in the theological and liturgical consolidation of the Catholic Church after the Council of Trent: Roman orthodoxy carefully balanced with regional identity in one of the most influential dioceses of the Upper Rhine.
 
Later library binding half morocco and linen boards; gilt lettering to spine, rubbed. Ex-libris The General Theological Seminary, New York, neat plate to inside front board. Edges of book are beautifully blind-stamped, gilded, with a central coloured IHS Christogram. Internally sound, with worming consistent with age and ecclesiastical use, not affecting legibility. Pages are overall remarkably clean and bright. Minor tear and loss to bottom recto of double-page illustration (photographed above).
 
Rare and desirable. Liturgical books from Constance are uncommon, due to their frequent use, and the later suppression and dispersal of the diocese. Nicolaus Kalt was the principal printer at Constance at the turn of the 17th Century, and his large-format missals are among his most elaborate productions, notable for their bold full-page woodblocks and two-colour printing. 
 
Collation: *-*******4 , A-Z4, a-h4, i2, k6, l-z4, Aa-Ss4, AA-LL4, [MM2]. I.e. complete.